CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It’s unclear which drive Friday prompted the look of astonishment.
Maybe it was the 357-yard blast down the left side of the third hole that left his fellow playing competitors – neither of whom are short hitters – in the dust, some 40 yards back.
Or perhaps it was the 359-yard moon shot that flew over the edge of the fairway bunker on 16 and settled, oh, a few inches from the center stripe.
But at some point during the second round of the PGA Championship, caddie Brennan Little – who has been on a tour bag since 1999, through Tiger and DJ and Rory and all of the others – remarked to Bryson DeChambeau’s looper, Greg Bodine: “I’m not sure if I’ve seen someone driving it as well as he’s driving it.”
And here’s the thing: Little wasn’t alone in his assessment.
“Legitimately, in my opinion, he’s the best driver I’ve ever seen,” swing coach Dana Dahlquist said. “He controls the launch, the spin, the curve, the distance. It’s all good”
This is not exactly groundbreaking, of course.
DeChambeau has been one of the game’s biggest boppers since his body transformation five or six years ago that turned par 4s into pitch-and-putts. But as powerful as he’s appeared, he’s never been quite as dominant as this. Not when he bomb-and-gouged his way to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Not when he hit towering shots over the waste areas last summer at Pinehurst.
This right here is Bryson, quite literally, in full flight.
DeChambeau is five shots back at this PGA Championship, but he’s poised like no other to close the gap. He’s leading the field in total driving distance, at 331.6 yards, and his advantage in that department is only expected to increase as the temperatures creep closer to 90 degrees, the fairways and greens firm up after four inches of rain, and the rough that hasn’t been touched in six days continues to grow.
It hasn’t been a flawless first two days at Quail Hollow. DeChambeau missed too many greens in the opening round and made three bogeys. Some of his bold lines over tall trees or long bunkers have taken bad bounces into the rough, forcing him to take more conservative lines into the greens. He acknowledged that his wedge play needs to be cleaned up; despite having significantly less club into the greens, he’s outside the top 90 in proximity to the hole. But he’s still right there, just outside the top 10, and with only Scottie Scheffler in front of him to fear.
“It was a weird day today, much like yesterday,” DeChambeau said. “I felt like I was playing good. Just didn’t get anything out of it.”
And yet he and his team are feeling good, really good, about what this weekend might hold.
Over the past few months, DeChambeau has continued to refine his equipment, the most significant change coming two years ago when he switched to the Krank driver head that gave him a tighter dispersion on off-center hits. Minor tweaks keep leading to more incremental gains.
“He’s always been a phenomenal player, and he’s driven it well at times, but once he got that level of comfortability with the face of the driver, it was knowing he could hit it off the toe and heel and still be in play,” Bodine said. “He just had the margin of error that other guys have, where he always felt like he had a dime on the face that he had to hit. Now, even a little bit off the toe or heel, it can still go where he’s looking.”
On the LIV circuit this year, DeChambeau is gaining nearly two shots per round on the field off the tee – by far the best of any player in the world. It’s not a perfect comparison, because it’s the same field every week and not as strong, top to bottom, as the PGA Tour, but for perspective, that’s nearly a half-shot better driving than peak Rory McIlroy. Through seven LIV events, DeChambeau is leading in distance and ranks seventh in accuracy, hitting 66% of the fairways. So he’s longer than everyone and as accurate as players such as Sepp Straka or Russell Henley, who are renowned for their precision. It’s a staggering combination.
“The last month or two has just been a little bit better than normal,” Bodine said. “It’s taken a step up.”
DeChambeau’s marathon practice always make for compelling TV viewing as he shuts down the range, but Dahlquist said their swing work now is actually quite simple and specific.
“The big thing for him is to make sure that he keeps trying to rotate left, trying to get his pressure to be proper and swing to the right,” he said. “It’s pretty linear at this point. It’s been like that for a while now.”
If there’s anything that’s held DeChambeau back from going on a tear, it’s been his approach play. Even from the most advantageous positions he can become indecisive as his unique golfing mind takes into account all of the variables. At the Masters, he was nearly last in the field with his irons as, Dahlquist said, he continued to learn the various slopes and lies at Augusta National. Here at the PGA he has not been as sharp as he’d like either, as he adapts to changing course conditions and how that affects his spin rates.
“Standard deviation off a flat lie, he’s the best in the world,” Dahlquist said, “because he’s just hitting the same shot every time.”
But that’s the next frontier, since he’s already the best in one area – an area that, by the end of the weekend, should become the most significant. On every tipped-out tee box at Quail Hollow, he takes a deep breath, plunges his tee into the soggy turf, and lashes the longest and straightest drives of anyone at this level.
“The kid’s good at golf,” Dahlquist said with a smile.
And only getting better.
