PGA Championship 2020

Robert Taylor, Freelance Writer

Can DeChambeau’s Power-Hitting Bring Glory at TPC Harding Park?
It’s been the story of golf over the past couple of months; one that has given way to conspiracy theories about steroids, a lot of praise, and a little bit of criticism. Bryson DeChambeau emerged from golf’s 90-day hiatus a different man – almost literally. He had gained around 30lbs of muscle, and put that extra strength to good use with some of the longest drives golf has ever seen. It has caused some to wonder whether the Californian will be seen as a blueprint to revolutionise the game.

Three stats tell us all you need to know about DeChambeau this season: Driving distance, 325 yards (1ston the PGA Tour); driving accuracy, 61.05% (112thon the PGA Tour); scoring average, 68.765, (2ndon the PGA Tour). In short, distance is paramount in DeChambeau’s eyes. And, while almost 4 in 10 drives go wayward, the scoring average shows that the lack of accuracy is more than compensated for by the distance achieved.

DeChambeau well-backed to win at Harding Park
It’s early days, of course, and we are not yet sure if we are seeing a good player become a great one. Bookmakers seem to believe this can be sustained, however. According to MansionBet’s golf betting page, DeChambeau is 11/1 second-favourite behind Rory McIlroy (8/1) to win the US PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park on next month. Other bookmakers have made DeChambeau the outright favourite ahead of the world number one.

Some might look at the above and think it is unremarkable for the current world number seven to be in contention for what will be the first major of the year. However, you have to bear in mind that this is a player whose record in the majors is, frankly, terrible. His best effort in a major was 15th spot back in 2016; he has never finished inside the top 30 in the PGA Championship, missed the cut at Bellerive in 2018 and at Bethpage (Black Course) in 2019.

The point is that bookmakers and, indeed, pundits have seen something remarkable in DeChambeau recently to put him right up the game’s current greats. We aren’t talking about a period of months here, but weeks. It’s quite the vote of confidence in DeChambeau’s new tactics, but some will still be left wondering if everyone is jumping the gun.

DeChambeau has had electric form since the restart
But there is reason to believe that DeChambeau can blow away the competition at Harding Park and, indeed, Winged Foot Golf Club at the US Open a month later. He has finished in the Top 8 in every event he has played in since the tour restarted. And, it’s also worth noting that he was playing some tidy rounds back in the early spring before the season was postponed.

And yet, as we know, golf’s majors can be unforgiving. We mentioned earlier about driving accuracy. And, for the course description of Harding Park featured on this site, we get the following: “Accuracy from the tee and precise approach shots into well-bunkered but not overly large greens is the key to scoring well.” The problem for DeChambeau, of course, is “accuracy from the tee”, and, as we mentioned above, he ranks outside the top 100 on the PGA Tour right now.

So, it’s going to be interesting to see how DeChambeau matches up against Harding Park on August 6th. If he does master the course and become a first-time major winner, there will be a lot of players hitting the gym to bulk up soon after. With his aggressive style of play, you feel that something has got to give. Only a couple of weeks until we find out whether it’s DeChambeau or the course.

Author: Robert Taylor, Freelance Writer

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