Bryson looks to make up for costly blunder
REIGNING US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau flew 1600km home to Dallas between rounds of the US PGA Wells Fargo Classic only to find he had made the cut.
The 27-year-old American fired a three-under par 68 on Sunday to stand on one-under par 212 after 54 holes in Charlotte, North Carolina, to complete an unusual round trip.
“Very tired,” DeChambeau said after his third round.
“This morning was not easy. But for whatever reason I just feel like the more weird things happen to me, the greater my resolve can be and today was a case of that.”
DeChambeau, who defends his US Open title next month at Torrey Pines, had given up hope of making the cut after a triple bogey at the seventh hole, his 16th of the day, and a missed birdie putt at the ninth in a round of 74 left him on 144.
“I was like, ‘there’s no way I’m making it. It’s 90th place,’” DeChambeau said.
“So we just said, ‘all right, let’s pack up, let’s go’. Want to get ready for next week and going home.”
It was on the 1600km flight from Charlotte to Dallas that DeChambeau got the news from his agent he was in 68th place – on the verge of making the cut thanks to worsening weather for later finishers.
“I was like, ‘What? No way. There’s no way. I’m not going to make it,” DeChambeau said.
“By the time I landed I was in ... Well, whoops, that was a mistake. It was funny. We did a lot of scrambling last night to get back.”
The plane crew had flown its limit of hours so a new crew and refuelling was needed after the three-hour flight.
So DeChambeau decided to go home, have a workout, get five hours of sleep and fly out Saturday morning.
“I left at 2:45 on a flight and I got here at 6:20am, drove 30 minutes to the golf course, put on my clothes in the locker room and headed out to the putting green,” DeChambeau said.
“I got some sleep on the plane. That was nice.”
DeChambeau said he could use a good pay cheque this week to pay for his blunder.
“Way too expensive,” he said. “Getting somebody at 2:45am is not easy either. We’re very fortunate.
“I have a chance to go make a good cheque this week and I think that would offset it. So if I was to not come back and withdraw, lose world ranking points and all that, I had to incur the cost.”