USA TODAY International Edition
Time for DeChambeau to execute a Masters win
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Bryson DeChambeau, golf ’ s grand science experiment, was talking Tuesday about his current strategy to find new ways to try to win his first Masters.
“I’m still going down numerous rabbit holes, and I will never stop, not only to win golf tournaments but to definitely win this tournament,” the 27- year- old reigning U. S. Open champion said. “I mean, this has been on my radar since I was a kid, and now that I’ve accomplished winning the U. S. Open, this is the next goal for me.
“And I will not stop my pursuit of knowledge of the game, knowledge of the body, knowledge of the golf swing to give myself the best opportunity to win. At the end of the day, it comes down to execution. You have to be able to go out there and hit a great shot and execute when the pressure comes around. … I can give myself the most advantages all day long, but if I don’t go out there and just execute, it doesn’t really mean much.”
Since finishing in a very disappointing tie for 34th at the November 2020 Masters, DeChambeau won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished third at The Players last month. He is No. 1 in driving distance on the PGA Tour. His head is full of new ideas, his swing speed is still out of this world, his muscle- bound body is a bit leaner and meaner and he has a secret new club, a prototype Cobra driver that has been three years in the making.
How can you not pick this guy to win the Masters? So I will. He’s the one. He’ll win his first green jacket here this week.
When DeChambeau did not play well here five months ago, the course was soft. This week, it will be firm and fast, just to DeChambeau’s liking.
“I would say for the most part the golf course is going to play different,” he said. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a great challenge. I love firm, fast golf courses. It’s going to test every facet of your game. Greens are already firm and fast. I’ve never seen it this fast, this quick, this early, but I certainly love the challenge.”
As long as DeChambeau is talking like this and playing the way he has over the past year, he will be a favorite to win here. But he’s not alone. The 2015 Masters champion, Jordan Spieth, ended a nearly- four- year drought to win in Texas on Sunday. He almost always plays well here, finishing in the top three four of the first five
the law or against it by saying he didn’t think his opinion “should shape the discussion,” leaving us to wonder what he truly thinks of the legislation.
Oh, but this is where he went wrong. Can you imagine the reaction if the nation’s best- known old boys’ club announced, as its iconic Georgia neighbors Delta and Coke did, that it was not supporting the law, then unleashed all the might of its green- jacketed CEOs to work in their states to make sure similar legislation died a well- deserved death?
It’s the wonderful headline that will never be written: “Augusta National says Georgia voting law must go.”
Big- time sports offer such big- time social possibilities. Leagues pull big events out of states and alter history: the NFL did it over Martin Luther King Jr. Day with the Super Bowl in Arizona in the early 1990s; the NBA did it over transgender and gay rights a few years ago with its All- Star Game in North Carolina; and MLB just did it because of this law with its All- Star Game in Atlanta. In Arizona and North Carolina, the result was swift: the laws changed.
Augusta National didn’t need to leave town. It just had to focus enough on the politics of its state to take a historic stand.
Ridley did offer that the voting law is “of great public interest,” saying it will be resolved by “people working together and talking and having constructive dialogue because that’s the way our democratic society works.”
It should be noted Kemp and Georgia Republicans consider it resolved, because it is a law. Perhaps Augusta National was working behind the scenes and failed. Or, perhaps it succeeded.
It is certainly within the realm of possibility that Ridley and many Augusta National members like the new law. It includes new restrictions on voting by mail, greater GOP legislative control over state and county election officials and a prohibition against outside groups giving food or water to people waiting in line to vote. Civil rights groups believe it will restrict voting access for people of color.
Kemp signed the law with six white men by his side and a painting of a former slave plantation behind him, a footnote that should be worthy of commentary from some Georgia leader.
Ridley, who has been Masters chairman since 2017, already has initiated the groundbreaking Women’s Amateur tournament, as well as several projects and initiatives within Augusta’s underserved communities. He also announced that Lee Elder, the first Black golfer to compete in the Masters, in 1975, will be an honorary starter at this week’s tournament.
Ridley, who lives in Tampa, Florida, also has been an active donor to political campaigns. According to Federal Election Commission records, on Dec. 1, he made donations of $ 2,800 to Republican Sen. David Perdue’s runoff campaign, and another $ 2,800 to a Political Action Committee called “Senate Georgia Battleground Fund.” The money, $ 5,600 in all, passed through WinRed, a Republican Party fundraising platform.
Both Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, also a Republican, lost in Georgia’s Jan. 5 Senate runoff that was overshadowed by Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, both across the nation and in Georgia. The GOP losses shifted the balance of power in the U. S. Senate to the Democratic Party.
Three months later the focus is still on Georgia.