As the sun set over Augusta National following the third round, Bryson DeChambeau was in a familiar place — on the range. While his coach, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Dana Dahlquist, looked on, DeChambeau pelted ball after ball down the perfectly manicured practice facility.
The leaderboard might say that the two-time major winner is in second heading into the final round of the Masters, but DeChambeau knows that in order to claim the green jacket, he’ll have to hit the ball much better than he did on Saturday. Hitting just 50 percent of greens in regulation (as he did in Round 3) will likely not be good enough to get it done.
“I scored really well,” DeChambeau said. “I got up-and-down a lot of times. But greens hit is where I’ve got to improve, if I can get my iron play dialed in. That’s where I have to focus up.”
Hitting more greens will be crucial on Sunday if DeChambeau hopes to chase down 54-hole leader Rory McIlroy. But how does DeChambeau plan on going about finding the greens more frequently? His post-round range session offered a hint.
Bryson’s Masters strategy
According to the Practice Range Tracker on Masters.com, DeChambeau hit 25 practice shots following his third round. Of those 25 shots, 23 were hit with the exact same club.
As you can see, all 23 of these shots carried the same general distance. For the most part, each shot was within about five yards (or 15 feet) of carry distance from one another.
So, what does this tell us? It means that the No. 1 thing DeChambeau was working on in this practice session was distance control. And, based on how he missed greens on Saturday — generally long and short — it makes sense that he’d want to get a better feel for his carry distances before the final round.
“What’s funny is on 14, I hit a great pitching wedge from like 169 yards. And I have no idea why it ended up 20 yards short of where my landing spot was,” he said. “As for how I’m hitting it, just not lining up the face as consistently as I would like at impact. Got to go work on the basics and get back to it, and I’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
If he figured out how to line up the clubface more consistently — and control his distances a little bit better — you can expect to see DeChambeau hit the greens in regulation much more tomorrow. If he can do that, he may well be on his way to his first career green jacket.
