19th Hole
Is this the real reason behind Bryson DeChambeau’s total loss of form?

In last week’s column, Rich Hunt identified his 23 players who can win the Masters, with his final ten picks including both eventual champion Jon Rahm and 54-hole leader and tied-second, Brooks Koepka.
At the start of the piece, Rich quickly dismissed 14 of the 18 LIV players “based on their most recent performances on the PGA Tour as well as how well the player has played on the LIV Tour.” They included the 2020 U.S Open champion and former world number four, Bryson DeChambeau.
Once the darling of the long-hitters, the 29-year-old has admitted he is currently “working on stuff,” – a nod to the contents of his 2023 golf bag – but it remains that he has not won since the 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational and looks a far cry from the player that, just under three years ago, recorded a six-shot romp at Winged Foot.
Posting on Twitter as Hunt Golf Analytics, Rich posted the reasons he believes Bryson has failed to progress, concentrating on his iron play.
The post starts by saying that, after the pandemic, BDC was the “best driver of the ball on Tour who was doing a reasonably good job on approach shots and around the green & was putting really well,” before looking at the Power-To Putting Principle, a method he wrote about in a column in 2019.
The Power-to-Putting Principle is that there's a strong correlation between distance off the tee and the length of average birdie putts. This mainly comes from par-5's and dogleg par-4's where long hitters get the biggest advantage. pt3
— Hunt Golf Analytics (@Richie3Jack) April 7, 2023
Rich suggests that, “They’re [long hitters] more likely to make shorter length putts than superior putters of the ball are to make longer putts,” before saying that, “if you have arguably the longest hitter on Tour and he’s putting great, that means a lot of birdie putts are going to fall because they are higher% putts being made by a superior putter of the ball.”
The Twitter post mentions some of the past golfing legends, “were often very long off the tee and good putters (Bobby Jones, Palmer, Seve, Greg Norman, Nicklaus, Watson, Tiger, etc)” before analyzing Bryson’s current issue.
But one of the things Bryson has had some issues with is his iron play. After his hot streak after the pandemic/pre-injury his iron play was weak from the Red Zone (175-225 yards). And throughout his career, his iron play has been, at best, up-and-down. pt7
— Hunt Golf Analytics (@Richie3Jack) April 7, 2023
The study continues.
“Sometimes his iron play has been exceptional and other times it’s been some of the worst on Tour,” says Rich. “And since he’s never been a good player around the greens, when his iron play is off, it’s going to result in a lot of bogeys.”
As fans are aware, Bryson has single-length irons through the bag, and Hunt suggests that those, plus a fascination for the Long Drive Competition, are not the methods by which a player can become a good iron player.
and while I'm all for speed training and have great admiration and awe for Long Drive competitors, I'm not so sure that training and competing in long drive competitions is the best thing for becoming a good iron player by Tour standards. 10/10
— Hunt Golf Analytics (@Richie3Jack) April 7, 2023
Looking at the official stats for the 2021 season, Bryson completed 15 events, leading the ‘off-the-tee’ stats in five, and ranking top-five in another two. However, he also recorded eight events with a ranking of 40 and worse for approaches and 12 times a minus figure for ‘around-the-green.’
Rich believes he can come back.
Answering a respondent, he writes, “He’s still young and has shown the ability to play at a top level. So many people in golf don’t realize just how up-and-down and unpredictable careers on Tour are. That’s a big reason why I think the LIVT model is flawed.”
Given his statistics when winning his one and only major (1st off-the-tee, 1st approaches, 3rd around-the-green and 20th for putting) Bryson has a few years to get it all back – Winged Foot is due to host the U.S Open again in 2028.
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19th Hole
Former Ryder Cup star once dubbed ‘Europe’s next superstar’ retires from golf citing loneliness

Among the interesting names set to tee it up at LIV Golf’s qualifying event was former European Ryder Cup player, Victor Dubuisson.
However, the Frenchman withdrew early this week from the event, and subsequently announced his retirement from professional golf through L’Equipe.
Dubuisson was a two-time winner on the Race to Dubai series with both victories coming at the Turkish Airlines Open.
“The solitude had become extremely heavy,” the 32-year-old said.
“I started from nothing, so I’m extremely satisfied with what I’ve done. I see myself as a little kid with my little bag and my Decathlon clubs.
“I wasn’t at all predestined to have this career. A lot of people will say that I could have done more and that I could have been world number one.
“But my strength is being satisfied with what I had. I’m happy with that. I don’t live in regret to dwell on all the time.”
Dubuisson burst onto the scene almost a decade ago, and his stunning performance at the 2014 Ryder Cup had playing partner Graeme McDowell describe him as ‘Europe’s next superstar’.
The Frenchman now plans to step into a coaching role of some sort, saying “I spent 15 years alone on the Tour, curled up on myself. I missed contact with people. So it’s just simple human relationships around golf that I want to have.”
The LIV Golf Promotions event is set to kick off on Friday at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
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19th Hole
‘The money was insane’ – Gary McCord explains why he rejected offer from LIV Golf

Gary McCord, who’s contract was not renewed by CBS in 2019, found himself with a massive offer from LIV Golf.
The deal would have put him with his friend David Feherty once again, but the now 75-year-old turned the offer down, despite its appeal.
While speaking with Golf.com on the Subpar Podcast, McCord shared that “the money was insane.”
“The last conversation I had with Norman was, ‘Greg, I’m 75, I don’t want to go to Adelaide, I don’t want to go to Hong Kong, I don’t want to go to Riyadh, I can’t do it.”
“What the future is going to be anyway, all golf shows are going to have their broadcast team going to a studio somewhere in the United States,” he said. “Every week it’s going to be there and you put two people on the ground, someone to do interviews, they will not know I’m in a studio in Dallas, Texas, with the two other guys talking. Put a backdrop of the 18th hole there, they will never know.”
“I was going to go and then, the money, believe me, was insane,” he said. “Greg never told me what I’d be, but I had to ask Feherty, ‘Let me ask what you are making?’ And I went, ‘What did you say?!’ I never told anybody. To this day I never told anybody. But that was interesting.”
It has been rumored that Feherty is being paid roughly $10 million a year by LIV.
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19th Hole
Bryson says this is how LIV could find path back to PGA Tour if merger goes through

While appearing on the Rick Shiels Golf Show, LIV Golf superstar Bryson DeChambeau discussed what a path back to the PGA Tour may look like for LIV players if a “merger” indeed takes place.
The former U.S. Open champion speculated that team golf could be the key to LIV players integrating into the signature event series on Tour.
“What I could see is LIV integrating into the signature series on the PGA Tour in some capacity and having two championships in one, where you have the individual component in the signature series, and you have the team side of it,” DeChambeau said.
“You have the teams you’re playing for, so no matter what on that final day that guy that’s playing really bad still matters, it’s still a big deal on the team championship aspect of the tournament.
“Then you guys have the individual side that’s still competing for that individual title the way it is currently.”
“We want to be mainstream. We believe we should be mainstream, we have some of the best golfers in the world that should be highlighted at these events.
“That would be my blue-sky scenario where we integrate, we figure out how to make it all mutually be beneficial, and we play for the legacy that’s there with a new idea and concept on top.”
Bryson stressed that he believes the best path forward for golf is for LIV and the PGA Tour to unite.
“I think the game eventually needs to come back together.”
“I’ve said it from day one when I went over and there’s numerous times where I talked to Jay about it, I was like, ‘this all has to work out in the end for the good of the game, this can’t just be for the PGA Tour or for LIV. The fans have got to win here’.”
The deadline for the PIF and the PGA Tour to make a deal looms ever closer as we near December 31.
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