Bryson DeChambeau has always done things his own way but even he is taking it a little far at this year's Masters. In February he suffered a hairline fracture of a bone in his left hand when he fell over playing table tennis against Sergio Garcia during a tournament in Jeddah.
His doctors and his coaches told him he should take the next four months off to recover but here he is teeing up at Augusta National despite their advice. "It was a huge risk," he said, "but I decided to do so because I wanted to give this tournament a run." He says his game is at about 80 per cent.
It is not just his hand; he has a hip injury, too, a partial tear in the cartilage because of his extreme clubhead speed and strength training regimen.
His world ranking has dropped back to No 14 now and he says himself that his buildup to this year’s tournament feels very different from how it did in November 2020, when he came here off the back of his six-shot victory in the US Open at Winged Foot.
“Coming here in the fall for that Masters, a lot of eyes were on me, and it was a different expectation level and definitely uncomfortable for me because I had never experienced that,” DeChambeau said. But this year, “coming off an injury, not being really fully ready it’s kind of been nice going into this year’s Masters just peacefully.”
He admits it helps, too, that Tiger Woods is now taking up all the attention with his own comeback. Woods' gallery is so big that DeChambeau says the atmosphere surrounding everyone else almost feels relaxing in comparison.
“It’s very, very exciting to have him back. It creates a lot of hype and whatnot. From the driving range, we could hear the loud roar when he came out of the clubhouse up to that first tee.”
He has tried to get in touch with Phil Mickelson, too, after the recent scandal about his comments on doing business with the Saudi regime. "I've tried to reach out but he's gone dark. There's no contact," DeChambeau said.
His results here have been underwhelming since he finished 21st on his debut in 2016, when he was the low amateur. It would be a hell of an achievement if he does better than 21st this week. – Guardian
