Bryson DeChambeau plays a shot from the 10th tee during a practice round prior to the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on Monday in Augusta, Georgia. Photo: VCG
US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau blasted routine tee shots 325 yards (297.18 meters) on the back nine Monday in his first official practice round for the 84th Masters, serving notice to Augusta National of his intent to overpower the famed course.
While the 27-year-old American didn't break the Masters layout as some feared after his US Open romp, he certainly made a dent in it, using pitching wedges into the same Amen Corner holes that playing partner Tiger Woods told him he used during his 1997 Masters win.
"I've had to relearn the golf course," DeChambeau told The Golf Channel.
"There are so many holes that play so differently for me."
DeChambeau, who says he plays the par-72 layout as a par-67, found all fairways except at 18, where he went over a left-side fairway bunker and still had a clear shot at the green.
"All my misses have been pretty straight," he said.
"I want to keep it that way."
Instead of playing the front nine, DeChambeau went back to the practice range, working out with his driver, only 45.5 inches instead of the 48-inch one he threatened to unveil this week after devastating Winged Foot in September's US Open.
"It's not right. I won't use it until it's right," DeChambeau said. "There's always the next Masters."
DeChambeau, who bulked up his physique during golf's COVID-19 layoff from March to June, never faced a shot into a green beyond 185 yards.
The scientist golfer favors distance above all else, ignoring possible deep rough for distance and position. With only minor rough at the Masters, the stage could be set for an epic overpowering of the course.
"He's trying to just take everything out of play," said fellow ball-basher Matthew Wolff, the 21-year-old US Open runner-up.
"The way that me, Bryson and other people are going with hitting it longer, my goal is to not overpower a golf course. It just so happens that sometimes I can do that because I do hit the ball far."
Virus-stricken Garcia out While the approaches and putts must still be top grade, rivals like Patrick Cantlay appreciate the edge extra length gives DeChambeau.
"It has been impressive," Cantlay said. "I think this place probably fits it about as good as any place. It doesn't surprise me he's hitting it much farther than other guys and having success."
DeChambeau and Woods, the 15-time major champion trying for his record 83rd US PGA victory and record-tying sixth Masters title, were joined on the back nine for the afternoon by 1992 Masters winner Fred Couples and 2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas.
DeChambeau's buzz mixed with the shock exit of 2017 winner Sergio Garcia after the 40-year-old Spaniard tested positive for COVID-19.
Garcia, coming off his first US PGA win since the Masters last month, said Monday he tested positive after missing the cut in last week's Houston Open, the first US-based PGA event to have spectators with 2,000 allowed each day.
"On Saturday night after driving back from the Houston Open, I started feeling a bit of a sore throat and a cough," Garcia tweeted.
"The symptoms stayed with me on Sunday morning so I decided to get tested for COVID-19 and so did my wife Angela. Thankfully she tested negative, but I didn't."
For the first time in history, the Masters is taking place in November rather than its traditional April slot following disruption to the season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which also has forced a ban on spectators.
Quick-study MorikawaPGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa fancies himself a quick study when it comes to solving golf courses, and he's not treating his debut at formidable Augusta National any differently.
The 23-year-old American captured his first major title in August at Harding Park in his PGA debut and likes his odds of walking away from the 84th Masters with a green jacket as the first debut winner since 1979.
"I'm not afraid of any course out here and I think that's kind of the mind set," Morikawa said Monday. "I can go out and dissect a course and figure out what's my best opportunity to shoot a good score.
"I do a really good job Monday through Wednesday, so I showed up today, got my 18 holes in, and I'm trying to figure out what I need to work on and get prepped for."
Not since Fuzzy Zoeller did it 41 years ago has a player won his first Masters start. Knowledge has often meant power at Augusta National, with experience paying off in knowing where to hit the ball and how putts will break.
"Even though I haven't played the Masters before. I'm comfortable coming out here," Morikawa said.
"Experience never hurts. I wish I had played here 15, 20 times. Wish I had that knowledge, but I don't. For now I have to feel like I can still compete with these guys."