The Malta Independent on Sunday

DeChambeau ailing after barely making the cut at Masters

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After struggling just to make the cut at the Masters, Bryson DeChambeau said he's not feeling well and even got tested for COVID-19 again to ensure it wasn't anything serious.

DeChambeau, who was the betting favorite to win the Masters after a dominating triumph at the U.S. Open, closed out his second round Saturday morning with a 2over 74.

That left him at even-par 144 through 36 holes — right on the cut line and a whopping nine shots off the lead.

"Not good, to say the least," DeChambeau said before heading back out for the third round. "As I kept going through the round, I started getting a little dizzy. I don't know what was going on, a little something weird."

DeChambeau played 12 holes in the second round Friday before play was halted by darkness. He then got tested to make sure he didn't have the illness caused by the coronaviru­s. It was negative.

"I had to do the right thing and make sure there was nothing more serious than that," he said. "I don't know what it is or what happened, but these past couple days, I've felt really, really odd and just not 100%."

DeChambeau, who is capable of hitting drives approachin­g 400 yards, raised eyebrows when he said he considered par at Augusta National to be 67 instead of 72.

The bulked-up player hasn't lived up his boasts.

DeChambeau had a doubleboge­y 7 at the 13th hole on Thursday when he hit his ball into some azalea bushes. He took another 7 on Friday at No. 3 — a triple bogey at the shortest par-4 on the course — when his ball plugged deeply in the wet rough and couldn't be found within the 3minute time limit.

"I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure," DeChambeau said.

A gallery guard found the lost ball about 10 minutes after DeChambeau took a penalty and hit another tee shot, which seemed to shake the player even more.

"I mean, it definitely throws you for a loop when the guy goes and gives you the ball on the 4th tee box, 'Oh, I found it,'" DeChambeau said. "You know, I struggle whenever we know it's in that area and it's all wet and it's a plugged lie, guaranteed.

"I'm like, 'Well, I know it's in this area that's plugged, so I would think I would get some relief,' but clearly not. The three minutes was up, so I took a penalty and went back to the tee box and proceeded to hit in the same spot and had a really bad lie after that."

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