Harsh lesson for DeChambeau as scientific game plan unravels

Bryson DeChambeau lived a year in the space of a couple of hours at Augusta.

The carefree approach of the 25-year-old American, dressed all in black, as he joked with his caddie Tim Tucker on the putting green ahead of his second round in this 83rd edition of the Masters tournament was a far cry from his darkened demeanour as he bristled his way from the 10th green. The joy of it all had turned to a painful experience. He aged before our eyes.

Picture this, first of all. DeChambeau stands out from the crowd for his scientific musings, the kind which would drag you kicking and screaming into a lecture hall against your will so that eventually you’d be nodding in understanding if only to escape.

After he completed his first round in calmness on Thursday evening, there were few dissenters to DeChambeau’s point of view. He talked and talked of scientific reasoning behind his score of 66 which propelled him into a share of the lead and his actions had matched such talk.

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DeChambeau talked of the fun of not, for a change, using professional green reading books.

“Normally we have contour maps, and I’m able to rely off those pretty easily. Unfortunately we don’t this week, and I understand that. I totally respect that, and you know, I like the challenge, actually.

“It’s kind of fun. I think going out there and trying to use your eyes as much as possible, get your sense of balance and where level is, it’s really a very unique skill. It’s a tough skill to develop and create, but one that if you can do that, then in other tournaments, too, using the contour maps, you can be really deadly with both of that, combined together.

“But here this week, it’s about really practicing and looking at slopes and making sure you can see the line go in the hole.”

DeChambeau talked of working for 14 hours last week in an attempt to solve a perceived issue with his wedge.

“I was hitting 125 shots out there on this system trying to figure out what was happening with the wedges, and we knew it was something in regards to the spin loft curve and us being on the wrong side of the spin loft curve, but we didn’t understand how to get it back on the correct side.

Important weapon

“And so after careful observation and some really deep, deep thinking about what’s happening and some cool depictions of how the club was moving through the ball, we started to realise it was something we could do with the shafts.

“And so we went the other way with my previous logic, which I don’t really want to give too much about it out, but we went the other way with the way I was previously thinking, and it actually started to work.”

There were a lot of nodding heads then, at DeChambeau’s lecture. And they were still nodding in affirmation, if not awe, of his play as he birdied the eighth hole of his second round to move to seven-under-par and, at that stage, two shots clear of anyone. He threatened to open a gap, to run clear.

There is a theory that the most important weapon in a golfer’s arsenal is when goes on in the headspace between the ears. And the danger is that a player would start to think too far ahead when his name is spied atop one of the giant white leaderboards with black lettering. DeChambeau couldn’t have escaped such a view as he made his way from the eight green.

Time took over, and won out. Within half and hour, DeChambeau’s emotions changed; and a bogey at the ninth and a double-bogey at the 10th – where a pulled approach into trees and bushes meant he only reached the green in four strokes on the Par 4 – saw him fall back to earth.

Another bogey on the 12th saw DeChambeau drop to three-under for the tournament, where he would remain when he putted out on the 18th green – flag left in the hole for both the (failed) birdie putt and tap-in par putt – as he shook Tucker’s hand and those of Dustin Johnson and Jason Day, players who had moved ahead and clear of him. DeChambeau signed for a 75, while Johnson posted a 70 and Day carded a 67.

DeChambeau had been given a lesson of his own in a second round that initially promised to take him a step closer towards a maiden Major title but ultimately brought torment, as he slipped and slid back into the clutches of the main field.