With a career-best round of 9-under-par 62 in the opening day of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Bryson DeChambeau is feeling good as he makes what will likely be his only start before next month’s Masters.
The newly crowned US Open winner hit 16 greens in regulation and gave himself 5 eagle putts after reaching the three par-5s in two and driving two par-4s.
“There’s no wind out here for the most part and you feel like you can bomb it everywhere and hit wedges close,” said DeChambeau. “And I was lucky enough to make a lot of putts to start off my day.”
With nine birdies and nine pars, DeChambeau leads by one ahead of five players and is confident of adding more silverware to his collection.
“There are opportunities for others to play better than me, when I’m playing my best. I’m not going to throw that out of the equation,” he said.
“But what I will say is that I’m playing well and I feel like I have my golf swing under control and putting well – I’m making a lot of putts.
“I feel like I can shoot low on a lot of golf courses, and usually that wins tournaments.”
Italy’s Francesco Molinari marked his return to competition with a 1-under-par 70 to sit in a share of 106th place.
Staggering
Meanwhile DeChambeau revealed he has been producing ‘staggering’ results with a 48-inch driver and plans to take a month off to hone his new weapon before potentially unleashing it at Augusta.
“It looks like a missile coming off the face,” he said. “It’ll be going pretty fast but I won’t disclose the specifics right now, I don’t want to ruffle any feathers.”
“If I can get it dialed in and get the mis-hits working correctly, I feel like I can easily put that in play at Augusta.”
