CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Bryson DeChambeau’s whirlwind weekend, which began at 2:45 a.m. Saturday on a private jet in Dallas, ended on a positive note with him beaming in the Queen City.
The Big Man from Big D had flown 1,000 miles westward after thinking he had missed the cut in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. He left the property Friday in a tie for 90th, after all. But midway through the flight, he was alerted that his status on the leaderboard was improving, and shortly after he landed in Texas, he learned he had made the cut on the number.
DeChambeau briefly thought of not going back to the tournament but almost instantly nixed that idea. He got in a workout, had a nice dinner, slept for five hours and rushed to make his 8:10 a.m. third round tee time.
And shot 3-under-par 68.
After sleeping 11 hours Saturday night, he felt a little groggy at the start of Sunday’s final round but perked up and posted another 68. After beginning the third round in a tie for 64th and starting the final round in a tie for 23rd, his 136 total on the weekend left him at 4 under for the tournament and in a tie for 10th when he left Sunday.
“It no doubt was worth it,” DeChambeau said about returning. “That’s what I was hoping to do this weekend when I was on that plane at 2:45 a.m. I wanted to make it worth it. I didn’t want to come out here and finish 60‑whatever, close to last.
“The cost wasn’t really anything I was worried about. I really didn’t want to disappoint Wells Fargo and Quail Hollow and the guys who put up this tournament and give so much to charity. And fans out here, didn’t want to disappoint them. That’s something that’s super important to me about growing the game. I would definitely make that expense twice, twice as much for me to get back here to do that again.”
His superb weekend earned him more World Ranking and FedEx Cup points and a tie for ninth would net him around $210,000. He also was especially pleased with his putting and chipping on the weekend and feels good heading into next week’s AT&T Byron Nelson.
However, he’s still trying to figure some minor issues with his driver.
“I’m going to go home and do a little cleanup work on my body and then tomorrow get right back at it with Chris (Como, his coach) trying to figure out this driver,” he said. “I try to play a draw, but it doesn’t always work out. Sometimes I get the high-right ball and then the snap left. I’ve got to work on keeping it consistent. We’re doing some interesting research at high ball speeds.
“There’s some stuff that’s not lining up with what we know currently right now, and it takes a robot to be able to see what’s going on. So we’re going to be doing research over the next few months to figure out how to get it to go straight at high ball speeds. It’s just not known right now.”