Golf is a cruel, cruel game, with the difference between winning and losing being literally mere inches. Whether it's battling for the title, or attempting to make the cut, either can be extremely tough, with Bryson DeChambeau finding this out at the par 5 15th during The Masters.
Throughout the second day, the American had been battling hard as he looked to make the cut at a venue which has caused him nightmares throughout his career, with his best finish being a T21 in 2016. At the time, DeChambeau was still an amateur!
As play was suspended on Friday at Augusta National, it appeared that the cut line was going to be around +2. However, on Saturday, when players returned, Justin Thomas carded a costly bogey-bogey finish which saw the mark move to +3. Obviously, at the time on Friday, DeChambeau wouldn't have known this, which makes his shot on the par 5 15th all the more debilitating.
Standing on the 15th tee at +3, all he would need to do was par in to make the cut. At the time though, with the cut being +2, DeChambeau needed a birdie to help his cause. Laying up at the par 5, he struck his third shot all over the flag and it seemed that a birdie was on the horizon. However, the ball clattered the flag and ricocheted back into the water, leading to a very costly bogey. You can watch his unlucky break on the 15th hole over on The Masters website.
SICK SICK SICK https://t.co/71Ojn6IStHApril 7, 2023
Memorably, DeChambeau once stated ahead of the 2020 Masters that Augusta was “a par 67 for me”, only to struggle and finish down in 34th in that tournament. The next year he secured a 46th place finish but missed the cut altogether in 2022.
This year, after firing a two-over-par first round, the 29-year-old needed to get off to a hot start if he had any chance of making the cut and seeing the weekend. But his day couldn't have started much worse, with one birdie, one par, three bogeys and one double bogey putting him four-over for his round through six holes.
It seemed that flawless golf would be needed to get to the cut line and, with back-to-back birdies at the eighth and ninth, DeChambeau was back on track. What's more, he found yet another birdie at the recently extended par 5 13th to put him three-over for the tournament and one-over for the day.
The final four holes at Augusta National had been yielding plenty of birdies and, with the par 5 15th definitely reachable for DeChambeau, a fourth birdie in eight holes would do nicely for the American.
However, his third short heartbreakingly struck the flag on the fly, with the ball spinning back into the water and leading to a bogey. The brave charge had pretty much come to an end and, after his makeable birdie putt slid by at the par 3 16th, a second consecutive missed cut at The Masters soon came into view.
