DUBLIN, Ohio – Everyone wants to take a look.
Even Tiger Woods.
On Wednesday it was Tiger’s turn to take a closer look personally at the phenomenon that is Bryson DeChambeau, he of 25 pounds of added muscle and otherworldly length.
Until his arrival this week, Woods had been away from the PGA Tour since his COVID-19 restart, so he was reduced to seeing the new Bryson in the same way as most of the world: on television.
Woods and DeChambeau played together in a practice round on Wednesday morning at the Muirfield Village Golf Club before Thursday’s inaugural round of the Memorial. DeChambeau revealed that he was the one who actually started the pairing, which lasted the first nine.
As expected, it was a fun theater.
And then, after it was over, DeChambeau, while praising Woods, inadvertently went to a place where few have dared to go with a couple of comments.
“In the past, it was,” said DeChambeau. “It was the golden star. He was the one everyone admired. ”
While DeChambeau meant nothing more than being complementary to Woods, it was impossible not to notice the past tense in his sentences.
Then there was this:
“Even now, it’s hitting him quite a bit,” DeChambeau said. “There was a couple of holes that hit 320, 325 [yards]. I’m like, that’s pretty good for his age. It is amazing for his age. ”
Yes, DeChambeau went there: “For his age”. Although he intended nothing more than reverence and not a shred of disrespect, his words dripped with involuntary condescension.
Woods, 44, didn’t hit his first driver of the round until the sixth hole, and DeChambeau’s drive landed 50 yards past Woods.
“I never imagined it would go that far,” said DeChambeau, 26.
Woods, in a brief interview after the practice round, said DeChambeau “hit a couple of good [drives]But nothing he stepped on because the first nine really don’t allow it. ”
On Tuesday, Woods praised DeChambeau’s transformation.
“What Bryson has done is not an easy task,” Woods said. “He has invested time and has done reps and discovered it.” It has become stronger, faster, bigger and has created more speed. But most importantly, it’s hitting him even more. But let’s look at the fact that it’s hitting him as directly as it is. That’s part of the hardest thing to do. ”
DeChambeau has been the subject of conversation on the PGA Tour since its restart and has become a lightning rod.
Most of the competitors have been complementary, but some have modified it.
“I feel like if I’m playing my game, he can hit it all he wants and I don’t think he’s going to beat me,” Dustin Johnson said Tuesday.
“I went from being a little skeptical about it to maybe saying a few things to realize that he was hitting me every week and I should probably shut up and start playing better for myself,” said Justin Thomas last week. “People don’t understand how difficult it is to hit him directly at that high speed. It’s pretty incredible. “
Patrick Cantlay, the defending Memorial champion who has paired with DeChambeau for the first two rounds, joked: “I will expect to play at least the second most of the time from the street. I’m waiting [DeChambeau] To get far ”.
He will do it.
“I don’t know if the guys who are currently on the Tour will do their best to try to go the distance, but I do think there are a lot of little kids looking at who might be in high school or even college or junior golf who are thinking to themselves: ‘Well if I can hit it very, very far, there is a definite advantage,’ ” Cantlay said. “So we could see that distance is an even more important factor in five or 10 years just because of the influence than [DeChambeau] can have in the younger generation. ”
That would be fine with DeChambeau.
“I am really interested in human progress and how much good I can do for the world,” he said. “It would be amazing to win every tournament, [but] I think being an advocate for change in a good way would be something I hope to be proud of for more than just winning every tournament. ”
At the moment, he is doing both.
.
