If Yogi Berra were still alive, he would look at the Rocket Mortgage Classic leaderboard and utter one of his classic lines: “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
Two weeks ago, Webb Simpson picked apart Harbour Town Golf Links with his brand of small ball to the tune of 12 under for 36 holes to grab a one-stroke lead over his playing partner, Bryson DeChambeau.
The course is different, but the result so far is the same. Simpson, who went on to win the RBC Heritage, signed for a bogey-free 8-under 64 on Friday at Detroit Golf Club to share the 36-hole lead with Chris Kirk. Among a logjam of six golfers lurking just one stroke back? You guessed it – none other than DeChambeau, who continues to bomb and gouge his way around this Donald Ross layout, shooting a bogey-free 5-under 67.
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Simpson, the ball-shaper and wizard with his irons, and DeChambeau, the bulked-up bomber, are polar opposites in how they go about their business, but they share at least one thing in common: They are currently No. 1 and 1-A on the list of hottest golfers on the planet.
Simpson withdrew last week due to a family member testing positive to COVID-19, but he’s picked up right where he left off. He gained a field-best 6.25 strokes tee to green on the field on Friday, his best single-round performance in that statistic in four years. Simpson carded eight birdies and improved to 34 under for his last six rounds, and has failed to take advantage of the par 5s so far. (He’s made only one birdie on the four par 5s each day.) Simpson hit 13 of 14 fairways and 17 of 18 greens in regulation. As for the one green he missed? He holed out from the bunker for birdie at 16.
When asked if this is the best he’s ever played, Simpson said, “I’d like to think so. I’m really happy to be playing well and have chances this weekend.”
For a share of the lead.@webbsimpson1 just holed it from the bunker. 🐦#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/sAURpwYDEy
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 3, 2020
As noted by stat maven Justin Ray of The 15th Club, Simpson, who entered the week ranked No. 6 in the world, would potentially rise to No. 2 and become the top-ranked American player if he were to finish either first or second this week.
But first he’ll have to hold off DeChambeau, who is hot on Simpson’s tail again. Though he walked off the course yesterday disappointed in a ‘B grade’ performance due to four bogeys in his 66, DeChambeau is in the mix again after 67 and is now 57-under par since the restart in June.
DeChambeau continues to manhandle the par 5s, reaching the 634-yard fourth hole in two blasts to make a routine birdie, and showed his full arsenal with what he tabbed “a little 10:30 9-iron,” at the 179-yard ninth hole to 2 feet to cap off his day. Despite all the talk about his prolific length off the tee – 10 drives of 325 yards or longer – DeChambeau is getting it done with his short stick too: he ranks second for the week in Strokes Gained: Putting. But DeChambeau still isn’t satisfied.
“It’s never going to be perfect,” he said.
And what will it take to earn an ‘A grade’ from the toughest judge of all, himself?
“It’s going to have to be way more comfortable with my driver and more repeatable with my drive,” he said. “Obviously it’s not bad, right, but I feel like there’s another level. I felt that before and I want to reach that level. And then my iron play, I need to figure out why I’m hitting it on the heel and missing it a little right every once in a while. That’s something I need to clean up.”
As for the weekend, DeChambeau has a simple plan: “If I can make birdie on all the par 5s on the weekend, that’s 8 under right there,” he said. “Make a couple birdies on some short par 4s, I feel like that would be a good number, something like that.”
Something like that would go a long way to outdistancing the front-runner, Simpson who is trying for two wins in a row and for it to be déjà vu all over again.
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