DeChambeau's increased distance making 'a mockery' of golf

count england’s Matthew Fitzpatrick among those concerned about what bryson dechambeau’s ap-proach to golf is doing to the game. dechambeau returned to competition this week aver-aging more than 350 yards off the tee in the first round of the Shriners Hospitals for children Open. That came after he eschewed u.S. Open wisdom by bombing the ball as far as he could off the tee and chipping his way out of six-inch rough at Winged Foot last month. “He’s in the rough and miles up and he’s just hitting wedges everywhere,” Fitzpa

trick said this week, per Sky Sports. “It just makes a bit of a mockery of it, I think. I just looked at Shot Tracker yes-terday, some of the places he hit it (at Winged Foot) and how he’s cutting corners. “When he’s on, there’s no point, is there? It doesn’t matter if I play my best, he’s going to be 50 yards in front of me off the tee. you know, the only thing I can com-pete with him is putting, and that’s just ridiculous.” rather than take an ex-tended break between the u.S. Open and this week’s event, dechambeau went to work on testing a 48-inch driver he plans to put in play for the Masters next month. He wants more distance in an effort to overpower Au-gusta National.

“I’m looking forward to trying to put in a 48-inch driver and see what that can do for the golf course and what opportunities it will present for me,” decham-beau said this week. Fitzpatrick, who missed the cut at the Open, said he hopes the u SGA and the r&A will make an effort to reduce the technology as-sisting players in gaining such prodigious length. “It’s not a skill to hit the ball a long way in my opin-ion,” he said, per Sky Sports. “I could put on 40 pounds ... I could put another two inch-es on my driver ... but the skill in my opinion is to hit the ball straight. That’s the skill, he’s just taking the skill out of it in my opinion.”