AUSTIN, Texas — Leave it to Bryson DeChambeau to narrowly avoid defeat and instantly proclaim his best moments are still to come.
DeChambeau—who fell in Wednesday’s biggest upset at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, losing to virtually unknown Frenchman Antoine Rozner—got back on track on Thursday by grinding out a victory over Si Woo Kim.
But it was by no means a breeze.
In fact, DeChambeau, the fifth seed, was 1 down on the back at Austin Country Club before dropping a 25-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole to pull even. The 2020 U.S. Open champ eventually closed out the match on No. 17 when Kim knocked his tee shot into a penalty area.
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Despite being pushed to the limit, DeChambeau said he was happy with his play.
“Other than this little weird stretch, my longest drive of the year on 10, and the water ball on 11, you know, I played pretty good otherwise,” DeChambeau said. “A couple weird things happened. I played the par-3s beautifully on the front, and consequently, I just kept putting pressure on him and eventually, I was able to make a few key putts and he missed a couple and that’s the game.
“That’s what it is. Yesterday was the same thing, just in the opposite way. That’s the game.”
WGC-Match Play: Photos gallery
Through two rounds, DeChambeau would sit at 3 under in a standard stroke-play event, but he insisted that point is moot. In fact, he pointed out that he’s played far different lines than normal, even if the strategy has yet to truly pay off.
“I would say for the most part I wouldn’t be taking some of the lines I’m doing out here on the golf course, so I don’t know what my score would be if I was playing stroke play,” he said. “A lot of it is gamesmanship and trying to put the golf ball in certain places to make people feel certain ways. I haven’t done that very well this week, haven’t taken advantage of 6, and so as you look at it from a stroke play perspective, I think my score would be different. In a positive way or negative way, I don’t know.
“But I will tell you that I would not be taking some of the lines that I would be in stroke play.”
The world’s fifth-ranked player needs to beat Tommy Fleetwood for an opportunity to advance to the weekend, but he feels his best golf—and biggest swings—at ACC are still in front of him.
“I haven’t hit that great a drive on 1 the past couple days, but hopefully tomorrow I get a good drive on the green. Ten is another one I thought I could go at it, too bad there was a tree limb in the way and it caught the ball,” DeChambeau said. “A few others out there, 18 I can go for, 5 is always fun. There’s just some holes I can take some advantage on and haven’t really done that to the fullest this week, but hopefully tomorrow I can do it.”
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