SLIMMER DECHAMBEAU HAS QUITE DIFFERENT MINDSET
So much talk about this PGA Championship has been the restoration project of Oak Hill. Equally astonishing Thursday is the restoration of Bryson DeChambeau.
That incredible bulk who won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2020? DeChambeau has shed some 40 pounds by cutting out food to which he was allergic.
“I took a Zoomer peptide test, which essentially tells you what inflames your blood when you eat it,” he said. “Pretty much everything I liked, I couldn’t eat.”
The guy who tried to smash it as far as he could and have wedges into the green? Now he’s happier finding fairways, and he was happy to share what led to the improved accuracy.
“It’s being more ... how do I explain this easy? I’m just in a place where I’m more ulnar,” he said, leaving everyone to wonder what would have been the more complicated explanation.
The place that matters is his name high on the leaderboard. DeChambeau still lashed away with speed and strength, off the tee and out of the rough. That carried him to a 4-under 66 and the lead among those who finished an opening round delayed nearly two hours by frost.
Thirty players didn’t finish because of darkness and were to return this morning. That included Eric Cole, the 34-year-old PGA Tour rookie who was 5 under with four holes left.
DeChambeau matched his low score at the PGA Championship and led by one over Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson and Corey Conners.
“It’s a fantastic round of golf at Oak Hill,” DeChambeau said. “It’s a prestigious place, very difficult golf course. As I was looking at it throughout the week, I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t know how shooting under par is even possible out here on some of the holes.’ But luckily, I was