Who’s better since the restart than Daniel Berger?
By Bill Felber
T-7, Bryson DeChambeau, -0.43
With his new physique and sensational driving distances, DeChambeau has been the talk of the Tour since the restart.
His record, however, has displayed inconsistencies that hurt his overall evaluation.
The highlights are superb. He is the reigning U.S. Open champion, having dominated the field at Winged Foot in October. He shot rounds of 69-68-70-67 that week to romp to a win with a score that measured 2.87 standard deviations better than the field average. By that yardstick, it was the 10th best performance in U.S. Open history.
Beyond his two victories, he has five other top 10 finishes, among them ties third at the Schwab and at the PGA.
But DeChambeau’s game comes and goes, often on short notice. Of his 14 events since the restart, he’s won two – he also took the Rocket Mortgage. But he’s also missed the cut at the Memorial and the Northern Trust, finished 50th at the BMW and tied for a disappointing 34th at the Masters.
In 52 Tour rounds, he has a 68.63 scoring average. In 14 of those rounds, he came home in 66 strokes or better. But he’s also gone over 72 seven times, including both rounds of his missed cut at the Memorial.
Still, DeChambeau has retained a ninth position in both the current FedEx Cup and the Official World Golf Ranking.