Every star in golf will grace Augusta National for this week’s unprecedented November Masters, rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tiger Woods, the defending champion and a five-time Masters winner, will be there.
Rory McIlroy, who needs a green jacket to become just the sixth player in the history of the sport to complete the career Grand Slam, will be there.
Dustin Johnson, the top-ranked player in the world, will be there.
Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas, the World Nos. 2 and 3, will be there.
Collin Morikawa, the fourth-ranked player in the world, who won the PGA Championship in August, will be there.
Brooks Koepka, who finished the 2019 season ranked No. 1, will be there.
So, too, will 50-year-old Phil Mickelson, winner of three Masters, who more recently won his first two Champions Tour events.
But the player on whom the eyes of the golf world will be fixated from the moment drives down Magnolia Lane until he leaves is Bryson DeChambeau.
And the question is this: Will DeChambeau break venerable Augusta National?
This question is raised based on what the 27-year-old did at Winged Foot in September, en route to winning the U.S. Open by six shots as the only player in the field to break par for the week.
In short, DeChambeau played Winged Foot like he didn’t have a care in the world about its narrow fairways and deep, lush, penal rough. He bombed and gouged his way around one of the most difficult golf courses in the world and looked as if he might lap the field at times. And he did it while hitting just 23 of 56 fairways.
So, this raises the question: What might DeChambeau — with his new bulked-up frame, added strength and swing speed — do to Augusta, which is a bomber’s paradise with wide fairways and no rough?
Since the PGA Tour restarted following the three-month COVID-19 shutdown in the spring, DeChambeau has been the most fascinating, talked-about player in the game.
He showed up at the PGA Tour’s first event back, the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial, a bulked-up version of his old self, saying he’d put on some 25 to 30 pounds of muscle. He has gone on to win twice, including the U.S. Open, and tied for fourth at the PGA Championship in August (the British Open was canceled this year).
When DeChambeau played the 2019 Masters, he weighed 195 pounds. He is believed to be weighing in at about 235 pounds now. He said recently his goal is to “get to 260 pounds and swing it upward of 210 mph and control the ball.”
At the 2019 Masters, DeChambeau finished 25th in driving distance at 299.25 yards per drive. As of Oct. 11, in his most recent event before the Masters, he led the PGA Tour at 344.4 yards per drive.
“I do know he might be the most talked-about person coming into a Masters since Dustin [Johnson] and his run some years ago or Tiger or Jack in their day,’’ ESPN analyst and two-time U.S. Open winner Curtis Strange said. “I think the world who follows the game thinks that Bryson is automatically going to win, and we know that’s the not case, but he’s pretty doggone good. And more than anything else, he’s full of confidence right now after winning the U.S. Open.’’
Bryson DeChambeau celebrates winning the U.S. Open.APFor the crowd that dismisses DeChambeau as a Neanderthal whose only skill is his strength and length, it should be noted that he led the U.S. Open field in putting. He, too, was a wizard scrambling, displaying a beautifully artful short game.
If he putts well at this week’s Masters, how low could DeChambeau go? How many shots could be win by? Is Tiger Woods’ record 12-shot win in 1997 in jeopardy?
DeChambeau announced to reporters at the last tournament he played, the Shriners Hospital for Children Open in Las Vegas last month, that he was going home to Texas to work on a 48-inch driver for the Masters that would add even more distance to his already ungodly length.
Some so-called purists have denounced DeChambeau’s power show. Fellow player Matthew Fitzpatrick recently ranted that “it’s not a skill to hit the ball a long way, in my opinion. … He’s just taking the skill out of it, in my opinion. I’m sure lots will disagree.’’
Jack Nicklaus, six-time Masters winner, is one of those who disagrees.
“What he has done is amazing,” Nicklaus said in a recent interview with Golf.com. “He’s figured out that distance is far more important than accuracy. Even at a U.S. Open. And he took a chance by doing what he did to build himself to a level to be able to do that. I give the guy great kudos. You develop skills that give you an advantage and that’s what he’s figured out.’’
The powers at Augusta National — who for years tried to “Tiger-proof’’ the course after Woods’ 1997 runaway — surely must be shuddering at the possibility of DeChambeau turning the fabled grounds into a pitch-and-putt.
“I’m most interested, of all the players next week, watching how Bryson will attack the golf course,’’ ESPN analyst Andy North said. “I watched him play an awful lot of golf at the U.S. Open, and watched him hit an awful lot of balls. You can watch it on TV, but until you’re standing next to him and actually watch the violence that he’s creating and how the golf ball leaves the club head, you can’t believe it. It is absolutely astounding.’’
This will be DeChambeau’s fourth Masters, and his third as a pro. Oddly, his best finish of the three previous was his first, when he finished tied for 21st as an amateur in 2016. In his two tries as a pro, he finished tied for 38th in 2018 and tied for 29th in 2019.
Every part of his game, as well as his confidence, is better now.
It’s showtime.




