Sentry Tournament of Champions: Inside the numbers as stars fall short
By Bill Felber
In contention through the first 36 holes, Bryson DeChambeau finished solo seventh when he failed to ignite any aspects of his game over the weekend.
As the tour’s poster child for mechanics, the stark variations in the aspects of DeChambeau’s performance jump off the spreadsheet. His was an utterly and surprisingly uneven week. On the greens, DeChambeau was superb. Normally an average putter, he led the pack in Strokes Gained putting at +7.31, an average of better than 1.8 strokes per round.
Although not as dominant off the tee, DeChambeau was more than capable there, as well, with a +2.16 Strokes Gained score that gained him another six-tenths of a stroke per round.
He failed to contend because of the relatively abject failures of other parts of his game. Normally DeChambeau is a strong fairway player, as evidenced by his average of 1.75 Strokes Gained Approaching the Green. At Kapalua, however, he totaled -2.17, the worst performance by any player in the top 15. That comes to more than a one-half stroke deficit per round.
Those failures repeated around the greens, where DeChambeau’s seasonal Strokes Gained average has been +0.63. At Kapalua, he lapsed into minus territory at -1.46, a difference of one-third of a stroke per round.
Such performance inconsistencies obviously are anathema to somebody who places as much emphasis on repetitive motion as does DeChambeau, but they are the reasons why he did not mount a weekend charge.