Bryson-ball shock and awe tactics fail yet again
DeChambeau’s effort shows that Augusta does not take kindly to a brutal approach
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU is a smart cookie, so at some point you would imagine it would start to dawn on him that his strategy to overpower Augusta National has failed.
For the second Masters in the space of five months, the US Open champion arrived in Georgia promising shock and awe only for the reality – for most of the tournament – to turn into shockingly awful.
As a physics graduate, the world No5 must realise that, at an elemental level, something is wrong with the equation.
There was no way back into the tournament after his opening 76 and a 75 on Saturday left him plugging the final-round gap before Justin Rose, Will Zalatoris, right, and company set out to try to reel in Hideki Matsuyama in the main event.
Another 75 in the closing round yesterday saw DeChambeau sign off at five over par, down among the weekend dead men.
Six visits in, his best Masters remains his first one when he was still an amateur – DeChambeau finishing 21st then.
He is getting further away from a first Green Jacket rather than closer and it turns out that Augusta National does not take kindly to attempts to brutalise it.
There were plenty of ‘oohs’, ‘aahs’ and ‘can you believe it?’ laughter from the reduced galleries as DeChambeau went about his business with the smoothness and grace of Frankenstein’s monster.
But as in every other round except Friday, the ball all too often ended up in a different zipcode to the one he envisaged.
A case in point was the eighth hole where a scoreable par-five was turned into a scramble to save face by a tee shot that ended up way right in the trees.
He wound up with a bogey there. Two more dropped shots at 11 and 12 from an increasingly frustrated DeChambeau followed.
An eagle at 13 after an approach to five feet briefly cheered him. But a soggy end to his attempt to carry Rae’s Creek at 15 led to a seven – his fourth double-bogey of the week.
Those numbers rarely make for a Sunday evening visit to the
Butler Cabin. DeChambeau averaged 323 yards off the tee in this Masters – he launched one bomb 345 yards in round one – but when a lot of those yards are in completely the wrong direction, Augusta can be unforgiving.
Of the players who made the cut, he was rock bottom in driving accuracy.
He was not helped by scratchy putting yesterday, but the key to this course has always been to find the less murderous spots on the killer greens.
Some of the areas the Californian found himself in with his attack-at-allcosts plan during the tournament – foliage, water, sand – made that impossible. Conservatism is not a natural fit for DeChambeau but a reversion to pragmatism may be needed.
He can wrap a change of approach up in some highfalutin talk if he likes, so that he can remain the smartest guy in the room.
However, it is surely time to think again. Bryson-ball has not worked around Augusta and it is back to the drawing board for the golf scientist.