If you’re going to be the story of the week whether you win or lose, you might as well win.
Bryson DeChambeau capped off his hot PGA Tour restart with a victory on Sunday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
The game’s biggest hitter was also the top putter of the week at Detroit Golf Club, an unbeatable combo that was good for a 23-under-par total, and a three-shot victory over runner-up Matthew Wolff.
“It’s really exciting to be able to get the job done here and it’s a lot of momentum for the majors,” DeChambeau said. “I feel like it’s a good test run for me hitting drives in some tight areas.”
The 26-year-old American has been the top story in golf since coming back from the 91-day COVID-19 shutdown. He hasn’t finished outside the top-10 in any of the four tournaments since the restart, but it’s his outrageously long drives and incredible physical transformation that have him dominating headlines. DeChambeau averaged 350.6 yards off the tee this week, a PGA Tour record. On the 17th hole on Sunday, he hit a 230-yard 8-iron into the green.
His seven-under 65 on Sunday was the low round of the day, and the win is his sixth on the PGA Tour.
“This is a little emotional for me because I did do something a little different, I changed my body, changed my mindset in the game and I was able to accomplish a win while playing a completely different style of golf,” he said. “And it’s pretty amazing to see that and I hope it’s an inspiration to a lot of people that if they set their mind to it, you can accomplish it.”
DeChambeau’s daily workout regimen is available for the world to see on Instagram. He gained 20 pounds of muscle during the tour’s three-month break apparently by lifting and eating everything in sight.
DeChambeau began the final round three shots behind Wolff, who is a 21-year-old star-in-the-making, and already a winner on tour. Wolff’s lead didn’t last long though as he bogeyed the first hole and DeChambeau — playing one group ahead of Wolff — birdied three of his first four holes to overtake him.
“How I started off the day, I feel like I was letting things get to me a little more than I had at the beginning of the week, just little bad breaks, bad shots, stuff like that,” Wolff said. “Next time I’m in this position I feel like I’ll be a lot more comfortable.”
DeChambeau nearly made things interesting on the par-5 14th hole when his sideways pitch-out from the trees ran through the fairway and into a rocky water hazard. He made bogey and his lead was cut to two. But Wolff was unable to capitalize on the par-5, making a par after his second shot bounced into the green-side rough. Wolff shot a disappointing one-under 71 on Sunday to finish at 20-under.
Kevin Kisner finished in third place at 18 under.
It was a great finish for Adam Hadwin who shot a five-under 67 in the final round. The Canadian eagled the 17th hole and birdied the last to get to 16-under par and jump into a tie for fourth with Danny Willett, Ryan Armour and Tyrrell Hatton.
With Nick Taylor’s win at Pebble Beach in February, Canadians now have a win and seven top-6 finishes this season on the PGA Tour.
ONCE UPON A TIME
Let’s start by saying I never liked science class. Perhaps that’s why right from the beginning I had an inkling that Professor DeChambeau was going to be, well, a bit of a handful on the PGA Tour.
Turns out, unlike in high school, I was ahead of the curve this time.
DeChambeau found himself trending on social media for the wrong reasons after an unpleasant exchange on Saturday with a cameraman when he hit a poor sand shot and felt the camera lens followed him too long. It wasn’t the exchange that got him in trouble, rather his self-absorbed defence of it afterwards.
“I understand that it’s his job to video me, but at the same point, I think we need to start protecting our players out here compared to showing a potential vulnerability and hurting someone’s image,” he said Saturday. “I just don’t think that’s necessarily the right thing to do. Not that I was going to do anything bad, it’s just one of those things that I hope he respects my privacy.”
There’s a lot to unpack there. First, it’s not a CBS cameraman’s job to protect DeChambeau’s image, and second, the last place a golfer should expect privacy is inside the ropes during a tournament.
He wasn’t done there though.
“For that to damage our brand like that, that’s not cool in the way we act because if you actually meet me in person, I’m not too bad of a dude, I don’t think,” DeChambeau said.
Not too bad of a dude, I don’t think.
Put that one on a shirt.
The game’s hottest player of 2020 began his professional career in April 2016, one week after playing in the Masters as an amateur. That week at Augusta National everyone was swooning over DeChambeau. He was so smart, and so different, they said. He was a Ben Hogan-hat-wearing raconteur amateur who could sign his name backwards from right to left, and tested golf balls by submerging them in epsom salt.
What’s not to like? The stories basically wrote themselves.
Except, I didn’t buy it.
Instead I looked around the media room, ducked, and wrote a column titled, “Bryson DeChambeau is golf’s most interesting (and annoying) man”. Where everyone else saw his personality as a shot-in-the-arm for a stuffy sport, I saw a know-it-all with a prematurely inflated sense of self.
I wrote at the time: “Even though he says his idol is Albert Einstein, his real idol seems to be Bryson DeChambeau.”
My main concern was that if an amateur could sit at the Masters and not seem the least bit humbled, what would the future hold?
More from 2016: “Now, there’s nothing wrong with being cocky and many of the best golfers are. Thing is, very few athletes get less pleased with themselves when the fame and money and success start coming. So watch out.”
I should have bought a lottery ticket that day.
Four years ago his talent, drive, and commitment to his craft was obvious, but so was his polarizing personality. Now that he’s one of the top players in the game, not much has changed, except now he’s the one under the microscope.
CHIP SHOTS
With no grandstands or fans at tournaments during the restart, watching players have to chip over the cart path back to the green is perhaps the only good thing about 2020 so far … The next two weeks on the PGA Tour are going to be played at one golf course. Muirfield Village stepped forward to host the one-off Workday Charity Open after the John Deere Classic was cancelled. The following week Muirfield Village and Jack Nicklaus will host The Memorial. It will be an interesting lesson in course setup as the next week’s event will feature lower rough and slower greens before the course gets “Jacked” up for Memorial. Should be fun.
