SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Heading into his first start at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Bryson DeChambeau found the source of some of his recent scoring woes: he was hitting the ball too good.
According to DeChambeau, lengthy range sessions led to a “wear mark” on some of his irons that caused him to get inconsistent results, including missed cuts in each of his last two starts.
“Every once in a while I was catching some fliers off of the face with some inconsistent smash factors, and it was just piercing through the wind these last couple weeks, and unfortunately that led to some unfortunate mistakes,” DeChambeau said. “But we switched clubs and I got some fresh grooves in the bag and was able to be a lot more consistent this week.”
Those grooves have worked wonders through two rounds of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where ball-striking that DeChambeau described as “incredible” has given him a share of the 36-hole lead at 10 under alongside Rickie Fowler.
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DeChambeau tends to employ a cerebral approach, but that was put to the test this week on a course that he had barely seen. The second-year player only played the front nine during Wednesday’s pro-am, and he didn’t hit a shot on the famed par-3 16th until his opening round.
As it turns out, less experience isn’t always a bad thing.
“What’s really funny is when I don’t play the golf course very much, I go out there with no mindset of trouble or even where to be really, and it frees me up, actually,” he said. “So whatever reason, not playing golf courses has just aided to my benefit.”
Source: Internet
