Bryson DeChambeau has always done things his own way but even he is taking it a little far at this year’s Masters. In February he suffered a hairline fracture of a bone in his left hand when he fell over playing table tennis against Sergio García during a tournament in Jeddah.
His doctors and his coaches told him he should take the next four months off to recover but here he is teeing up at Augusta National despite their advice. “It was a huge risk,” he said, “it was probably not one that my doctors recommended, but I decided to do so because I wanted to give this tournament a run.” He says his game is at about 80%.
It is not just his hand; he has a hip injury, too, a partial tear in the cartilage because of his extreme clubhead speed and strength training regimen which, for a brief period, turned him into one of the most dominant players on the tour.
His world ranking has dropped back to No 14 now and he says himself that his buildup to this year’s tournament feels very different from how it did in November 2020, when he came here off the back of his six-shot victory in the US Open at Winged Foot. Tiger Woods said the way DeChambeau was playing back then was “unprecedented” and “historic”.
“Coming here in the fall for that Masters, a lot of eyes were on me, and it was a different expectation level and definitely uncomfortable for me because I had never experienced that,” DeChambeau said. But this year, “coming off an injury, not being really fully ready it’s kind of been nice going into this year’s Masters just peacefully”.
He admits it helps, too, that Woods is now taking up all the attention with his own comeback. Woods’s gallery is so big that DeChambeau says the atmosphere surrounding everyone else almost feels relaxing in comparison.
“It’s very, very exciting to have him back. It creates a lot of hype and whatnot. From the driving range, we could hear the loud roar when he came out of the clubhouse up to that 1st tee, and that was pretty special to hear that. I couldn’t be more happy for him, and proud of him, too.
“Coming back off that injury, we’ve had some conversations, and man, I don’t know how he’s done it. It’s very impressive.” He has tried to get in touch with Phil Mickelson, too, who’s going through a low of his own after the recent scandal about his comments on doing business with the Saudi regime. “I’ve tried to reach out but he’s gone dark. There’s no contact,” DeChambeau said.
There are a couple of lessons there, about the vicissitudes of life in the game, ups and downs which, at 28, DeChambeau is starting to experience for himself. “The past few weeks have been very, very difficult on me, not playing well and not hitting it anywhere near where I should be. Yelling ‘fore’ off the tee every time is just not fun. It’s very difficult on your mental psyche as well. But it’s one of those things that everybody has a tough stretch in their career, and especially with coming off an injury.
“It’s a learning experience. Every time, like I’ve always said, your worst failures are your best teachers.” Even at 80% of his best, DeChambeau’s game ought to be well suited to the course; Jordan Spieth said it was “tailor-made” for him from tee to green.
His results here have been underwhelming since he finished 21st on his debut in 2016, when he was the low amateur. It’s still his best finish. Given that he’s carrying two injuries he hasn’t fully recovered from, has been forced to swing one-handed in practice for most of the last few weeks, and has only just been to able to begin hitting anything like the number balls he would usually do on the range, it would be a hell of an achievement if he does better than 21st this week.
