2020 Masters: Top 10 power rankings at Augusta National
The hype builds. Bryson DeChambeau was spotted on the Augusta National range on Sunday reaching 201 mile per hour ball speed.
We’re all curious how his bludgeoning style and 400-yard drives will play out at the Masters. Will he be able to take lines off tees we’ve never seen before? Will he have wedges into the par-5s?
Whether he finds success or goes down in flames, it’ll have our attention.
I’m just not quite willing to put him in the No. 1 spot. Sure, his skill set is different now than where it was in his previous three tournament appearances, but he hasn’t finished inside the top 20.
DeChambeau was impressive in 2016 as low amateur in T-21st (72-72-77-72). He earned T-38th (74-74-72-71) in 2018 and T-29th (66-75-73-70) in 2019. He was the 18-hole co-leader last year.
DeChambeau is a player who relies heavily on green reading books, which are not permitted at the Masters. Perhaps this has been a reason he hasn’t contended. I also think it’ll be less and less of a factor as he makes more starts at Augusta National.
It’s not his past performance at this event that has him the betting favorite. It’s his performance in 2020. The hype train got rolling with his massive weight gain and journey for more distance. It paid off this summer with a win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
That was his seventh top-10 in a row at the time. He followed it up by earning his best finish in a major at the time, T-4th at the PGA Championship.
The pinnacle was at the U.S. Open. He broke through for his first major in 16 tries with a six-shot romp. Bryson was famously the only one to break par at Winged Foot at 6-under.
DeChambeau’s kicked back since then with just one start at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open where he was T-8th.
The 27-year-old Californian led the PGA Tour last season in strokes gained off the tee (1.039) thanks to a Tour-leading 322.1 driving distance. Accuracy suffered at 57.37% (140th), but it doesn’t matter if you’re off the fairway if you’re hitting wedges on approach.
Plus, at a place like Augusta National with no rough, DeChambeau ought to be licking his chops.
His iron and wedge proximity numbers can leave something to be desired, but I envision a soft course this week yielding him enough birdie looks to make up for it.