This year’s 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush requires accurate play off the tee to avoid O.B. and long, treacherous fescue grass that lines the course. Bryson DeChambeau learned that lesson the hard way on Thursday, when the two-time U.S. Open champ nearly whiffed twice from the long grass amid a disastrous opening round.
Bryson nearly whiffs twice at Royal Portrush
DeChambeau is well known for his prodigious length off the tee, but not so much for his accuracy. Bryson abides by the modern school of bomb-and-gouge golf, where an emphasis is put on distance.
But sometimes a ball is in such thick rough, gouging is easier said than done. Bryson found that out quickly in Round 1.
After making par at the difficult 1st, a disappointing par at the par-5 2nd and another par at 3, DeChambeau was keeping it together well to start the tournament.
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That would change at the next hole. The par-4 4th at Royal Portrush stretched to nearly 500 yards on Thursday, which made staying in the short grass even more important. But from the moment Bryson began the hole, all he could do was find the rough.
He blasted his tee shot an impressive 321 yards, leaving only 167 yards left for his approach shot. One problem: Bryson’s ball had sailed wide left and come to rest in a grassy native area.
The poor lie affected his contact on the second shot, and DeChambeau could only grimace as he watched it sail short and right onto a small hillock covered in more deep fescue grass.
That’s when things got ugly. With only 34 yards left to the pin, DeChambeau pulled out a wedge, and with his feet well below the ball, he attempted to make a nearly horizontal swing.
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But the attempt failed badly. DeChambeau took a mighty thwack into the grass, but grass was about all he hit. When his club emerged from the thick stuff for his backswing, his ball was nowhere to be seen.
The two-time major winner had whiffed. Or, at least, barely moved his ball. Whatever you want to call it, his third shot went nowhere, and, after covering his face in disbelief, he was forced to set up to the ball a second time in the exact same place.
This time he did make contact, or at least seemed to, as his ball jumped out of the grass following his swing. But while his ball moved, it didn’t go far, popping out and trickling down the hill eight yards in front of him.
Check out the painful moment below.
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While DeChambeau’s swing after the whiff successfully moved his ball out of the thick fescue, it came to rest in the first cut just in front of him. He then knocked it to 5 feet with his fifth shot and made the putt for a devastating double bogey, dropping him to two over in the early going.
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