Golf

Bryson DeChambeau has caught his breath, ready for AT&T Byron Nelson and PGA Championship


Bryson DeChambeau has an easy commute this week.

“It’s 27 minutes with no traffic on the toll roads, so not too bad,” DeChambeau said Wednesday of his route from his Dallas home to TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, home to this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson.

Sure beats last week’s commute. Thinking he had missed the cut in the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, DeChambeau flew home some 1,000 miles to begin prep work for this week. Turned out he made the cut on the number and at 2:45 a.m. CT Saturday, he was on a private jet again for the 1,000-mile trip back to North Carolina and rushed to make his 8:10 a.m. ET tee time.

DeChambeau shot 68-68 on the weekend and his tie for ninth netted him $228,825 to blunt his expensive mistake of leaving early.

He has caught his breath and is ready to navigate his way around TPC Craig Ranch, which is making its PGA Tour debut. DeChambeau is familiar with the Tom Weiskopf track, having played it a dozen times during his days at Southern Methodist University.

From the sounds of things, the course is right up DeChambeau’s alley.

“I like the golf course because the greens are in such great conditions. They’re bent. I love bent greens. They rolled pure today. They rolled so good. Made a lot of putts out there in the pro-am,” he said. “The golf course is for the most part wide open. There are areas you have got to be precise, but for the most part it’s a bomber’s paradise. Hopefully that plays into my hands. If I can hit it somewhat straight and have 190 ball speed, it’s going to be pretty helpful on par-5s.

“It was wet and rainy out here today and I had driver 7-iron and then driver 4-iron into 12 and 18 (both par 5s.) So if I can just get my irons good and driver good, little bit better than last week, I feel like I can be in contention.”

DeChambeau is certainly a bomber – he leads the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee, SG: Tee-to-Green and in driving distance (322.1 yards). Other parts of his game are working just fine, too, as the No. 4-ranked player in the world is one of just two players – Stewart Cink being the other – to have multiple victories this season. DeChambeau won the U.S. Open at rugged Winged Foot in the fall and captured the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.

Through it all, he’s continued to chase speed and gain strength. He said his calorie intake is down to between 4,500-5,000 per day – “It’s nothing crazy,” he said – and he’s down from 240 pounds to 230 pounds.

“I’m just sustaining that right now and trying to get stronger,” he said. “Just want my muscles to be firing a lot faster and more stable.”

DeChambeau also has his eyes on next week’s PGA Championship on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island. He’s never played the course and only seen it on TV when he watched Rory McIlroy win the 2012 PGA Championship there in 2012.

“I feel like I’m ramping up,” he said. “Every time I’ve (played) a few weeks in a row, that third or fourth week I seem to play pretty well. Hopefully this week kind of solidifies it, and maybe I play well and win this week and I am feeling really good going into next week.

“(McIlroy) played really well out there, and I think his game, his length, is a tremendous advantage, as well as mine hopefully will be next week. I think it’s one of the longest championships we’ve ever played. And I’m excited for that, because any time it’s a super long golf course I think it fits into my hand quite nicely.”



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