It is an unfortunate reality of 32 concurrent matches that not every golf shot can be captured on camera. And so it was that Bryson DeChambeau arrived at the 10th tee on Thursday and hit a tee shot that left golf fans perplexed — and refreshing the “Play-by-Play” section of their PGA Tour app.
DeChambeau was clinging to a one-shot lead over Si Woo Kim at the time. After losing to Antoine Rozner in Wednesday’s opening round, this was a pivotal point in a must-win match.
Kim’s tee shot sailed safely down the left side of the fairway. But a screenshot of DeChambeau’s drive quickly made the rounds on social media. Forty-six yards?!
DeChambeau lost that hole with a bogey. He lost the next hole, too. But he rallied to win three of the final four holes to beat Kim 2 and 1. It wasn’t until after his round that we found out what happened with “46 yards to unknown.”
First, in a post-round interview with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, DeChambeau made veiled reference to the tee shot.
“I just like being aggressive, it can get you in good positions sometimes and sometimes it can hurt you, like I did on 10, that was probably the most interesting scenario I’ve ever had in the game of golf.'”
But we still didn’t know quite what he was talking about until DeChambeau took questions from reporters afterward and addressed what he jokingly referred to as “my longest drive of the year.” As it turns out, DeChambeau was taking a particularly aggressive line off the 371-yard par-4 in an attempt to drive the green. But his contact didn’t match his ambitions.
“I heel-pulled it lower than I wanted, it came off low off the face, it came out low,” DeChambeau said. The ball struck a branch on the left side and rebounded backward and to the right, where it settled by the practice putting green.
“I could have easily cleared the trees up and over like I wanted to, but I hit it on the wrong part of the face and consequently hit the tree limb. Hey, look, I was trying to drive the green, whether it was the practice green or the 10th green,” he said with a laugh. “I got it close.”
DeChambeau using his prodigious length to attempt new lines off the tee is nothing new. His plans to dismantle Augusta last November received plenty of scrutiny (though his execution was less than perfect). His mega-carry at Bay Hill’s par-5 6th attracted at least as much attention as his actual victory. And when he mentioned he was considering playing up the 9th hole at TPC Sawgrass’ 18th, the PGA Tour installed a new rule to prevent it.
After that incident, DeChambeau said he’d keep future bold lines to himself. It’s now clear that one such line involved driving the 10th green.
“I will tell you that I would not be taking some of the lines that I am taking in stroke play,” he said. As for No. 10? No regrets. “I thought I could go at it, too bad there was a tree limb in the way and it caught the ball,” he said.
In the end, the tee shot that wasn’t will end up as a footnote in DeChambeau’s tournament. His win improved his pool play record to 1-1, setting up a pivotal match against Tommy Fleetwood (1-0-1) on Friday.
Meantime, here’s hoping video of that 46-yard beauty emerges.
UPDATE: The content gods have answered our prayers! Here’s one angle of the tee shot in question:
