Augusta National cuts Incredible Hulk down to size

OPINION: It was a very rewarding day at Augusta National.

Turns out the green jacket won’t sit on the biggest, strongest shoulders, not if they belong to a guy who has no idea where that little white ball is going.

Bryson DeChambeau, the Incredible Hulk of golf courses, came to the Masters speaking boldly of mastering one of golf’s holiest courses.

Instead, they narrowed it down to size.

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* The Masters: the boastful Bryson DeChambeau reduced to size by the complicated Augusta course

DeChambeau spent Friday spraying shots all over the field, his frustration threatening to spill over at any moment like the fictional Hulk.

He even managed to lose a ball in a really strange way.

Then there was Abraham Ancer, measuring 1.72 m and 72 kg, about the size of one of DeChambeau’s forearms.

The 29-year-old Mexican ranked far down the list in driving distance, his average of 279.5 yards more than half a football field behind DeChambeau’s moon shots.

But Ancer had a much better idea of ​​where his ball would end up. And when he left the field at the end of the second round, he had a 135 of 9-under on his scorecard that gave him a share of the incomplete 36-hole lead.

“I really didn’t do my best off the tee,” Ancer said. “But I was able to play really well and made some birdie putts, which is what kept me in the game. I played par 3 really well. “

Those are the shortest holes, of course, but they are usually the most devilish. It’s about touch, not strength.

Ancer birdied three of them during the second round, a big reason the Masters rookie left the field tied for the lead.

DeChambeau will simply attempt to make the cut when he returns on Sunday (NZT) to complete his last six holes of his second round. He played the first dozen in 3 more, leaving him a whopping 10 strokes behind Ancer and another three at the top of the rankings.

Hardly what was expected of a guy who has transformed his body into something akin to an NFL middle linebacker, who dominated the US Open field at Winged Foot to capture his first major title, who shamelessly put on par at Augusta 67 instead of 72.

“I can hit all par 5s in two, no problem,” boasted DeChambeau, who has tried to normalize the idea of ​​400-yard runs and swing speeds that can hold up against an Indy race car.

If Augusta’s four par 5s turn into par 4s on DeChambeau’s presumptuous scorecard, that surely means that the third hole, at 350 yards, by far the shortest par 4 on the course, is marked up to a par 3 at the Mammoth Tee Shot Emporium in Bryson.

Well, you won’t believe what happened in number 3.

Breathing out loud before his club spun at terrifying speed, DeChambeau aimed his driver down the left side of the fairway, the green clearly in his sights.

But the ball shot farther to the left than it intended, landing in a thick patch of grass that was still wet from this week’s heavy rain. It was traveling with such force that it drove deep into the ground.

DeChambeau and 15 other people (officials, workers, anyone else who was in the meager gallery of this Masters without sponsors) roamed the lawn for a full three minutes, poking and poking the ground.

No ball.

“When you have Bryson hitting as hard as he hits, it’s like a hook without much spin in a soft area … we were all sure it was pretty buried and would be hard to find,” said playing partner Jon Rahm, who also joined. to the hunt group.

Since there were no immediate reports of him appearing on the other side of the world either, DeChambeau stayed behind to take the Walk of Shame. A car took him back to the tee to hit again. He ended up making a triple-bogey 7 on a hole that has returned an average score of 3,966.

(FWIW, Golf.com reported that the ball was found about 10 minutes later by a gallery guard, no more than 10 feet from the fairway, but only visible to someone right above it.)

When you combine the triple-bogey with another 7 on Thursday, when DeChambeau drove one behind a pine tree, took the next shot into some azalea bushes, hit a provisional at Rae’s Creek, found his first ball, threw a chip penalty and ended up making double bogey on the third easiest hole on the course; it’s easy to see why you are in the situation you are in.

It doesn’t matter that he has nine birdies on his card and first place on the entire field in driving distance, 12 meters above the next man.

While DeChambeau was making a mess, Bernhard Langer, 63, methodically made his way across the field.

The diminutive German is ranked 88th out of 91 players in driving distances, but is tied for third in driving precision, losing just three lanes in the first two rounds.

The result: Langer is 3 short and is sure to become the oldest player in Masters history to make the cut.

“I handled the ball well and kicked quite well, and that kept me there even though I’m hitting really long sticks,” Langer said. “I like this golf course. I think I know how to get around it, even though I hit very long clubs. But it is certainly not easy. It is the place of a long hitter. Always has been.”

Fortunately, there is more to Augusta than who hits the furthest.

We got a reminder of that on Saturday.

No offense to DeChambeau, but that was very reassuring.