Tour Championship: Bryson DeChambeau has awful start, nice finish

Prior to Friday’s round, Bryson DeChambeau had high hopes for the Tour Championship. After 18 holes, he has basically been eliminated.

In the first round of the Tour Championship on Friday, there were several players who got off to fast starts. Bryson DeChambeau was not one of those players.

Sungjae Im had three birdies in his first six holes, as did Marc Leishman. Justin Thomas had three birdies on his first four holes to begin Friday’s round.

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Then there was DeChambeau. While Thomas birdied three of his first four holes, DeChambeau was going in the exact opposite direction.

And it didn’t take long for the bad things to start happening. DeChambeau’s initial drive found the right intermediate rough, leaving him more than 200 yards to the par four. He was able to hit the green but was more than 30 feet away. From there, it took him three putts to get down, and he suffered his first bogey of the round.

After a par on the par-3 second hole, DeChambeau found more trouble on number three. His drive found the left rough, but he had only about 135 yards to the hole. However, his second shot left him over 30 feet to the cup, and it took him three to get down from there, as he registered his second bogey of the day.

The downhill slide continued on the fourth hole for DeChambeau.

The good news was that his drive covered 321 yards. The bad news was, it came to rest in a fairway bunker. He had just 150 yards to the hole but drew a tough lie and was only able to get the ball back into the fairway. He hit the green in three, then two-putted for his third bogey in four holes.

After a par on the fifth hole, DeChambeau finally had something go his way, as he nearly eagled the sixth hole, settling for his first birdie of the round. But the good times didn’t last long. DeChambeau found the greenside bunker on number seven and was unable to get up and down. He suffered his fourth bogey of the front nine. He would finish with a 3-over par 35 on his front side.

The back nine was much calmer for DeChambeau. He parred the first six holes on the back side, unable to get anything going, but not falling further off the pace. He was still 3-over par through 15 holes.

On the 16th, DeChambeau again found the left rough off the tee. And again, it cost him. He came close to the green with his second shot, but took three to get down again, suffering another bogey and falling to 4-over par.

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The good news for DeChambeau came at the end of his round. He was able to birdie both the 17th and 18th holes to close out his Friday round, shooting a 2-over par 72. Not a great score, but it definitely could have been much worse.

DeChambeau started the round in sixth place at 4-under par, six shots behind leader Dustin Johnson. By the time the day was over, he was 11 shots behind DJ and, barring a miracle, out of contention.

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