A Week In The Life Of Bryson DeChambeau

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 15 November 2020

It was quite a week at Augusta for US Open Champion Bryson Dechambeau, he made headlines on and off the course

A week in the life of Bryson DeChambeau

This was only Bryson DeChambeau's third Masters start as a professional but there has rarely been more hype about anyone’s efforts at Augusta National. He does it his own way and he’s amazing value and this is how his week played out… in his own words!

"Every day I'm trying to get faster and stronger and I'm trying to hit it as far as possible. I will say that I have no idea where the end game is on this. I've only seen improvements in strength increase, I've obviously felt better every day, so I really don't know where the end game is on this."

"I’m going to be able to hit it on certain lines where patrons would be, and I feel like that it does provide me a little bit of an advantage in that case to be able to hit into those areas without thinking about it at all."

"So you know, that would be the best answer I can give on that because you look at 18, I'm hopefully going to be able to hit it over those bunkers where the Patrons would be. Another one would be 13 even. I can hit it through almost into 14 and they would be there, so this is a unique opportunity I think this year."

"I can hit it as far as I want to, but it comes down to putting and chipping out here.

"I tested the 48-inch driver on Monday for the first time. And we've gone through at least three or four iterations of the shaft, and this is the most promising one yet. I had about four to five miles an hour in ball speed increase. I got my swing speed up to 143, 144 on the range, and the dispersion is the same and spin rate was even down. I'm not 100 per cent sure if I'll put it in play yet just because of the unknown; it's so close to the Masters, but it is an improvement if every facet of launch conditions, then I don't see why not."

I would also tell a younger Bryson that patience is a huge part of success. I wanted to succeed immediately back then, and my game wasn't ready. My brain wasn't ready. My body wasn't ready. I think people talk about how every five years, you change as a human being, and that is absolutely true. I mean, I've totally changed and what I would tell younger Bryson is be patient and keep learning every day. Those are the two things that I would tell him.

I feel I've done a good job of moving things at a faster pace. From a driving perspective, I just am 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. I don't know if there's a better way to say it. You look at these guys, Kyle Berkshire, they are up there getting amped up before they hit a long drive, and that's what they do. And I'm kind of doing that, not to the fullest extent, but definitely helps hit the ball farther.

Even after speed training, I'd be just absolutely crushed, my body not feeling great at all, hurting everywhere, and I would go work out to figure out how to re‑up those tolerance levels.

Instead of going to dinner and doing something with friends, I was in the gym working out.

Growing up in college, we didn't have greens books, and I played well then. I've played well here the last couple years and gotten pretty comfortable with the greens. I still go based off of my intuition most of the time. The times where I've putted best have been where my intuition is matched up with reality and what it's actually doing because sometimes they can be wrong. The greens books can be wrong.

The pitch on 13 was very difficult. Downhill slope, I had to open the face, if I took it back straightaway, I would have hit the bushes, azaleas, so I tried to cut across it and I just got too cute with it, and it came out a little dead. It was unfortunate, but at the end of the day I should have been smarter and hit it out, took my medicine and hit it on the green, but hopefully on Friday I'll hit it in the fairway and have a different opportunity for birdie if not eagle.

I don't feel like I'm 100 per cent ready with that (the 48-inch driver) yet. I tried to get it ready for this week, but there was a lot of opportunities that I felt like I could still fly it over bunkers with the 45‑inch driver. As we sat back, we were like, it's not going to be that much of a gain this week because I am pretty much already flying bunkers out there.

I got a little, I guess you could say tight. I wasn't comfortable with my swing. Normally when I'm really comfortable I can keep going faster and faster, and I felt like I got a little tighter.

I'm greedy. Sometimes I can get a little greedy and I like taking risks. You've got to take risks to win tournaments, and albeit I made double from it, I still think over the course of four days, I can get that back to under par. I hit my other one in the water and that was not going to be a fun number. I don't want to do that. I had to find it.

The longest one (club to a par 5) was No.8. I hit a hybrid. It was into the wind, wet. On 13 I had 7‑iron in, and that was from the pine straw trying to do some little finagling around the trees. And then on No.2 I hit a draw 8‑iron. And what's the other one? 15 I hit a nice little cut 7 in the middle of the green.

I was feeling something a little weird two nights ago and I came out Friday and was fine for the most part. As I kept going through the round, I started getting a little dizzy. I don't know what was going on, a little something weird.

These past couple days, I've felt really, really odd and just not 100 per cent. I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure. I don't know what it is. There's like something in my stomach that's just not doing well.

So I got checked for Covid and I was fine, nothing. But I had to do the right thing and make sure there was nothing more serious than that.

It definitely throws you for a loop when the guy goes and gives you the ball on the 4th tee box (and says) 'oh, I found it'.

I've got to fix whatever is going on up here. Just dizziness. It's only when I go from down to up, so I can't even like think and talk right now. Once I fix it I'll be even better than now. There was numerous times where I was over it and I just felt super uncomfortable. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't see the line.

At the beginning of the week I felt like I could have a great chance to win the tournament if I just played my game. I made enough birdies and eagles to have a chance to win. There's no doubt about that. I made way too many mistakes that I've got to talk about with my caddie and go, hey, how do we not make these mistakes anymore, how can we work better as a team to have that not happen?

We're going to try and work on a ball that will fit it a little better with my wedges. On 1 I hit one and it spun 30 feet back and off the green. I can't hit anything less than what I did. It was a 110‑yard shot and I took it back halfway and through and went through and it spun back 30 feet. So hopefully we can come up with a ball that will do some more things that will be helpful.

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Mark has worked in golf for over 20 years having started off his journalistic life at the Press Association and BBC Sport before moving to Sky Sports where he became their golf editor on skysports.com. He then worked at National Club Golfer and Lady Golfer where he was the deputy editor and he has interviewed many of the leading names in the game, both male and female, ghosted columns for the likes of Robert Rock, Charley Hull and Dame Laura Davies, as well as playing the vast majority of our Top 100 GB&I courses. He loves links golf with a particular love of Royal Dornoch and Kingsbarns. He is now a freelance, also working for the PGA and Robert Rock. Loves tour golf, both men and women and he remains the long-standing owner of an horrific short game. He plays at Moortown with a handicap of 6.

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