Bryson DeChambeau hailed the latest vindication of his unique method after claiming a remarkable fourth win in his last nine events with a commanding victory in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
DeChambeau carded a closing 64 at Emirates Golf Club to set a new tournament record of 24 under par and finish seven shots clear of England’s Matt Wallace.
Wallace birdied the 18th to shoot 68 and claim outright second, a shot ahead of Ryder Cup team-mates Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia, 2011 champion Alvaro Quiros and England’s Paul Waring.
Shane Lowry meanwhile rounded off another good week with a final round of 67 - leaving him on 14 under par for the tournament.
Lowry made eight birdies on Sunday, bogeying the first and double-bogeying the par four sixth.
Beginning the day with a one-shot lead, DeChambeau made the ideal start with a hat-trick of birdies and put the result beyond doubt with an eagle from just six feet on the 10th and another birdie on the next.
The 25-year-old briefly gave the chasing pack a glimmer of hope with a bogey on the 12th following an errant drive, but birdied the 13th, 14th and 17th to seal an emphatic triumph.
“It’s incredible to get my first win overseas on the European Tour,” said the world number five. “Today I was happy with my game. I executed a lot of great shots.
“It was obviously a lot of fun to be able to finally hoist an international trophy, I’m so happy about that. I was trying to shoot 25 under today and missed it by one, but I’m happy with the results for sure.”
DeChambeau joined Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore in winning the NCAA and US Amateur titles in the same season in 2015, while his opening 64 in Abu Dhabi the following year had playing partner Chris Paisley labelling him as “quite possibly the most impressive player I have ever seen”.
The physics graduate describes himself as a “golfing scientist” and famously plays with a set of irons all cut to the same length, while he is also known to float his golf balls in Epsom salts to check if they are perfectly round.
“It’s a lot of hard work with my caddie, just really grinding and trying to figure out how to take account of all the variables out there,” DeChambeau said of his approach to the game.
“Whether it’s air pressure, firmness values, mph on the ball speed, spin rates...we’re trying to figure out as much as possible so I can be as consistent as possible and obviously it’s showing.
“I think it’s a little bit vindicating that I’m able to come out and have such success like this on multiple tours, so I’m very proud, happy and thankful as well.”
Although DeChambeau will not move up in the world rankings on the back of this win, he will close the gap on the four players above him and has his sights set on Justin Rose in top spot.
“I’ve got to keep working on my game and focus on what I can do out there and what I can improve on,” he added. “If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it’s no biggy. I’ll just keep working harder.”
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Omega Dubai Desert Classic (Gbr & Irl unless stated, Par 72):
(a) denotes amateurs
264 Bryson DeChambeau (USA) 66 66 68 64
271 Matt Wallace 70 64 69 68
272 Haotong Li (Chn) 67 67 67 71, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 66 70 70 66, Paul Waring 67 70 71 64, Ian Poulter 67 71 70 64, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 64 71 68
273 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 67 67 71 68, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 69 63 72 69, Justin Harding (Rsa) 70 68 72 63, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 69 67 68 69, Lee Westwood 67 70 69 67
274 Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 65 70 71, Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 70 68 68 68, Shane Lowry 69 67 71 67
275 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 66 70 68 71, Romain Wattel (Fra) 68 70 70 67, Tommy Fleetwood 68 70 68 69, Matthew Fitzpatrick 65 70 70 70
276 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 68 73 69 66, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 68 70 72 66, Romain Langasque (Fra) 66 70 74 66, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 72 66 74 64
277 Andrew Johnston 72 69 65 71, Ross Fisher 69 69 69 70, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 66 68 72 71, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 67 72 67, Bradley Dredge 68 68 71 70
278 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 72 68 67 71, Adri Arnaus (Spa) 68 68 72 70, Aaron Rai 70 68 72 68, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 71 69 70 68, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 72 68 69 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 69 66 72 71, Victor Perez (Fra) 70 70 67 71, Jordan Smith 68 68 69 73, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 72 69 68 69
279 Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 71 70 69 69, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 75 65 71 68, Ashun Wu (Chn) 71 68 69 71, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 71 70 69 69, Tyrrell Hatton 69 70 71 69, Eddie Pepperell 72 67 69 71, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 71 67 70 71, George Coetzee (Rsa) 70 65 71 73, Kim Koivu (Fin) 67 68 72 72
280 Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 66 71 74 69
281 Tom Lewis 68 72 71 70, Scott Hend (Aus) 66 70 75 70, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 70 69 73 69, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 69 72 72 68, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 74 67 67 73, Thomas Detry (Bel) 68 68 74 71, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 70 70 71 70
282 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 71 68 73 70
283 Richie Ramsay 69 72 67 75, Callum Shinkwin 66 68 75 74, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 69 67 75 72, Chris Paisley 73 68 72 70, Sam Brazel (Aus) 71 70 74 68
284 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 73 66 71 74, Shaun Norris (Rsa) 72 69 72 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 72 73 70
285 Wade Ormsby (Aus) 67 69 77 72, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 69 72 69 75, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 67 74 71 73
286 Stephen Gallacher 68 72 76 70, Ashley Chesters 72 69 72 73
287 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 67 74 75 71, Matthew Southgate 71 70 77 69
289 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 71 69 75 74, Marc Warren 70 71 76 72
291 Nino Bertasio (Ita) 68 71 78 74
