PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – Everyone is chasing Bryson DeChambeau.
That includes the eternal wonder Lee Westwood, who technically will have a two-shot lead in the final round of The Players Championship on Sunday, but somehow still seemed overshadowed by the Mad Scientist’s outsized shadow.
Westwood – the 47-year-old Englishman who played the PGA Tour main event for the first time in 1998, before 27-year-old DeChambeau was still in elementary school – is a welfare story of the highest order, and there was no lack of power star after favorites, including names like Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia.
But when Westwood joins DeChambeau in the final two-ball for the second Sunday in a row, it won’t be the potential sentimentality of the second oldest winner of the event or the prospect of a high-profile shooting that will draw attention.
It will be DeChambeau.
If that seems unfair to Westwood – who is 23 below average in his last seven rounds since last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he ended up as runner-up to DeChambeau – consider how his blunt opponent threatened to reinvent the game and break up about the knee.
When DeChambeau returned from last year’s quarantine as a bigger, faster and stronger version of his former self, he finished in the top 10 in his first four games, including the victory at the Rocket Mortgage Open in July. Two months later, he won the US Open on Winged Foot with an innovative style of play.
Bryson DeChambeau splits the pair’s defense at No. 18
Although there was some wonder – and perhaps a little shock – about what DeChambeau was doing, few said, at least publicly, that they were prepared to follow him on his revolutionary path.
That changed on Friday, when Rory McIlroy admitted after rounds 79 to 75 that his recent fights were the by-product of his quest for more “speed”.
“I would be lying if I said it has nothing to do with what Bryson did at the US Open,” said McIlroy. “I think a lot of people saw this and were like, wow, if that’s how they are going to set up golf courses in the future, it helps. It really helps. “
Some will consider McIlroy’s quest for further distance and question why the Northern Irishman, who has been among the oldest on the Tour since turning pro, would make such dramatic changes, but he is not alone.
“I think I probably liked it four or five years ago. I definitely did. I still am, and I have been since Bryson, “said Thomas, who is tied for third place at 10 under after Saturday’s best 64.” You would be stupid to say that what he is doing on the golf courses does not make it the easiest things. “
Thomas went on to explain that he has no interest in a regular diet of protein shakes and an extra 50 pounds. “As if I don’t have the constitution or stature for it,” he said.
Rahm, who is another shooter 9 below, also acknowledged that DeChambeau’s style of total body transformation is not his style. But getting it right for longer? This is always on the menu.
“I started doing this recently, but not too much, just slowly you have to move the meter, that limit, just a little higher, without trying to put too many muscles on me, I just have to swing hard,” said Rahm. “Just go to the track, maybe 10, 15 riders as strong as you can hit it, no matter where you go, and I hope you increase that limit. I feel like this is what you can do. I think that’s what Rory told me he’s doing. I am very comfortable where I am and I feel that I have reached far enough, but the extra distance is never bad. “
DeChambeau, who shot 67 on Saturday while continuing to play an altered style of power around Pete Dye’s restrictive layout, is flattered by the attempt at imitation, although he keeps his focus on his own game.
“I was not trying to influence anyone,” he said. “I was just trying to play my own game and hit as hard as I could. And I knew there was going to be an effect. I knew that there would be some people who would try and some people who would potentially not work for them and some people who can help them. I appreciate Rory’s comments, it’s almost kind of a feeling and something that keeps me going every day. “
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Despite all the speed of chase that is being made, however, this is not a universal quest like when Tiger Woods reinvented the game in the late 1990s.
“I’m fast enough,” joked Paul Casey, who is tied with Rahm 9th down.
It also seems unlikely that Westwood would follow DeChambeau in that rabbit hole, and just three years before he was eligible for the senior tour, he is not likely to be able to keep up.
And no player has an interest in giving DeChambeau an absolute advantage.
“I am definitely at a disadvantage off the tee, but I feel that when I am playing well, my game remains very good,” said Thomas.
Nor does Westwood seem to be concerned that he is bringing a fork for a knife fight. Despite not having won the Tour since the 2010 St. Jude Classic, the European Tour veteran won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship last year, which had a stronger field strength than either of his two Tour de France victories. career, and has 12 world victories since then victory in Memphis.
Lee Westwood analyzes the ‘professional round’ at The Players
Last Sunday at Bay Hill, Westwood started the day with a one-shot lead over DeChambeau and closed with 73 to finish just one shot behind the champion.
“I really enjoyed the last day. The shots at 17, two quality shots at 18, and it made a great putt when I forced him to make one, sticking my hill down, ”said Westwood. “Sometimes you can’t control whether you win tournaments or not.”
He will have another chance on Sunday.
“Round 2, the rematch,” he said with a smile.
He will also have the advantage of two-stroke leadership, not to mention a few decades of experience. But given how DeChambeau has threatened to transform the game in recent months, they are all chasing Bryson.