AUGUSTA, Ga. – In Bryson DeChambeau’s world, Augusta National plays to a par of 67, not 72.
By his math? DeChambeau fired a score of 3-over, and given some of his adventures on Thursday, he played as if he shot over par.
In reality, thanks to birdies on his two final holes, the scorecard actually added up to a 2-under 70 for the reigning U.S. Open champion, which left him middle of the pack on a day of low scoring.
DeChambeau led the field with an average drive of 334.6 yards, but he was often crooked, pulling drives into the tree at Nos. 11 and 14. His day best could be summarized by his travails at No. 13, the 510-yard par-5 that he bragged he could reach in two with a flip wedge, possibly by driving into the 14th fairway.
Only problem? After three opening pars starting on the back nine, his tee shot at 13 landed in the Georgia pines and the ball settled in the pine straw with a tree in front of him limiting his options to the green.
“I just didn’t draw it around the corner enough, and I got greedy,” DeChambeau said.
He tried to punch a low iron and his one-arm finish told the story – he tugged it into the azaleas left of the green, exclaiming “Gosh, it came out dead left.” Indeed it did, and he hit a provisional in case he couldn’t find it but he pushed that shot to the right into Rae’s Creek. Fortunately, his caddie found his first ball in the bushes, but DeChambeau had to take a penalty for an unplayable, dropped, duffed his pitch and made double bogey.
MASTERS: Thursday tee times | TV, streaming info | Leaderboard
“This golf course, as much as I’m trying to attack it, it can bite back,” he said. “It’s still Augusta National, and it’s the Masters. It’s an amazing test of golf no matter what way you play it.”
DeChambeau bounced back with a 2-putt birdie at No. 15 and canned an 18-foot left-to-right curling birdie putt at No. 16.
At 15, he displayed his prodigious power. Louis Oosthuizen, who shot the low score in DeChambeau’s grouping with a 68, cracked that he and DeChambeau both hit 7 into 15, only Oosthuizen’s was a 7-wood and DeChambeau’s a 7-iron.
He also blasted a 352-yard drive at No. 2 that CBS’s Nick Faldo called a “never-before-seen line” and needed just an 8-iron to reach the 575-yard hole. Jon Rahm, the third member of DeChambeau’s group, was most impressed by his tee shot on No. 8.
“He seemed to toe it and I hit mine good and he was still way ahead of me. So, there was a couple of them that were reality checks,” Rahm said. “On 18 he was questioning if he could carry the bunkers, and me and Louis were not even near hitting to the bunkers. It’s a different golf course, but I think today proves that no matter how far you hit it, you still need to make the putts. He got a 2‑under‑par round because he also got a lot of up‑and‑downs and scrambling done. I think his short game is being drastically elevated right now.”
Further echoing Rahm’s sentiment that distance may be overrated was the round of Larry Mize, the 1987 Masters champion, who averaged 247 yards off the tee and at age 62 tied DeChambeau with a 70.
DeChambeau made birdies on the two par 5s on the front nine, and nearly drove the 350-yard par-4 third, but missed his short birdie putt. He fanned his tee shot right at No. 7, which led to a bogey before rattling off two birdies coming in.
“I got a little, I guess you could say tight. I wasn’t comfortable with my golf swing,” said DeChambeau before he headed to the practice range to sort out his swing. “I tried to take on some risk today. It didn’t work out as well as I thought it would have, but at the end of the day I’m proud of myself the way I handled myself and finished off. Birdieing 8 and 9 was a testament to my focus level, and wanting to contend here.”
[jwplayer 9LNsqLaz-vgFm21H3]
[lawrence-related id=778075255,778075179,778075190]