"DeChambeau Needs To Learn A Lesson And Learn It Fast"

Bill Elliott gives his thoughts on Bryson's first two rounds at the 2020 Masters

DeChambeau needs to learn a lesson and learn it fast
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Bill Elliott takes a look the congested leaderboard and considers what has happened to the challenge of Bryson DeChambeau

Whatever else they are doing at the Masters this week they are definitely not social distancing.

When the second round finally finished this afternoon there were five men tied for the lead and another 29 within six shots. That's close any time but in a Masters with 36 nerve jangling holes to go it is positively claustrophobic.

With the No.1, 2 and 3 golfers on the world rankings Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas – in that leading quintet and an orchestra of other highly ranked players just a few bogeys adrift the scene is now set for the ultimate shoot-out today and Sunday. Fasten your seatbelts folks, we are about to take off.

Masters Leaderboard 2020

And probably heading towards a play-off.

One man who will not be involved in any play-off is our old friend Bryson DeChambeau. He has had the Masters of his nightmares to this point. He made the cut by a shot, his face twisted in disappointment as he tip-toed through the cut.

He was unlucky yesterday to lose a ball in soft earth, a fluke of nature that seemed to spear his confidence and certainly vaporised his bravado. When he bragged that par at Augusta, for him, was 67 he set himself up as the biggest fall guy since Goliath failed to take wee David seriously enough.

Masters Tee Times and Groupings For Saturday

By the end of play last night he felt so disoriented, so dizzy and nauseous that he was taken away for a Covid test. Thankfully he came through that okay but this was his only successful outcome since this Masters began.

While I admire his chutzpath as much as I'm confused by his narrow-eyed, quasi-scientific approach to a game that is, in reality, a mixture of nerve, art and business, DeChambeau needs to learn a lesson and learn it fast... This is to turn up, tone down the boasting and focus on quietly getting on with things. When he wins, if he wins, he may say what he likes and we'll listen to him attentively.

Full marks, however, for the manner in which he fought to make that cut. Wherever he now finishes he doesn't need the money and so it would have been understandable if he had chosen to slip away quietly and watch this Masters finish back home on his TV, a glass of something reviving in his hand.

That he chose to take a harder route is to his credit and he should be applauded. The harsh fact, however, is that this is not the applause he was seeking this week after a strategy that so many people naively and prematurely bought into.

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Editor At Large

Bill has been part of the Golf Monthly woodwork for many years. A very respected Golf Journalist he has attended over 40 Open Championships. Bill  was the Observer's golf correspondent. He spent 26 years as a sports writer for Express Newspapers and is a former Magazine Sportswriter of the Year. After 40 years on 'Fleet Street' starting with the Daily Express and finishing on The Observer and Guardian in 2010. Now semi-retired but still Editor at Large of Golf Monthly Magazine and regular broadcaster for BBC and Sky. Author of several golf-related books and a former chairman of the Association of Golf Writers. Experienced after dinner speaker.