Bryson DeChambeau flirted with becoming the 12th player in PGA Tour history to break 60 during a competitive round, instead missing a 6-footer on No. 18 to shoot a 12-under 60 at the BMW Championship.
Bryson DeChambeau flirted with becoming the 12th player in PGA Tour history to break 60 during a competitive round, instead missing a 6-footer on No. 18 to “settle” for a 12-under 60 at the BMW Championship.
Bryson DeChambeau flirted with becoming the 12th player in PGA Tour history to break 60 during a competitive round, instead missing a 6-footer on No. 18 to “settle” for a 12-under 60 at the BMW Championship.
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Bryson DeChambeau missed shooting a 59 by inches. He might not be the last person to threaten the milestone in these conditions at Caves Valley. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Bryson DeChambeau narrowly misses historic 59 | FedExCup update: Sergio Garcia making run at TOUR Championship DeChambeau’s 12-under 60 stood out, but it was another day of low scores in general at the BMW Championship on Friday. It also was the second straight week a player shot 60 during the FedEx Cup playoffs. Cameron Smith missed a 12-foot putt for a 59 last weekend at Liberty National. DeChambeau leads in Owings Mills at 16 under, but he was just a shot ahead of Patrick Cantlay, who shot a 63 on Friday. “I thought I played great — 9 under, I’m very pleased,” Cantlay said. “But obviously there was lower than that out there today.” Jon Rahm also was a stroke behind DeChambeau. He played 15 holes before play was halted for darkness. At that point, only six of the 69 players in the field were over par for the tournament. Scores were low in the first round as well — the leaders were at 8 under — and that doesn’t seem likely to change over the weekend. Play was delayed by thunderstorms Friday, after DeChambeau and Cantlay had already posted their impressive numbers. “The fairways are pretty wide here and the greens are pretty big,” said Jordan Spieth, who played in DeChambeau’s group. ”You have to really kind of screw up to make a bogey.” Spieth was at 3 under after two rounds. He had a good view as DeChambeau made eight birdies and two eagles in his second round. “I was just trying to piggyback a little bit, but when you’re watching it, it can be a little bit kind of frustrating if you don’t have it going,” Spieth said. “You’re like, `Man, is this what everyone is doing? Is everyone tearing it up?’” Just about. Harris English (70) also played with DeChambeau and was 5 under — which would have been good enough to win the BMW Championship last year when it was at Olympia Fields. This year, he was 11 strokes back. The Caves Valley course was an unknown commodity entering the week, this being the Baltimore area’s first PGA Tour event since 1962. “It’s very hard to predict when we come to a new site how the scoring’s going to be,” said Steve Rintoul, a PGA Tour rules official in charge of this event. Rintoul said recent rain softened the course up, creating conditions that are pretty much ideal for low scores. “It never really escapes the soft conditions because of the heat and humidity,” he said. “When you get greens this good and soft conditions, it’s just prime for scoring.” The FedEx Cup isn’t the U.S. Open. Low scores aren’t uncommon. The Northern Trust at Liberty National last weekend was won in a playoff by Tony Finau, who finished at 20 under. Dustin Johnson won the Northern Trust at 30 under last year. DeChambeau and Cantlay are halfway to a score like that. “Some holes it’s harder to get balls really close, to feed in close to the hole because they are fast greens and you can get on some bad sections on the green,” Spieth said. “But it’s hard to kind of be totally out of position unless you do something really wrong.”
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Bryson DeChambeau missed a birdie from 6 feet, 3 inches on the 18th hole that would have made him the 12th player to break 60 and given him the 13th sub-60 round in PGA TOUR history. After tapping in his eagle putt from just inside three feet at the par-5 16th hole, DeChambeau spun back a wedge to close range on 18 to leave himself a putt at history. Alas, he aimed too far left, and the ball never had a chance of going in. “I had the right speed,” he told the Golf Channel’s Steve Sands. “I misread the putt.” DeChambeau also eagled the par-5 fourth hole after his 273-yard second shot wound up just over 11 feet from the pin. It was the second round of 60 in the last two weeks, as Cameron Smith also flirted with 59 at THE NORTHERN TRUST at Liberty National last week. Scottie Scheffler shot the last 59 on TOUR at THE NORTHERN TRUST at TPC Boston last year. DeChambeau beat his previous career low, a 62 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, by two shots. He came into the week 9th in the FedExCup, first in driving distance. At 16 under par, he took a one-shot lead over Patrick Cantlay (63) with two rounds remaining.
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Two-time FedExCup winner Rory McIlroy got off to a blistering start on Thursday at the BMW Championship, firing an 8-under 64 after making a series of equipment changes. Following his disappointing T43 finish last week at THE NORTHERN TRUST at Liberty National, McIlroy revealed that he tossed his 3-wood over the fence and in the direction of the New Jersey Turnpike, leaving him with some decisions to make before this week’s second event of the Playoffs. A quick rummage around his garage did the trick. The Irishman told media this week that rifling through his old gear led him to some significant changes, including the revelation of a “new old 3-wood,” he said. “It’s actually a 3-wood I used last year,” McIlroy said. “I went home, I went down to Florida after NORTHERN TRUST on Monday night, went into the garage and rummaged through a few different things, got my old putter back out, got my old 3-wood, brought a few shafts out, tried different shafts in the driver, went to a new shaft in the driver, and it seemed to work out today.” As well as the 3-wood change, McIlroy put a Graphite Design Tour AD XC shaft in his TaylorMade SIM2 driver. He said the new setup reduces spin while still allowing him to draw the ball consistently. “I just had a driver I felt was spinning a little too much, so a couple of times last week into the wind, I’d hit it and it would balloon up in the air,” McIlroy said. “And then if I wanted to try and hit a cut off the tee, I was not comfortable doing it because I felt like I was losing too much distance by hitting the cut.” Another significant equipment change this week has been McIlroy’s return to the TaylorMade Spider putter. The four-time major champion had recently swapped the club out for a Scotty Cameron blade but has returned to the Spider as he believes his off-days with the blade are too punishing. “I said to (caddie) Harry (Diamond) after the first round last week, I’m thinking about going back to the Spider,” he said, “and then I proceeded to gain four strokes on the greens over the next two days with the blade. But I think the thing with the blade is the good days are really good, but the bad days are pretty bad, as well. There’s quite a lot of inconsistency in it for me. It’s almost like I need to practice with the blade at home because you have to get your stroke spot-on to hit good putts with that style of putter.” Mcilroy also revealed that he may decide to practice with the blade at home while keeping the Spider for tournament play, as this week’s return to the mallet style has felt so easy after the small break. “Felt like I couldn’t not start it on line,” he said. “It was sort of – there’s a lesson in there somewhere about maybe just keeping the blade at home and practicing with it and then coming out here and putting with something that’s got a little more technology in it.” McIlroy’s driver shaft change led him to hit all but one fairway in the first round of the BMW at Caves Valley Golf Club, while the return to the Spider helped him gain over three strokes on the greens.
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