STRUCK BY HAY FEVER
No Sandwich thriller as Deshambles falters
HE HUFFED and he puffed – but this was one duel in the dunes Bryson Dechambeau couldn’t seem to win.
All it took was one hole for the American beefcake to realise that there are some courses that just cannot be outmuscled.
Royal St George’s is not one of the most popular courses on The Open rota but it is certainly one of the toughest.
And after the first round of the 149th playing of this famous championship Dechambeau will have a head full of negative thoughts.
A hat-trick of birdies between the 12th and 14th suggested he had got to grips with challenging links.
But the purple patch proved to be a false dawn as the former US Open champion finished the day with an opening salvo of 71, to find himself one over par and languishing way down the leaderboard.
Brooks Koepka might have been seven groups ahead, but at times Dechambeau lashed at his ball so hard it looked like he was attempting to hit his bitter rival with it.
He had promised to think about leaving his driver in the bag this week in a bid to emulate the tactics Tiger Woods has used in the past.
He was true to his word on the first tee and struck an iron instead, but when this resulted in an opening bogey it seemed his patience had been blown away by the wind.
Out came the big stick on the short par-4 second – and with one almighty swoosh Dechambeau found himself in knee-deep rough.
All he could do was hack his ball out to the left and although he scrambled for par, it had set the tone for a round that was predictably unpredictable.
Four straight pars followed before he birdied the par-5 seventh but back-to-back bogeys then saw him go out in a disappointing 37.
His drive on the ninth went so far left it didn’t deserve to be found, leaving the world No.6 slashing out of rough high enough to tickle his nether regions.
There was little to laugh about, though, and it all looked like one really big struggle.
At least one American was managing to make hay instead of being in the stuff, in the shape of Jordan Spieth.
Playing alongside Dechambeau, the 2017 champion produced a real masterclass of calm and precision to blaze round in 65 for a share of second spot on the leaderboard.
What the Texan lacked in length he made up for in accuracy, with some laser-like iron shots.
During the course of his back nine, Dechambeau dug deep to stop the bleeding with a barrage of birdies that took him under par for the first time.
He didn’t remain in the red for long, though, and two bogeys in the final three holes left the California kid with a grimace on his face as he trudged off the 18th green.
He was more interested in heading to the practice ground than talking to the press afterwards, as he looks to rescue his bid to become just the fifth American since 1945 to win two Majors before the age of 28.
But unless ‘the Mad Scientist’ can solve the equation of Sandwich, he looks more likely to be leaving Kent having bitten off more than he can chew at Royal St George’s.
He admitted in front of TV cameras that his bold approach would go one of two ways and he said: “If I can hit it down the middle of the fairway, that’s great, but with the driver right now, it sucks.
“When I decide to hit driver and it doesn’t go in the fairway, it’s first cut or whatever, or it’s in the hay, it’s tough for me to get it out on to the green and control that.
“It’s kind of living on the razor’s edge for me, and if I can’t figure out what to do about it then it’s forever.”