Jimmy matter-of-factly asked the question seemingly everyone who’d watched previously had wondered about.
What would happen if he broke a window?
Bryson DeChambeau, though, had things covered. Literally. Should Jimmy thin one into DeChambeau’s home as he tried to drop a ball over it and into a backyard hole, nets set up near the makeshift tee box would catch the stray.
Perplexed? That’s part of the attraction here. What happened in a video released on Thursday by DeChambeau, the two-time major winner, wasn’t conventional, tee-shot-to-second-shot-to-putt golf, and DeChambeau has become a bit of a star in that space, doing so on the booming YouTube medium. There, he’s attempted to break 50 from the forward tees. He’s offered lessons. He’s tried challenges — including one recently that captured both curiosity and clicks.
Could he make a hole in one over his home? The shot was about 100 yards. The height to clear his roof was 33 feet. DeChambeau told himself he could take one swing on day one, then, if he failed, take two on day two, three on day three and so on — and on day 16, he succeeded. Millions watched.
Millions likely also wondered: How would Joe or Jane Schmo fare, though?
Or Jimmy?
How about for $100,000?
DeChambeau let him try. In Thursday’s video, DeChambeau was handing out cash through a sponsor for various challenges, and the last brought a man named Jimmy to his house for the attempt at the six-figure payday. He could take as many swings as he liked — from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and DeChambeau thought he’d do it, though it’d be a marathon.
His guess was Jimmy would need 5 hours and 43 minutes.
“I think there’s going to be some ups and downs in this challenge for him,” DeChambeau said in the video. “He’s really going to struggle right off the rip. He’s not going to be comfortable. He’s not going to know how far to hit. What’s a 95-yard shot? As we tell him where the balls are landing, where they’re going, I think he’s going to start getting into the flow of it. And then, about three hours in, he’s going to start struggling. It’s going to be so much. His back is going to be hurting, everything’s going to be hurting, and I think at the 5-hour, 43-minute mark or something like that, he’ll finally get it done.”
Shot one? Off a 54-degree wedge, his ball was long. “Hey, I got it over the net,” Jimmy said. “I was pretty happy about that.”
Shot two? Long.
Shot three? Off a 58-degree this time, his was long again.
Shot four? Pin high and to the right.
How long is this going to go on for?
One more swing.
Shot five? In. Jimmy’s ball dropped short of the flag and to the left of it, and it rolled in from there for the ace.
A producer shouted. Bryson and Jimmy hugged. They pushed each other away. They hugged again. They pushed each other away again. Jimmy walked around. He threw his hat down. He ran to the backyard. Yup, he made it. DeChambeau did some maths. He pulled out his phone and showed that the time was 10:06.
Jimmy needed just six minutes.
“Took me 134 freaking balls,” DeChambeau said in the video — then threw down his phone.
Jimmy then called his wife, Kaydee.
Said Jimmy: “Uh, we just won $100,000.”
Said Kaydee: “What?”
Another good question.
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