Bryson DeChambeau never really left. I mean, how could he?
It’s been almost six weeks since we last heard from the big man. Six weeks since DeChambeau reached the final eight of the World Long Drive Championships in Mesquite, Nev. — an effort as much for his own doing as it was for the sport he almost single-handedly propped. Six weeks since he rode off into the sunset for the beginning of his “offseason” with a Ryder Cup victory in his back pocket and a whole lotta road dust from almost 18 straight months on the move.
But even in his quiet moments, DeChambeau has a preternatural capability to cultivate our attention. Over these last six weeks, he’s done that largely over Instagram, where he is a regular poster, sharer and commenter. He’s posted coy videos about “figuring something out,” quick shots of his speed-training, and even a deep dive into his prototype driver and new, 3D-printed irons.
Yes, it’s been an “offseason” for Bryson, but in the Wild World of the Flat Cap, the music never really stops.
On Thursday afternoon, DeChambeau dialed the volume up just a little bit louder. The shift could be heard at 2 p.m. ET, when Bleacher Report posted a video showing the big man swinging his driver from the roof of a skyscraper in Las Vegas, ostensibly attempting to hit a giant, printed version of Brooks Koepka’s smiling face.
The video was shared as a preamble to The Match, which is returning to its inaugural date — the Friday after Thanksgiving — for another big-named bout. This time, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have given way to a newer generation of golf stars: Bryson and Brooks (though Phil will still be present in this year’s iteration from the broadcast booth).
In the video, the 2020 U.S. Open champ is faced with a particularly Brysonian task — a 521-yard drive from the roof of the Wynn Hotel. The target, which sits some 650 feet below on Wynn Golf Club (the site of next week’s Match), is sprawled across a fairway.
Now, it doesn’t take a physics major to understand that the ball travels farther when launched from a target several hundred feet in the air, or that the desert elevation of nearly 2,000 feet helps, too. But still, the visual is pretty spectacular: a man, a hitting mat, a driver and some golf balls.
Bryson struggles at first, knocking a few in close proximity to the Koepka-adorned target, but not anything on the target itself.
“Just wait guys, I’m getting comfortable still,” he says.
After a hokey first few swings fall well short, DeChambeau locks in, hyping himself up as he mashes balls closer to the target.
Finally, he blasts one on the perfect line and … hits his ball over the target, sending it rolling into the fairway beyond.
It’s all a fitting look for The Match, which has grown increasingly in favor of spectacle in the years since its first run in Vegas. You can check out the full video below; and if you’re looking to tune into the action, you can find it on Friday, Nov. 26 at 4 p.m. ET on TNT.
