PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Bryson DeChambeau admits he’s working on something; he says he needs help.
But on Friday at the Open, he seemed to have everything figured out.
After a disappointing (and surprising) opening round of 7-over 78, DeChambeau said that dejection got the better of him.
“I want to go home,” he said when asked how he felt after his first round. “But I woke up this morning and I said, y’know what, I can’t give up. My dad always told me never to give up, just got to keep going, and that’s what I did today.”
DeChambeau hadn’t made a single birdie on Thursday, but on Friday, he made ’em in bunches, seven on the day, hitting his irons close and giving himself look after look en route to six-under 65.
“I was proud of the way I fought back, really persevered through some emotionally difficult moments, and to hold myself together and not get pissed and slam clubs and throw things and all that like I wanted to, I was very proud of myself,” he said.
DeChambeau’s 78-65 means he’ll enter the weekend at 1 over par, proud of his fight but still well off the lead. And he insisted after his round that he still has yet to solve the riddle that is links golf.
“There wasn’t much different,” he said with a shrug when asked to explain the difference between Thursday and Friday. “That’s why links golf is the way links golf is.”
But DeChambeau has hardly given up on solving the problem; he’s been busy hunting solutions. One hawkeyed reporter asked DeChambeau about a ball he’d seen him testing earlier in the week.
“I’m using a different golf ball?” DeChambeau said, taken aback, then grinning. “You are so good at asking questions.”
DeChambeau has teased in the past that he’s dreaming of a golf ball better suited for his game. On Friday, he dived a bit deeper into what exactly he’s chasing.
“I’m working with somebody that’s going to get me a ball that works better for my speeds. Hopefully there’s some more improvements to be made there. That’s something I hope to complete in the next year,” he said.
“I need help out here. I hit it way too high. I’ve tried to lower my flight, but I compress down on it really hard and I spin it like crazy, and then on my wedges I don’t spin it. It launches high with no spin. I’m working on a few things that’ll help get that launch down while controlling the spin so it’s more predictable out of my wedge shots.
“That’s what I was kind of working on and seeing if there was a more stable ball in windy conditions early in the week. There’s not. But I’m working with somebody that I’ve already seen improvements on. It’s just not ready to be released, unfortunately. They can’t make enough as quickly as they’d like. But it’s coming; it’ll be here, worst case scenario September, but an iteration of it in the next couple weeks. Not in time for this week, but I’m going to give it my all this weekend.”
DeChambeau’s Open record is uneven, particularly compared with the success he’s found at other major venues; he has just one finish better than T33. So would the ball be links golf-specific?
“Most likely for everything,” he said. “I need a golf ball that on wedges can click on the face more consistently. I get a lot of slipping on the face just because of how vertical I am and how much loft I have, and it just rolls up the face and launches with no spin most of the time on my shots, so getting something that comes off at a more consistent trajectory in adverse conditions is really the goal.”
Consistent trajectory in adverse conditions all but sums up the challenge of playing this championship. It sounds like DeChambeau knows what he needs to do, and in benign conditions on Friday, he proved he can do it. We’ll see if he can keep solving the puzzle this weekend — or whether he’ll need a little help to take the next step.
