Earlier this week, a handful of players hit balls on the range at TPC Summerlin. They stood in a relatively straight line next to each other. All but one. He stood out. About 50 or so yards back bombed Bryson DeChambeau. According to reports, he was clearing the fence – 360 yards away – and so he backed up. The PGA Tour even hilariously tweeted one of DeChambeau’s swings, the video starting with the mortals, then panning right for four seconds to show golf’s distance deity.
Summerlin could not hold DeChambeau during practice for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
It could not hold him during play, either.
Two weeks after shooting the final round’s low round on his way to winning the U.S. Open, DeChambeau was lowest again. It could have been lower, too. PGA Tour-record lower. DeChambeau shot a 9-under 62 on Thursday (which also tied his career-low round on Tour). And he missed five – albeit longer – eagle putts.
One year and two days ago, DeChambeau left Las Vegas saying he was going to make “some pretty big changes to his body.” He did. And Summerlin didn’t.
Patrick Reed predicts how golf courses will change to combat the Bryson effect
“I didn’t make any of them, but it makes it easy,” DeChambeau said after his round. “That’s five birdies right there, and it makes the golf course a lot easier. I would say that, you know, not every single one’s going to be easy to two-putt, right? Like 15 was a difficult two-putt. But I would say that lowers the par to 67 out here, and that’s just the number for me. If I shoot 69 or 70, I feel like I shot a couple over.”
DeChambeau was putting for eagle on all three of Summerlin’s par-5s and two of its par-4s.
On the 583-yard, par-5 13th hole (his fourth hole after starting on the back nine), DeChambeau hit his drive 346 yards, knocked his second shot to within about 56 feet from 232 out and two-putted for birdie. Two holes later, on the 314-yard, par-4 15th, DeChambeau drove the green and two-putted from about 59 feet out for birdie. On the next hole, the 523-yard, par-5 16th, DeChambeau hit his drive 328 yards, knocked his second shot to within about 27 feet from 189 out and, again, two-putted for birdie.
He was putting for eagle on two of his last three holes, too. On the 381-yard, par-4 7th, he drove the green and two-putted from about 14 feet out. On his final hole, the 569-yard, par-5 9th, DeChambeau hit his drive 353 yards, knocked his second shot to within about 16 feet from 216 out and two-putted.
“That’s the advantage of power in this game now, that you can do those sorts of things,” he said.
Had he one-putted on all five greens, he would have been the first player in Tour history to break 58. Had he one-putted on three of the greens, he would have been the 13th player to break 60.
Which he did during Wednesday’s pro-am.
“I beat a good friend of mine by 10 yesterday, so that was fun,” DeChambeau said during the PGA Tour Live broadcast of Thursday’s first round. “My buddy in my group, agent actually, he played with me, he shot 69 and he walked off the golf course losing by 10 so it didn’t feel too good for him, but it was fun to do.”