Bryson DeChambeau has spent months adding weight and distance, but on Friday at the Memorial Tournament it was his scorecard that did a little bulking up.
It took just one hole, too.
A few ill-advised swings by DeChambeau led to a quintuple-bogey 10 at Muirfield Village’s par-5 15th hole, a score that dropped the red-hot DeChambeau to 6 over and a few holes later proved the deciding factor in DeChambeau snapping his top-10 streak at seven events and missing his first cut on the PGA Tour since the fall opener at Greenbrier.
So, just how did the “Mass-ematician” count up 10 strokes in one hole? It started with an errant drive that found the creek left of the fairway. After a drop, DeChambeau had 289 yards left and opted to hit 3-wood from the rough. The shot didn’t draw, and appeared to sail out of bounds and into someone’s yard. DeChambeau hit a provisional from the same spot with a similar result, but even more right.
Finally, his third lash with 3-wood ended up in bounds, though in thick rough just before another creek about 40 yards from the hole.
Before potentially playing his eighth shot, DeChambeau checked on his third shot. He found his ball resting against a metal boundary fence.
Insistent his ball was in bounds, DeChambeau asked a rules official, who told him otherwise.
“I don’t believe that,” DeChambeau responded. “Can I get a second opinion, please?”
He also muttered to himself: “They’re giving me a garbage ruling like usual.”
A second rules official also deemed the ball out of bounds, though DeChambeau lobbied hard, even bringing up Phil Mickelson’s shot from against a mesh fence at Bay Hill last March.
“From my perspective, that would be technically still in,” DeChambeau said. “I was wondering if I could hop the fence and hit it?”
Eventually, DeChambeau scooped up his ball in disgust and hit shot No. 8 onto the green. Two putts later he signed for a 10.
While he did close with birdie the par-4 finishing hole, it wasn’t enough to keep DeChambeau from carding his worst score, a 4-over 76, since the third round of last fall’s Safeway Open, where he also shot 76. DeChambeau’s 73-76 week at Memorial also marked the first time he’s fired consecutive over-par rounds since Friday and Saturday at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis almost a year ago.
The finishing birdie also couldn’t coax DeChambeau into talking after his round. He declined two interview requests and headed straight to the locker room.
