Bryson DeChambeau’s new superpower might win him the Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. — As Shane Lowry walked off the back of the 18th green after a second-round 68 in this 89th Masters, he spotted a young fan in a visor behind the rope line. Lowry reached into his pocket, pulled out a ball and tossed it to the boy, putting a smile on the kid’s face that reached Amen Corner.

Bryson DeChambeau, who was in Lowry’s group and a few paces behind him, witnessed the exchange — and then he did the pint-sized patron one better. DeChambeau pulled a ball and a Sharpie out of his bag and hand-delivered the youngster a signed memento.

What’s that old adage? Ah, yes. Anything you can do, Bryson can do better.

We’re needling here, folks, but only in part, because these days there is more than a hint of that aura around DeChambeau. He’ll outlift you in the gym, outwork you on the range and outpace you on YouTube (1.8 million subscribers and counting). And then he’ll outplay you in the majors.

You remember DeChambeau‘s gutty win at the U.S. Open last summer, but, if you pay only passing attention to the professional game, perhaps you’ve forgotten his sixth-place finish at last year’s Masters and runner-up at the ArrestGate PGA Championship at Valhalla. DeChambeau has become a staple on major-championship leaderboards, and that trend has not ceased this week.

When DeChambeau made that fan’s day on the home hole, he had just put the finishing touches on a five-birdie 68 to move to seven under for the tournament, one back of clubhouse leader Justin Rose. It had been a tidy round on what was tough, breezy day: birdies at 2, 4, 5, 8 and 17 paired with a lone bogey at 16. When you watch DeChambeau play (be it on LIV, in majors or on his popular “Break 50” series), it can be easy to think he has only one gear: full throttle. That may be true in some environments — his U.S. Open at Winged Foot comes to mind — but bomb-and-gouge doesn’t play at Augusta National, certainly not when the wind gusts like it did Friday.

It has taken DeChambeau time to fully grasp and appreciate the intricacies of this vexing course. Five years ago, he woofed that, with his jaw-dropping power, Augusta was for him in effect a par 67. But that same year, he finished 34th and, a year later, 46th. In both 2022 and ’23, he missed the weekend. On Friday, DeChambeau struck a decidedly different chord. He spoke of the importance of banking experience here, adding, “I’ll continue to learn, depending on wind conditions and firmness and all that, the type of grass, the way it’s laying.”

Perhaps no shot better exemplified this more restrained approach than his tee shot at the 350-yard par-4 3rd. DeChambeau snacks on drivable 4s like they’re Milk Duds, but on Friday he laid back, feathering an iron off the tee that left him 149 yards into the green. DeChambeau later said he wanted to hit driver but wouldn’t be able to “get the right spin on it to get it close. It would have bounced by the flag and gone 15, 20 feet by. So I felt like laying up would have given me a better chance to land it softer and spin it next to the hole, which I did. I just pulled it a little bit.” Still, he left the ball below the hole and two-putted for par.  

“I learned from past experience, hitting it up there and having this tight 75-yard shot that I can’t really control,” he said. “I’d rather have a little 10:30 9-iron in for me.”

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Whether he’s playing well or woefully, DeChambeau is never satisfied with his game. He’s a searcher. After his opening 69 Thursday, he repaired to the range and banged balls until dusk. He said he was flaring his iron shots and wanted to hone his “stock draw.” He also took a series of practice swings with a pronounced uppercut move, in an effort, he said, “to side bend up and turn the handle over. Like a topspin shot in Ping-Pong. That’s just what I want to feel in my golf swing.”

On Friday, that feeling started to click with his tee shot on the par-4 5th, then really showed its colors at the 9th, where he hit a 357-yard rope that he called his best drive of the week. “A perfect shot shape,” he said. “Exactly the way I saw it in my head, exactly what I practiced on the range. I was like, there it is.”

DeChambeau, who is making his ninth Masters start this week, also has wised up on Augusta’s diabolical greens. He said he has grown to understand the importance of speed control and finding a way to get down in two from 50 or 60 feet. In the lead up to this week, he dedicated himself to lag putting and starting his long putts on the right line, a discipline with which he struggled, he said, en route to a third-round 75 last year.

Laying up on par-5s also isn’t typically in DeChambeau’s repertoire. But on the gettable 13th, where the wind blew his tee shot into the pine straw on the right side of the dogleg, DeChambeau decided to play it safe with his second shot and leave himself a wedge approach. “You know what?” he said he thought to himself. “I can still get up-and-down for birdie if I hit a good third.” He didn’t, but it was the thought that counted.

Two holes later, at the par-5 15th, he had 236 yards into the pitched green. This time, he went for it, missing the green well right but still giving himself a chance to get up-and-down. (Again, he didn’t.)

“It’s very situational,” he said of how he’s approaching the course. “I can’t give you an exact like, oh, on the long par-4s what’s my mentality? It’s attack mode until I have to, you know, settle back in and go, okay, let’s be a little bit more conservative.”

Jack Nicklaus would tell you that. So would Tiger and Phil and Fred and every other green-coat winner. Trick is, executing on that plan, especially when you’re outdriving the field’s second-longest hitter by 15 yards.  

“It’s just difficult to try to accomplish, just the goal of being patient and being understanding,” DeChambeau said. “I feel like I’ve done that better over the course of time. But how do I balance it? Man, that’s a great question. I’d say only God knows.”