Practicing at TPC Summerlin on Tuesday, Bryson DeChambeau hit several cars and trucks parked on a nearby street.
Every week at PGA Tour events, a convoy of vans and 18-wheelers descend upon the course where the tournament is being held. Filled with club heads, shafts, grips, balls and everything else players could need, they tend to park near the practice areas to make going back and forth easier. But next year when they come to TPC Summerlin, site of this week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, maybe they should park farther away.
Players are encouraged to use different portions of the range each day at tournaments to let the maintenance staff repair divots, plant new seed and keep the turf in good condition.
On Tuesday, golfers used a forward position, and with the dry desert air warming into the 90s, the range couldn’t contain Bryson DeChambeau.
Fresh off his win at the 2020 U.S. Open, DeChambeau hit several drives over the range and onto Hillshire Drive, the street behind the range where the trucks were parked. DeChambeau was flying the ball nearly 360 yards.
“Reps were calling me saying he was bombing it into their trucks,” said Ben Schomin, Cobra Golf’s director of tour operations. “I had him stop in the morning and had to move him back in the afternoon for safety reasons.”
Unfortunately for Aaron Dill, the PGA Tour rep for Titleist Vokey Design wedges, it was too late. One of DeChambeau’s drives hit his rented Infinity QX70’s back bumper and dented it. Other shots rattled near the equipment vans and pinballed here and there.
A dent caused by one of Bryson DeChambeau’s practice drives at TPC Summerlin. (Aaron Dill)
“Better my rental than my body,” Dill wrote in a text.
“It was impressive (well, until he hit Aaron Dill’s rental),” writes J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s director of player promotions. “But to be fair, we have had it happen before. Wasn’t a first.”
That may be true, but Aaron Dill’s insurance company hopes TPC Summerlin builds a longer range or the vans are moved to another spot in 2021.
