Winning at LIV Golf Korea felt particularly important for Bryson DeChambeau ahead of the PGA Championship after he had struggled to get across the line for several weeks beforehand – including at The Masters.
Bryson DeChambeau is one of the big favourites to win the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Not only has he found a way to peak in the majors over the last 18 months, but he has also been playing extremely well for some time now.
DeChambeau had golden opportunities to win Miami and Mexico City. On both occasions, the 31-year-old failed to get the job done. And it was a similar story at The Masters, with DeChambeau leading the tournament after two holes of the final round.
DeChambeau ended up posting a 75 to end up in a tie for fifth. And it was quite clear that his iron game was the biggest problem he had around Augusta National.
What Patrick Reed’s caddie has said about Bryson DeChambeau’s iron game after The Masters
Trevor Immelman believes DeChambeau will win majors this year should he address the problems he had with distance control at the first major of the year.
But speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that there is confidence amongst those who watch DeChambeau more regularly that his problems that week will not continue to plague him.
“He hits his driver so good. He hits it so long and so straight, it’s all going to come down to his irons. And it was interesting, I was talking to Kessler, obviously he caddies for Patrick Reed and he sees Bryson week-in and week-out, and I asked him, I said, hey, is there anything with his iron game that you’ve picked up on that you feel was maybe something that you’ve seen over the past year or so of why at Augusta it went off the rails a little bit, or why at times it feels like that’s something that’s holding him back to winning again in a major championship? And he said no,” he said.
“If anything, it was just kind of the lies that he would say would be the issue at Augusta. His clubs are the exact same length, maybe that could give him some issue. But overall, he said that’s something that he felt like was a bit of an outlier and not something that he would consider to be such a big problem, something that they see week-in, week-out that we haven’t picked up on.”
The problem Tiger Woods’ former coach spotted with Bryson DeChambeau’s swing at Augusta
Those words will encourage those tipping DeChambeau for a good week at Quail Hollow. But perhaps there may indeed be a larger issue that he needs to tackle if he wants to beat the likes of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler again.
Speaking after The Masters, Hank Haney said he cannot believe DeChambeau has not yet addressed a problem with his swing.
“DeChambeau didn’t have anything pretty much all day. Nothing but a hook, and then I heard him on the mic one time saying, ‘I can’t hold it off’, he’s talking about holding off the hook through the shot. ‘I’m trying to, I just can’t hold it off’, is what he said, mumbling to his caddie. I thought to myself, bud, you’re 100 yards across the line at the top of your swing, your club’s so far pointed across the line, you’re not going to hold it off from there, that club’s going to whip-shot on you every single time,” he said.
“I can’t believe he doesn’t fix that. As smart as that guy is, I can’t believe he doesn’t fix that. Love to watch him play, my favourite player to watch, Bryson DeChambeau, love his attitude, love how he interacts with the fans, love how he much loves to play, love how hard he works. Didn’t have it though.”
Of course, if any player has put in the time since The Masters to correct some issues, it will be DeChambeau.
No-one has used the quieter LIV Golf schedule to their advantage more over the last few years. So it would not be a surprise to see his iron game prove to be a real strength in North Carolina.
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