Bryson DeChambeau made a mockery of his “par 67” comment with a blistering opening 65 to storm into the Masters lead.
The former US Open champion roared out of the traps with three successive birdies and came home in similar fashion with five birdies in his last seven, including three-in-a-row from the 15th with just one bogey coming on the 9th.
It leaves the American at the summit on seven-under-par and it’s just his fourth round in the 60s at the Masters.
“I’m just in a place where I’m repeating a motion, trying to do the same thing over and over again. Hitting a couple cut shots every once in a while,” DeChambeua said in a typically scientific way.
“The knowledge on the golf course, just learning each and every day when we get out there, what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable, where can I play from, where do I need to miss this. If I put myself in a bad place, how do I give myself an opportunity to make par.
“And then, thirdly, the test of golf that was out there, it was a real sign of patience today, having G-Bo on the bag and making sure I don’t make really big errors out there. Albeit I almost did it on 15. I got away with one.
“But certainly talking through a lot more shots and making sure we know where the wind is coming from, when it’s gusting, him pulling me off if he feels something different. I think that’s what the test is out there this week.”
DeChambeau played the shot of the day to set up an eagle putt on the par-5 15th, carving an iron around the trees from the right hand side to 40-feet. The putt agonisingly missed on the high side to leave the easiest of birdies but he admitted his second shot was a touch fortunate.
“Yeah, so funny enough I was just trying to get to the back right section of the green, and I pushed it a little bit. It clipped the tree. I hit four pine needles rather than five, and it worked out perfectly. But it was a little scary of a shot. I shouldn’t have probably done it, but I took a risk. I was willing to take it. I was rewarded fortunately.
“But, no, I was trying to go to that back right section to have a nice chip back down to that pin kind of where Thor was, and I got lucky. I almost made it, but I’ll settle for birdie there any day.”
DeChambeau is one of the big stars playing on the Saudi backed LIV Golf tour and he feels the 54-hole limited schedule circuit has enabled him to prepare better for major tournaments.
“I feel like that sort of schedule that LIV has has provided me good, ample time to get ready for tournaments like this.
“Look, it would be fine either way. I’m not going to side one way or the other. It is what is it. I just made good use of the time that I’ve been allocated on LIV to work on my golf swing, work on the equipment that I have, and getting to a place where I’m super comfortable going into the week.
“We played Doral last week, which is a brutal test of golf, and I feel like it was a good thing that we played there and got ready for this week, because this is obviously one of the best tests in golf.”
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