Bryson DeChambeau caught a lot of flak in 2020 when he said that his strategy would be to play Augusta National as a par-67 course because of how far he was hitting the ball. He eventually tied for 34th that year.
The following year he finished tied for 46th and then he missed the cut in 2022.
His lack of success at Augusta National had some people wondering if he regrets his initial comments.
“Do I regret? Everybody has a perspective on it,” DeChambeau said Monday. “I don’t think I regret anything. What I do understand is that I have a lot of respect for the course. Because of that statement, [people] think I don’t have respect for the course. Are you kidding me? This is one of the greatest golf courses in the entire world, and if anybody thinks I don’t have respect for the course, they’d better go check out who I actually am because it’s not accurate one bit.”
Before the 2020 Masters, DeChambeau bragged: “I’m looking at it as a par-67 for me because I can reach all the par-5s in 2, no problem. If the conditions stay the way they are, that’s what I feel like par is for me. That’s not me being big-headed. I can hit it as far as I want to.”
Now, the LIV golfer says that he wishes he expressed himself differently.
“Hypothetically, theoretically, look, if you make 18 birdies it’s going to be 54, right?” DeChambeau said. “It’s a perfect score, right? Unattainable, 67 every day, unattainable. It can happen, but is it likely to happen? Probably not. With the distance I’m hitting it and was hitting it, I thought there was a possibility, but that’s only with your ‘A’ game, and I should have rephrased that. If you have your ‘A’ game, there’s a good chance of being able to do that.
“Long story short, I don’t want anybody to take it out of context. I just want it to be known for the fact that I have great respect for this course, and clearly, what did I shoot last year and missed the cut? A lot? I shot like 10 over, so what’s that, 5 shots more, something like that? So 10 more shots? So I shot like 22-over par. I can make a joke about it. Do I regret it? I learn from all my mistakes.”
[ESPN]
