PGA Tour move to put blocks on DeChambeau
NO sooner had Bryson DeChambeau revealed his dastardly plan to tackle the formidable 18th hole at Sawgrass than the PGA Tour imposed a local rule to deny him. Health and safety, they claimed. Another way of looking at it is that this represents the first step taken by the game’s leaders to ‘Bryson-proof’ the most famous courses in the game. There will assuredly be more in their efforts to combat the Mad Scientist as he takes his experiments to the nth degree and ramps up his swing speed beyond 200mph (just 90mph or so faster than you and me). On Tuesday, DeChambeau revealed his extraordinary strategy to play the dangerous par-four finishing hole that has water running down the left side, with just a narrow strip of fairway. He was contemplating driving left over the water to the ninth fairway and playing from there. Hold on a minute, cried the tour, envisioning drives from the 18th tee impeding players hitting from the ninth fairway. So they took the unusual step of introducing a rule on the hoof, namely an out-of-bounds line to the left of the water for its entire length, rendering DeChambeau’s thinking null and void. ‘In the interests of safety to players, spectators and volunteer personnel….’ began the tour statement. It’s easy to see where they’re coming from although, equally, no spectators are allowed to the right of the ninth fairway — and how many other players actually think like DeChambeau and would try such an outrageous bash from the 18th tee? It all proved good 19th-hole discussion fodder on the eve of the $15million Players Championship, with its mammoth $2.7m winner’s prize. The injured Brooks Koepka, struggling Matt Wolff and Covid-stricken Danny Willett are the only notable absentees from the field.