U.S. Open Recap
Well golf fans, the 2020 U.S. Open delivered an absolutely incredible week. I apologize with the delay in posting this week’s blog, there's been a lot to unpack after last week’s event. Nonetheless the putters are back in action and we're talking Bryson, Matthew Wolff, Winged Foot and much more.
As we all know Byson Dechambeau captured the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot this year. Let me be quite honest before I dive into the blog, but Winged Foot was playing as the hardest golf course in the world. I have never seen rough so long, greens so quick, and fairways and tight as they were at Winged Foot. At the start of the week we saw that 21 players were under par and Justin Thomas had the lowest round score at Winged Foot in the history of the U.S. Open being there. Things quickly changed on Friday morning. The golf course played 4-5 shots harder and after Friday’s round there were only 7 players under par and only 3 under par rounds on the day. As the weekend progressed the golf course continued to play tougher and tougher. Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed after sitting atop the leaderboard quickly fell out of their leading positions. By this point young superstars Matthew Wolff and Bryson Dechambeau have pushed through and taken over first and second palace heading into the final round. Young superstar Matthew Wolff fired an unbelievable round of 5 under 65. This propelled him into solo first. However, while Wolff is a young star right now, Bryson had the edge in my opinion. Now i'm not a huge fan of Bryson but the play that he displayed over the duration of the tournament was absolutely incredible. He overpowered Winged Foot in a manner that i've never seen before. Off the tee he was 20+ yards ahead of the rest of the field on almost every single hole. One hole in particular sticks out to me as after this hole the tide changed for Bryson and this was the turning point for him. His last hole on Friday, the 9th hole he hits a 370 yard drive and has an easy 9 iron in left on the tough par 5. He rattles home an eagle and moves himself into a fantastic position going into the weekend. It was at that point when I knew Bryson was going to make a run like we've never seen before. Come Sunday, Wolff began to fall apart and Bryson took the opportunity and fired a final round 67 to seal the deal and win by 6 shots. He was the lone man under par and showed the golf community what can happen when you put your own unique view, and spin on the game of golf.
Now by no means do I personally agree with the way Bryson Dechambeau does things but that's what I find so beautiful about the game of golf. We as players have the ability to play golf any way we see fit or possible want. We have free range to play the game with any style, flare, or way we want. No swing is right or wrong, no putting stroke is right or wrong, we are all different. That's why golf is the absolute most incredible game on the planet because we can play this game 100 different ways as long as we get that white ball in the hole in as few shots as possible. (Mike)
It Is Working…for Now
Whether you agree with Bryson’s strategy or not, there is no denying that it is working. The blog has been vocal about their displeasure with Bryson and his antics, we also do not feel like what he is doing is sustainable. One would think that his body will have to give out on him eventually at the pace he is going. He is getting bigger and faster and nobody really knows when it will end, but many other players who have tried to do something similar, albeit not to this scale have had some pretty significant injuries. He has put on a tremendous amount of muscle and body mass in such a short time. One has to wonder how his body is maintaining this level and if the injury bug will ever get to him. Maybe that day will come for Bryson or maybe it will not, but there is no denying that it is working in the now and he can call himself a major champion because of it. (Tyler)
What Does Augusta Do?
Bryson overpowered Winged Foot in a dominating fashion. He has stated he hopes to do the same at The Master’s. Augusta National has total discretion and it will be interesting to see how they “Bryson Proof” the course to make sure he is not making a mockery of the course. There will be a ton of speculation leading up to the tournament. My take is that they make the rough a bigger penalty. If he drives it a mile and misses the fairway, he should be penalized. We saw him bomb and gouge it this past weekend and I certainly hope that is not what The Master’s turns into. I think Augusta will make some subtle changes in the next few weeks to make sure we see all sorts of different golfers right there on Sunday. (Tyler)
Picks for The Week
Mike: This week the PGA Tour heads to Punta Cana for the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship. Head on over to PGATour.com to be able to view and stream the event. This week's event is much smaller so I won’t be putting up picks for this week’s winner. (Mike)
Tyler: This week’s tournament is much smaller, and the field has a lot of unfamiliar names compared to last week. These events are great for the young guys trying to get status on the tour and get their first high finish under the belt. My dark horse for this week is Patrick Rodgers at 50-1 odds. He has game he has shown in flashes so maybe a week where the pressure is off a little bit is the time for him to shine. My pick this week is Henrik Stenson at 28-1 odds. We all know he has the pedigree, but it feels like awhile since we saw him in the winner’s circle. I think the less experienced field will benefit him as he takes the win this week. (Tyler)