LOS ANGELES — Bryson DeChambeau is no stranger to practice. One of the enduring memories of his 2020 U.S. Open win at Winged Foot was of DeChambeau beating balls in the darkness on Saturday evening as a fall chill settled in. A year later, at the Torrey Pines Open, DeChambeau was back at it, working out his swing kinks at such a late hour after the first round that the only available light emanated from a nearby scoreboard. When workers switched off that light source, DeChambeau was undeterred. He kept practicing — in pitch black.
This is what DeChambeau does when something feels awry. He repairs to the range and hits ball…after ball…after ball…after ball…after…well, let’s just say he makes Hogan look lazy.
And this week at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club? They might need to install a plaque for the work he’s put in.
“I’ve been hitting more golf balls than I would like to ever,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out what I did in 2018 that made it so repeatable, and I’m very close to figuring it out. Just going to a take a little bit more time, little bit more grinding, a little more thought. Got to come up with something unique that allows me to be super stable through impact like I was.”
In an interview with the Fore Play podcast, DeChambeau estimated that he hit up to 450 balls with his driver alone on Tuesday. (If you’re doing the math at home, that’s approximately 10 small buckets.) On Wednesday, Top Tracer posted a graphical rendering of DeChambeau’s practice session that showed more range swings than Dustin Johnson probably takes in a year.
Is it paying off? DeChambeau says it is, and so do his results.
At the PGA Championship in May, a trimmed-down DeChambeau opened with a 66 to take the early lead. He cooled off with rounds of 71-70-70 but still finished tied for fourth. On Thursday, in the first round of the U.S. Open, he fired a three-under 67, a score bettered in the early-going by only Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele’s lights-out 62s.
“I feel like I’m very close to getting it because I had it at the PGA for the first two days and then it kind of faltered a little bit,” DeChambeau said. “But I was still able to play really good solid golf, score well.”
DeChambeau’s struggles returned at the LIV event in Washington, D.C., at the end of May, where he said he lacked “stability” in his hands — a deficiency he has been working hard to correct. He said when he applies a “certain amount of force, a lot of force,” in his swing, “it just sometimes feels different through impact.”
But he added, “If I have what I had at the PGA, I’ll be contending for sure.”
DeChambeau finished his first round at LACC around lunchtime Thursday. He must have been feeling confident about things because later that afternoon there was no sign of him on the range. DeChambeau had been there before his round, a range attendant confirmed — and he wasn’t just getting loose.
Said the attendant, “He was definitely working on something.”