It wasn't to be for Bryson DeChambeau at Valhalla last week, as the monster-hitting American fell agonisingly short in his quest to add a second Major title.
DeChambeau produced a brilliant final round of 64 (-7) on Sunday to put himself in contention, but ultimately watched on helplessly from the practice range as Xander Schauffele birdied his 72nd hole to win the 2024 PGA Championship by one stroke.
While he wasn't quite able to get over the line this time, DeChambeau's audacious power gave him the chance to reel in his compatriot, Schauffele, who added a little extra distance to an already impressive arsenal himself recently. It also placed him top of the driving-distance table across all four days in Louisville, Kentucky.
Before Sunday's action began, the LIV golfer was averaging 332.4 yards off the tee and recorded a longest single drive of 360 yards. DeChambeau failed to move past his best lone drive, instead opting to shave a few yards off his average thump in favor of finding fairways more regularly.
The LIV golfer ended up averaging 330.5 yards throughout the PGA Championship week, hitting 62.50% of fairways. That was a slight improvement through three rounds, in terms of accuracy, with DeChambeau finding the short grass 59.52% prior to Sunday.
In the end, DeChambeau was also a little more than five yards ahead of his nearest challenger - fellow LIV golfer, Dean Burmester. The South African - a member of Louis Oosthuizen's Stinger GC - was in third place before Sunday but belted his way around Valhalla to secure a T12 finish.
While his one-under score saw Burmester actually lose around a shot to the field in what were wonderful scoring conditions, the Zimbabwe-born pro nudged himself into second in the driving-distance stats despite some wayward efforts.
Burmester averaged 324.9 yards over the course of the week, but his driving accuracy really let him down. The 34-year-old found the fairway just 51.79% of the time, which left him as the joint-fourth most inaccurate driver out of the 154 players to have completed two rounds.
Tony Finau ended T18th on the leaderboard but joint-last in terms of driving accuracy alongside Nicolai Hojgaard after the pair hit the fairway with just 46.43% of their tee shots over the four days. They were both just inside the top-10 for average driving distance, however.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy topped the PGA Tour driving-distance stats once again in 2023 with an average of 326.3 yards off the tee - the longest in PGA Tour history and eclipsed DeChambeau's previous best by almost three yards.
However, the Northern Irishman wasn't able to best DeChambeau at Valhalla this week, averaging *only* 323.6 yards with an accuracy reading of 67.86%. The four-time Major winner improved on all of his driving statistics after Sunday's strikes were taken into account, adding marginal gains to his average distance and accuracy, and improving his longest drive of the week from 343 yards to 349 yards.
Completing the top five in terms of driving distance was Byeong Hun An (321.4) and Joaquin Niemann (317.2).
