The ultimate match: Frankenstein vs. Huck Finn

The styles of Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson could not be more opposite,  but they both work

The PGA Tour ends 2020 on the verge of being dominated by two approaches to winning that could not be more directly in opposition. Think Huck Finn versus Dr. Frankenstein and you’ve pretty much got the image of Dustin Johnson vs. Bryson DeChambeau.

Along this vast continuum between utter insouciance and commitment to scientific experimentation, serious players are lining up.

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The leader of the golf-as-lab-experiment side is, of course, Bryson DeChambeau. A physics grad out of SMU, he’s a natural for the Dr. Frankenstein role. So committed is DeChambeau to experimentation that he spent the days and hours leading up to last week’s Masters on the Augusta National practice area experimenting with a 48-inch shaft on his driver. As if he had nothing better to do at the time than fool around with equipment adjustments.

Adjustments that failed, by the way, at least in the short term. DeChambeau ended up casting all that valuable warmup time aside and going back to his old reliable driver shaft. But that’s OK; Dr.  Frankenstein trashed a lot of body parts before winding up with … well, whatever it was he wound up with.

In terms of his approach to winning, Dustin Johnson is so unlike Dechambeau that nobody would be surprised if he lifted one of those 48-inch shafts and adapted it as an ambling stick. He generally plays golf the way Huck steered a river raft. It’s all one carefree float toward a destination, open to the whims of fate but stress-free whatever that fate may hold.

The only trait those two share is their talent. Together their vastly disparate styles have produced the game’s last two Major championships, and by a combined margin of 11 strokes.

There could be no more definitive proof of golf’s ability to reward both art and science than their joint domination of the 2020 landscape. They are the current Nos. 1 and 2 in the FedEx Cup standings. They also rank 1-2 in scoring average, Dustin at 66.99 and Bryson at 68.38.

Strokes gained? DeChambeau leads at 3.79, Johnson is second at 3.12. Naturally they’re also 1 and 2 in Strokes Gained tee-to-green, DeChambeau holding the upper hand.

DeChambeau would appear to be unbeatable except for the strong sense that he sometimes thinks too much. Remember the old saw about avoiding swing thoughts? If anybody told DeChambeau that, he gives every appearance of having forgotten it. His existence is one extended swing thought.

That can be very much a good thing, at least for him. Since debuting his bulkier physique and take-no-prisoners approach to hitting the ball, he has won twice – the Rocket Mortgage and the Open – added two other top five finishes, won on the order of $5 million and basically monopolized the headlines.

But his formula is not perfect. Indeed DeChambeau’s commitment to the cerebral, experimental side of golf can have its down side. Over that same six-month span of time, he’s also missed two cuts and this week managed nothing better than a tie for 34th. The best that can be side for that number is that had he been eligible, it would have gotten him into a sudden death playoff for low amateur.

If anything, Johnson’s relaxed approach has generated even better results. Granted, he came out of the restart firing on a minimal number of cylinders. He missed the cut in two of his first four attempts, although he did manage to sandwich a victory at the Travelers between those two pratfalls. Huck ran his raft aground a time or two as well.

In August, though, Johnson found his true bearings. He tied for second at the PGA, won the Northern Trust in a rout, lost to Jon Rahm in a playoff at the BMW, walked away with a  win at the Tour Championship, tied for sixth at the Open and was second in Houston leading up to this weekend’s stroll through Augusta National.

Like DeChambeau this spring, Johnson once underwent a metamorphosis. His came in July of 2014 when he scrapped an even more insouciant approach to his profession – one spiced with late nights and illegal substances – for a rehab stint. Those things don’t always take, but in his case it did. Finding new and more family-friendly ways to detox the game’s inevitable pressure, Johnson won the 2016 U.S. Open, one of his 16 tournament titles since returning.

He is unlikely to ever be the tinkerer that DeChambeau has become, but in his own relaxed way he discovered the rewards of workaholism.

Together they demonstrate two vastly different approaches leading to one common trait, success. Who do you suppose would win a best-of-seven between Frankenstein and Huck Finn? Maybe the Tour ought to set that one up. It would be appointment TV viewing.