Blistered Bryson DeChambeau bags win No. 5 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open

TULSA, Okla. – While major equipment switches the week of a major are rare, one is paying off for Webb Simpson at the PGA Championship. Simpson shot 1-under 69 at Southern Hills on Thursday. It was one of the top rounds in a breezy and blustery afternoon at the Oklahoma course. He used a new set of irons, the Titleist T100s, after committing to the new clubs earlier in the week. “Today felt like the golf that I know how to play. It didn’t feel abnormal. I wasn’t surprised. But I’m very thankful to get off to a good start in a really tough condition day,” said Simpson, whose seven PGA TOUR wins include the 2012 U.S. Open and 2018 PLAYERS. It has been a difficult season for Simpson, who entered the week ranked 141st in the FedExCup. He has just two top-25s this season, and none since the calendar turned to 2022. He’s struggled with his iron game, which is traditionally one of his hallmarks. He ranks 84th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green after sitting inside the top 25 for six consecutive seasons from 2015-20. Simpson finally relented and made the switch to the cavity-back Titleist T100 irons this week after playing forged, muscle-back blades for almost the entirety of his career. The T100s are forged and have the look of a blade at address while utilizing a cavity-back to increase forgiveness. “I’ve had a couple of short stints with non-blades in my career but not many,” said Simpson, who had been using Titleist’s 620 MB irons. “I haven’t been hitting my irons great. Approach to the green is typically a strength for me; this year it’s been a weakness, and I’ve struggled out of the rough. I keep getting told that these the irons I’m playing are better out of the rough, better with distance control, better with mis-hits, and so I guess I was being stubborn but finally listened and I really like them. “They’re not a whole lot different than mine the way they look, but we’ve had good results with them so far.” Simpson’s caddie, Paul Tesori, recommended a potential switch after Simpson missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship. They experimented with the new clubs at Simpson’s home club, Quail Hollow in Charlotte, last week. That was after Simpson discovered them in his garage after fearing he may have given them away. “I don’t know if Titleist will like this or not, but if I don’t use a set I give it to a friend,” Simpson said Thursday. “I’m trying to spread the word for Titleist, you know. So I might have given to a friend, but I see them in there, we bring them out, and all the numbers we tested were way better. “So I still wasn’t certain that I was going to put them in this week so I have both. The biggest thing for me is when I look down I want to make sure it looks good, and then after that all I care about is the numbers and how it’s going to perform out of the rough. So far they’ve passed the test.”

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Nick Taylor birdied four of his last five holes at Pebble Beach on Friday for a 66 to take his first 36-hole lead on the PGA TOUR. Jason Day received a warm reminder at Pebble Beach how good it feels to hit shots the way he wants, make a bunch of putts and see his name high on the leaderboard. Related: Leaderboard | Day’s unique balloon therapy Day made two long birdie putts across the green, holed a 40-yard wedge for eagle on the dangerous par-5 14th, made a couple of big par saves and moved into contention with an 8-under 64 in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Taylor was at 14-under 129. “I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve actually been out there and felt the way that I felt out there today and played well like that,” Day said. Defending champion Phil Mickelson also got in the mix with aburst of four straight birdies after the turn at Monterey Peninsula. He made bogey on the long par-3 ninth to finish his round of 7-under. He was three shots behind. Mickelson has not had a top 10 on the PGA TOUR since winning at Pebble Beach last year, though he finished third last week at the Saudi International and carried a little momentum into the event he has won five times. Day knows the feeling. Since last year at Pebble, he has recorded just three top 10s, none since last June. He has not seriously contended. His back troubles have been so frustrating that at times he wondered how much longer he wanted to play. He described those as “dark times.” His outlook Friday was as bright as the sunshine over the Monterey Peninsula, at least until a light marine layer over parts of the courses lowered the temperature. Day birdied the par 5s and made a 45-foot putt from the fringe on the par-3 fifth at Pebble. He holed a 50-foot birdie putt on the par-3 12th, another bonus. And then he surged into contention by holing out for his eagle on the 14th, and following that with a 15-foot birdie on the 15th. There’s still one more round before this tournament played over three courses takes shape, and there’s no better place to be in relative calm than Pebble Beach. “If you have really good weather, you can go low at Pebble,” Day said. That’s what Taylor did, making birdie on all the par 5s for his 66. Ditto for Chris Baker, the 33-year-old PGA TOUR rookie who played Pebble Beach for the first time in a practice round Wednesday, and really had a blast in his round of 64 on Friday that put him four shots behind, along with Charl Schwartzel (66 at Pebble). Of the top five players, only Mickelson was not at Pebble Beach. Monterey Peninsula played about two shots under par, while Pebble’s average was nearly 1 under. Spyglass Hill was nearly a stroke over par, so it was no surprise that only one player from the top 20 — Matt Every — was at Spyglass on Friday. Dustin Johnson, a two-time Pebble Beach winner who finished runner-up to Ted Potter Jr. two years ago, appeared to be hitting his stride with great control of his irons and usual power off the tee. He lost a little ground on the final hole when he three-putted for bogey from about 25 feet on his final hole at Monterey Peninsula, missing a 3-footer. That happens on poa greens with foursomes in each group, and Johnson shrugged it off. He’s used to odd things happening, even when it’s not all his doing. Day was feeling particularly optimistic, especially after the year he had. His back gave him so much trouble that one of his routines is to blow into a balloon for some 20 minutes to help get his rib cage aligned properly. He used to spend hours chipping and putting. He found it a small victory when he was able to putt for an entire hour. “It’s hard because … you expect so much of yourself, and everyone does,” Day said. “But sometimes when you’re injured, like for the most part I was all last year, it gets frustrating. And not only do you get frustrated, you don’t get the results and you lose confidence and then you’re … just trying to find a solution into why I’m not playing well and why is this happening. And you feel like your world is kind of crumbling. “It’s not a good feeling because there’s some dark moments in there that you got to kind of fight through.” There were no dark moments Friday, not in weather like this. Day and Taylor now move over to Spyglass Hill on Saturday morning, while Mickelson, Johnson and the celebrities head to Pebble Beach.

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