AUGUSTA — It’s DeChambeau déjà vu at the Masters.
The question now is whether the biggest star on LIV Golf, and also possibly YouTube, can author a different ending. He believes his experience last year will help.
Bryson DeChambeau shot a 4-under 68 in the second round of the Masters on Friday and he's 7-under overall, one behind clubhouse leader Justin Rose.
DeChambeau was in a similar position last year, tied for the lead with eventual champion Scottie Scheffler and Max Homa heading into the third round. Then he shot a 3-over 75 and never got back into contention, finishing T6.
He went on to finish second at the PGA Championship and won his second U.S. Open. But winning at Augusta is different, and DeChambeau believes his time in contention last year prepared him for this moment.
“Experience always helps,” DeChambeau said when Sports Illustrated asked if he felt he was better prepared to win this year. “Winning the U.S. Open gives you a lot of confidence. You just have to hit the right shots under the right conditions at the right moment in time, and that's what allows you to win.”
DeChambeau is confident. There’s no doubt. Yet he’s still working on his swing—quite possibly as you're reading this right now. No one has hit more practice shots this week than DeChambeau.
He said he’s trying to hit a shot with “a little bit of an uppercut, or like a topspin shot in ping-pong,” and also revealed that he’s opening his putter up more because he was pulling putts in the weeks leading up to the Masters.
That putter adjustment was this week. The uppercut tweak move is ongoing.
“I've got a lot going on up in there,” DeChambeau said of his various swing thoughts. “You wouldn't want to be in there.”
Yet everyone in the field outside of Rose would love to be where DeChambeau now finds himself. He loves it, too.
At the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, DeChambeau was in a tie for second heading into the third round one stroke behind the leader, the same place he finds himself today. We all know how that ended.
DeChambeau shot a 67 in the third round that Saturday to take a three-shot lead. On Sunday, he held off Rory McIlroy, who missed two short putts down the stretch.
DeChambeau has spoken at length this week about a few lucky breaks can be the difference in a major—maybe a bounce here or a missed putt there. But it's clear that DeChambeau is more prepared to win his first green jacket today than he was a year ago.
“I think grounding yourself is super important, realizing where you're at, knowing how many holes you have left, knowing there's a lot of golf left,” he said. “Not getting too far ahead of yourself is important, and that's something that you have to learn over the course of time with a lot of experience.
“You have to put yourself in position. You have to fail. You have to lose. You have to win. You have to come from behind. You have to hold the lead. All those expectations and feelings have to get conquered in your mind. That's why this game is played between—between your ears.”
Sounds like a man ready to write a storybook ending.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bryson DeChambeau Is Now More Prepared to Win Masters After Last Year's Heartache.
