DeChambeau triumph heralds era of muscle
“My name is Mark and I think Bryson DeChambeau is a great golfer”. There, I’ve said it. Months of repressed angst, worrying about my secret admiration for an era defining golfer. The relief, in coming out, is palpable a feeling I suspect not shared by Bryson who doesn’t seem particularly troubled by self- doubt. All of which places him in a group of pantomime villains of which Patrick Reed is possibly lead husky.
After two rounds of the 120th US Open over the brutal Winged Foot golf course the stage was set for a villain’s shoot out with Dechambeau and Reed at the top of the pile within a shot of one another. Then in round three Reed, had a meltdown, and dropped from proceedings like a stone. Meanwhile DeChambeau maintained his steady form only for Matthew Wolff to steal the limelight by gaining a two-shot lead going into yesterday’s final round.
Much has been written about Bryson James Aldrich DeChambeau, the golfer who, like his name, has always sought to defy convention. In the pre Covid era he won the 2015 US Amateur championship using clubs with shafts that were all the same length. He applied science to the mechanics of the golf swing and an attention to detail in course management that bordered on excess. He entered lockdown as a talented eccentric with eight professional golf titles and side-lines in occasional petulance and grindingly slow play.
When in June lockdown ended so, like a dragonfly from its chrysalis, did Bryson emerge, unrecognisable as an incredible hulk. Furthermore he now swung the club with such aggression that it seemed only a matter of time before he literally swung himself off his feet. But unlike fellow freak show “Long Drivers” - whose distance he apes – he hits the ball straight. More importantly he can finesse a mid-iron, has touch around the greens and, for all its lack of elegance, a highly effective putting stroke. Here writ large was the ultimate golfing machine, taking the game into a new era and in so doing beyond the reach of the vast majority of those against whom he was vying.
What to say? Like it or not as US Open final rounds goes his was faultless and in recent times one of the best. It smacked of Tiger Woods in his pomp and DeChambeau more than deserved his first major triumph. But whilst we can marvel at the manner of his victory where does it leave the wider game of golf?
Uppermost in the chat rooms will be the ongoing debate about limiting the distance a golf ball can be hit. For what it’s worth Jack Nicklaus is one of its most respected advocates.
In the UK all our Open championship venues date from the days when you played them with a wooden stick and a gutta-percha. Other than at possibly Portrush, Turnberry and Royal St Georges there is little extra space on which to extend them. So unless the wind blows they are now essentially defenceless. In America there is clearly more space allied to a greater willingness to embrace the onward march of ever longer golf courses. Thus do they continue to create monsters that still offer a challenge to the longer hitters and as long as that circumstance prevails there will be little desire to limit ball distance. Only at the point that they humiliate Augusta National, by turning the US Masters into a pitch and putt, will change finally occur.
Until then creaming the ball as far as you can hit it will become the norm. Which is bad luck for Matt Fitzpatrick.
©Mark Brennand