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The golf cart picking up golf balls at the Augusta National driving range can only go very far. Club members were exchanging stories on Tuesday about the staff who had reached the end of the firing range and had to sort through the azalea bushes more than 350 yards away to pick up a few more bullets.
The culprit, of course, was Bryson DeChambeau.
Never mind that Tiger Woods is the reigning Masters champion, still emotional 19 months later, speaking of that fierce embrace he shared with his son. Or that the silence of not having spectators for the first time is as strange as the color of fall in the trees.
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DeChambeau has become a showstopper. He’s got everyone curious if his mass and giant tee shots can strip Augusta National.
“It’s a much easier golf course for him than for everyone else,” said Justin Thomas, who joined DeChambeau, Woods and Fred Couples for a practice round earlier this week. “I think once he starts playing with this longer rider and has a little more free time, then as crazy as he is, maybe he can go further.
This longer pilot is a half inch under 48 inches, the legal limit in competition, the type used by World Long Drive competitors who turn the long ball into a spectacle. DeChambeau tried it on Monday after his practice round and liked the reaction. He didn’t rule out using it when the Masters kick off on Thursday.
“I had my swing speed up to 143, 144 (mph),” he says.
The average swing speed for a power player on the PGA Tour is around 120 mph.
The numbers define DeChambeau these days, starting with the 40+ pounds of muscle and mass he added last year, remarkable gains from around 5,000 calories a day in his diet, and hard work in the sport room. More recently it was the excitement at home in Dallas when one of his readers carried just over 400 yards.
The numbers that stand out at Augusta National are stamped on the bottom of his irons.
A 7 iron for his second shot on the second 575 yard hole. As little as a 6 iron in the 570 yard eighth hole that plays uphill. An 8 iron in the 495 yard fifth hole. “It was in the wind,” he says.
He hit the pitching corner in the 505-yard 11th hole on Monday and asked Woods, “What did you hit in 1997?” Woods told him to throw a corner.
“I’m like, ‘That’s cool, okay,’” DeChambeau.
Woods was hitting the corner for his second shot in the 15th par 5 when he won the first of his five green jackets. He was 21 and his length was unlike anything seen at the Masters. The course was then about 500 meters shorter, lengthened over the following years in what became known as Tiger-proofing.
Since then, rapid advancements in technology – bigger drivers, better science, solid-core golf balls – have made it possible for everyone to join the distance race. The difference is that DeChambeau took him to another level thanks to his athleticism.
He got bigger and stronger to swing faster and hit the ball even further. And he has no idea if he’s approaching the limits or just starting out.
“Every day I try to be faster and stronger and I try to hit him as far as possible,” said DeChambeau.
He said he hit him further than when he won the US Open in September by six shots with the lowest score ever at Winged Foot, and further than when he last met in Las Vegas he a month ago. And the description of his pre-shot routine was revealing.
“I’m just trying to get up there like I’m in a batter’s box swinging as hard as I can, trying to hit a home run,” he said. “I don’t know if there is a better way to put it.”
The length was an advantage for Bobby Jones and Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Seve Ballesteros.
Length isn’t everything, and DeChambeau would be the first to admit it. Ask him about Winged Foot and he’ll talk about how he hit his irons during the week, not to mention his short game. It’s no different at the Masters.
“I can hit it as far as I want, but it’s about putting and playing here,” he said. “It’s one of the things that I think people have a hard time seeing sometimes. As much as I can gain an advantage off the tee, I still have to put the putter well and steal it well and wedge it well and even play it back well, and that’s what I did at the US Open.
It’s no less impressive – the concept he wanted to explore, the risk he took, the hard work.
“He took the time. He’s put to work, ”Woods said. “What he did in the gym was amazing, and what he did on the pitch and what he did with his whole team to be able to optimize this club and transform his game and his ability to hit the pitch. bullet as far as it did. and in as little time as him, it has never been done before.
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How that translates to the Masters won’t be known until the end of the week. It is always about the low score. Rory McIlroy always believes Augusta National delivers the proper test no matter how badly DeChambeau or anyone else hits him. He doesn’t think the game is in jeopardy just yet.
“If trophies were handed out just for how far you hit him and how fast you hit the ball, then I’d be concerned,” said McIlroy. “But there are still a lot of different aspects that you have to master in this game.”
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