Coming into Masters week, we rank the 10 players most likely to find themselves in the Butler Cabin on Sunday evening alongside Scottie Scheffler and the leading amateur.
05. Bryson DeChambeau
Bryson DeChambeau infamously declared Augusta National a par-67 back in 2020, and the internet went into overdrive in derision, but to be fair to the mad scientist, it was more clumsy than cocky.
At the height of his bulking phase and regularly sending drives 350 yards and beyond, the four par-5s and the third hole – drivable – were holes where he’d expect to record birdies at least, but expectation and reality are two different things and that’s never more evident than within the pine corridors that lie at the end of Magnolia Lane.
His first two Masters showings post par-67 comments resulted in made cuts but also-ran status, while the two that followed had him packing his bags on Friday evening. But then came 2024, and a rejuvenated DeChambeau, wrist injury fully healed and slimmed down from the hulking presence that seemed lost, was back to being the showman extraordinaire.
Feeding on the patrons’ love, Bryson shot an opening 65 and held a share of the halfway lead before fading a little at the weekend.
So why does one top-10 finish in eight Masters appearances translate to such a high ranking here? It’s because Bryson has finally figured out what it takes to compete at Augusta National and he’s more than got the tools to do exactly that.
His US Open win at Pinehurst only bolsters that fact. That was a golf course where sheer brawn wasn’t going to get it done, it had to be a blend of power and finesse and he managed those facets better than anyone.
He’s also one of the few players capable of bludgeoning the golf course into near submission, ala Tiger Woods back in the late ’90s and early ’00s, but that’ll be dependent on a hot putter to compliment 13 other clubs on song.
Without green reading books at Augusta National, he’d struggled, but he’s improved in the putting statistics year-on-year, and last year ranked inside the top 23 for the first time.
He hasn’t quite lit it up on LIV this year, but he’s been inside the top 10 three times and held the 36-hole lead at Doral before falling back in the final round the weekend past. Doral played extremely tough, and DeChambeau’s wayward shots were severely punished, but there was more than enough high-quality play to suggest that he’s very much to be feared this week.
He’s had a 180-reversal in terms of popularity, and the warm welcome he received at last year’s Masters will be doubled this year as his YouTube content continues to go from strength to strength.
He loves the attention and he’ll get plenty of it for every minute that he’s on the grounds, and that’s when he’s at his best. We don’t have to look too far in the past for evidence of that…
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