4 CAN THE INCREDIBLE BULK BREAK AUGUSTA?
Augusta has been overpowered before. In 1997, Tiger Woods was hitting it 46 yards further than the tournament average, and 25 yards past anyone else. He won by 12 – and Augusta National responded by pushing the tees back. A lot. But there’s only so much they can do now. The course has largely remained the same since the 5th hole was extended by 40 yards and it still favours the big hitters. The biggest concern is that the par 5s are often defenceless against them. This is what convinced Bryson to bulk up in the first place, so he could perform at Augusta and win the tournament he dreams about the most. The fact he struggled to 34th place in November and was beaten by a 63-year-old averaging just 250 yards off the tee suggests his masterplan isn’t quite as foolproof as he thought, but his performance did throw up a few interesting stats which would make it foolish to write off his chances this year. Not least that he still managed to make 20 birdies, the same number as Dustin Johnson.
Despite the softer conditions, Bryson broke the single-week record for the longest driving distance average at 324.2 yards and even drove the par-4 3rd – all 350 yards of it – during the final round. Jordan Spieth reckoned it was Bryson’s Masters to lose last year and his arguments remain just as relevant today. “This guy has to lose the Masters to not win the Masters,” said Spieth. “No.2, his fairway is 70 yards wide. You get to No.8, (if he) carries the bunker it’s 80 yards wide. His fairway on No.9, it’s 1,000 yards wide. It’s one of those things, if you’re hitting it straight and you’re hitting it far, it obviously
should be a massive advantage.”
Of course, Bryson struggled to hit it straight last year but his mediocre record at Augusta, in which his best finish (T21) came as an amateur in 2016, can also be explained by the ban on green reading. Not including last year when the greens were nowhere as treacherous as they normally are, Bryson ranks last in strokes gained putting per round since making his pro debut at the Masters in 2018. That and his inexperience at Augusta have primarily been his undoing thus far, but if we have learned anything from his victory at the US Open – and the way he’s transformed his swing and body – it’s that he appears to be a quick learner. No amount of put downs from players and pundits alike should ignore the fact that Bryson 2.0 nearly always
finds a way.