Bryson DeChambeau: How will he attack Augusta National this time?

Bryson DeChambeau doesn’t just play golf. He devours golf courses. He takes them apart in his mind and figures out where their soft spots are. That’s where he attacks.

Now, he’s trying to take his newly powerful game and course-killer attitude to Augusta National for the second time to see what kind of damage he can do, score-wise.

“Given what I learned from the Masters last November, I’m going to be focusing mainly on accomplishing how do I hit iron shots into greens to give myself the best chance to give myself the ability to make birdie,” he said to media at the Masters.

His assessment of his game at the November Masters was that he hit good enough drives but that he didn’t hit his approach shots to the right sections of the greens to have the kind of success he wanted. If he had a tough time in November when the course was soft, he’s going to be mightily challenged this week with the course and greens both very firm.

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His critique of his play in November included the way he played the 3rd hole.

“I just didn’t put it in the right place. And then when I did, I three-putted one day,” he noted.

DeChambeau is working on going after not just the par fives, which one would expect him to attack, but also the par fours. The latter is a much tougher task.

The start has him concerned slightly because it is a tough driving hole for him if he uses driver.

“I’m trying to see how far right I can go,” he explained.

But even using less than driver, he anticipates having no more than 9-iron or 8-iron to the green.

“If I can be comfortable off the first tee and get my round started right and in a good direction and feel comfortable with the driver and everything, that’s kind of what sets me up for the rest of the round,” he added.

As far as what he’s thinking for other holes, he expects a great deal of roll down the hill on two.

At three, he’s going to try to drive the green. It is a short par four, and because the course is firm this spring, he expects he can roll the ball onto the putting surface. He’s at the mercy of the contours there.

At the fifth, he’s going to fly the bunkers and indicated he can even do it on a windy day.

On the seventh, he looks forward to hitting a longer shot off the tee with more roll. That gives him a shorter shot to the green, which is a treacherous surface with some unfriendly lumps in it.

The ninth will have more roll out than usual. DeChambeau won’t be alone in that.

“Everybody is going to be rolling down the hill for the most part,” he noted about nine.

On the 11th, he’s going to try to go down the right side as much as possible. That location opens up the green from a safety standpoint. A shot on the left side of the fairway has to cross the water to reach the green, while a shot farther right can actually roll on to it.

DeChambeau said that everybody hits into the slope on the 13th, and it will be no different for him. He’s not trying any high wire acts there.

On the 15th, should he find fairway, it will be interesting to see what he hits for a second shot with the fairway running as fast as anticipated. It’s one of those eagle opportunities that can quickly turn into a double bogey.

The 17th, he noted, is going to be a problem, based on a practice round he played last Sunday. The hole location was on the front part of the green, as he described it, five or six paces on.

“If you just got it past the hole, it would roll off the front of the green. I mean, literally it moves a dimple and it’s gone,” he said.

Past Masters have shown that three greens with that tendency are the seventh, the 14th and the 17th. Golf balls almost need anchors to stay in place.

The advantage DeChambeau has in hitting shorter shots — 8-irons, 9-irons, wedges — to the greens is that his ball flight will be more vertical as it approaches the putting surface than someone who is hitting a 6 or 7-iron. That means his ball has a better chance for minimal roll once it reaches the green, versus a low shot that can hit and bounce and roll over the back of the green or into some kind of trouble.

While DeChambeau knows his length is an advantage, he knows that’s not all he needs to conquer Augusta National.

“I’m going to be able to stop it on the greens a lot easier,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that I’ll be able to control the golf ball as well as somebody else.”

Somebody who has more control of the golf ball, he admitted, could beat him.

DeChambeau tees off at 1:36 PM (eastern) Thursday, playing with Adam Scott and Max Homa.

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