The Bryson DeChambeau Experience Is Back, at Least for One Day at the Masters

The 2020 U.S. Open champion blitzed Augusta National with an opening 65, then expanded on his personal and professional evolution.

Apr 11, 2024; Augusta, Georgia, USA; Bryson DeChambeau walks the no. 18 green during the first round / Katie Goodale-USA TODAY Network

AUGUSTA, Ga. — With wind swirling and his name splashed atop the white leaderboard directly over his shoulder, Bryson DeChambeau stood atop the 18th tee at Augusta National and stared straight ahead, contemplating.

“Big stick, Beau—let’s go,” chirped a fan near the rope line.

“337,” said Greg Bodine, DeChambeau’s caddie, referencing the distance to the left-side fairway bunker. “It’s blowing hard—not against us.”

“Yeah, I can get there,” DeChambeau said. 

He ultimately went with his 3-wood and sure enough, smashed it straight into that fairway bunker. But as he’d done time and again during his opening round here at this 88th Masters, DeChambeau escaped. He hammered his approach out of the sand and onto the putting surface, then two-putted for a par and a 65 that sent a clear signal to his fans, his haters and his fellow competitors: 

Watch out. Big, bad Bryson is back.  

The clubhouse leader. #themasters pic.twitter.com/ZEshgGuXAo

— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

“I knew it was going to be a tough day today with the wind and even tomorrow. So a lot of patience is required around this golf course and making sure you're just stroking on your line, putting it good, hitting good iron shots and driving it well,” DeChambeau said.

The 30-year-old is playing in his eighth Masters, and even as he went on to win a U.S. Open and become one of pro golf’s buzziest players, his T21 finish in his first appearance in 2016 remains his best result. He missed the cut at Augusta in each of the past two years. 

But Thursday there were early signs that this round, and perhaps also this week, might be different from his recent past. He opened with birdies on 1, 2 and 3, and canned a 14-footer for an up-and-down par from the bunker behind the 5th green. He then drained a testy four-foot par-saver on 6.

He bogeyed 9, his only blemish, and then scorched the back-nine in 31. On the par-5 13th and 15th holes he drove into pines right of both fairways. Both times he found an opening with his second shot and hit the green, and both times he two-putted for birdie. His approach from the loblollies on 15 was particularly daring, if not reckless, but he got away with it.

“I was just trying to get to the back right section of the green, and I pushed it a little bit. It clipped the tree. I hit four pine needles rather than five, and it worked out perfectly,” DeChambeau said. “But it was a little scary of a shot. I shouldn't have probably done it, but I took a risk. I was willing to take it. I was rewarded, fortunately.”

Cashing in on par-5s is paramount for success at Augusta, and DeChambeau has previously and somewhat famously woofed about his confidence on Augusta’s par-5s, declaring the course a “par 67” because of his prodigious power. 

On Thursday he didn’t necessarily walk back that comment when he was asked about it, but it was clear he no longer feels that way.

“Look, I'm going to go out and try to shoot the best score I possibly can. Sure, if you want to line the math up that way, that is a perspective you can take. It was a perspective I had, and it cost me a lot of slack, I guess you could say. It definitely hurt some things,” he said. “But look, I'll say this again. I shot 65 today, and that was one of the best rounds of golf I've played in a long time.”

He also discussed his personal and professional evolution since his recent poor Masters finishes, and indeed, he did sound a tad more humble than the guy who smashed his way to a 2020 U.S. Open win at Winged Foot. But as ever, there are contradictions. He’s playing LIV Golf now, and his team name is stamped onto his hat and his green golf bag. He wants LIV Golf and the PGA Tour to come together, but he was one of the first to jump to LIV. If you listened closely on Thursday you could still find other contradictions, like this:

He talked about his desire for routine: “I'm just doing the same thing every single day, day-in and day-out. I'm not trying something new. I'm not trying to figure something out. And that's what I feel like has accumulated into playing some really good golf.”

And then moments later he revealed that most of his gear this week is brand-spanking new: “I put new irons in this week. I think that's a pretty big change. And been using this new driver, 3-wood and 5-wood. So pretty much my whole bag is different since Greenbrier of last year, and putter is the only thing that's remained the same.”

That’s all part of the DeChambeau package, and part of what earned him so many headlines for several years. But since moving to LIV Golf in 2022, DeChambeau hasn’t played as much in the U.S., which took him off the airwaves, so he’s been building his profile online. He’s created a Youtube channel and it’s clear he very much enjoys social media.

“It's crazy. I've gotten a crazy amount of love on Snapchat,” he said. “Getting over like a million views a day on Snapchat and these people coming out of nowhere and patrons saying, ‘I love your Snapchat.’ Like really? They are loving it that much? That's awesome.”

He added: “You look at what MrBeast has done, and there's a few other super famous people right now, Jynxzi and Sketch, and they are growing their avenues and their aspects, and it's cool to see the cross-platforming capabilities.”

MrBeast? Snapchat? Major-week equipment changes? Monster drives and crazy escape shots? The Bryson DeChambeau Experience has returned in full. Buckle up.