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AUGUSTA, Ga. - Bryson DeChambeau will make the cut at the Masters, but just barely. And he'll move on to the final two rounds despite not feeling 100 percent. "Not good, to say the least," he said of his play. "I was feeling something a little weird last - two nights ago, and I came out yesterday and was fine for the most part. As I kept going through the round, I started getting a little dizzy. I don’t know what was going on, a little something weird. "So I got checked for COVID last night, and I was fine, nothing," he added. "But I had to do the right thing and make sure there was nothing more serious than that. I don’t know what it is or what happened, but these past couple days, I’ve felt really, really odd and just not a hundred percent. Some of that’s played into it. I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure." After he had bogeyed his last two holes for a 2-over 74 to sit at even par, DeChambeau needed help from Jordan Spieth at the 18th hole and Rafa Cabrera Bello at the ninth. Had either made birdie it would have moved the cut to 1 under par, knocking out everyone at even par. Spieth lost his drive in the trees and had to fight just to make the cut himself, the 2015 Masters champion rolling in a 15-foot par putt to keep his tournament alive. "You know, sometimes it’s more nerve racking trying to make the cut than it is trying to win the tournament," Spieth said. Cabrera Bello missed the ninth green but got up and down for par, also making the cut. Augusta National announced on Monday that the Masters cut would no longer use the 10-shot rule and would be changed to only the low 50 and ties. DeChambeau was part of an 11-way tie for 50th, as was Collin Morikawa, the winner of the PGA Championship. The winners of the last two majors survived by the skin of their teeth, as did Tony Finau (69-75) and past champions Zach Johnson (73-71) and Charl Schwartzel (73-71) and Spieth (74-70). Notables to miss the cut included: Matthew Wolff – Runner-up to DeChambeau at the U.S. Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic, Wolff got off to a hot start in his first Masters but scores of 70-77 weren't good enough. Tyrrell Hatton - Winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard never clicked at Augusta National, shooting 73-74 to finish 3 over and miss by three. Francesco Molinari - Was in control of the Masters last year until double-bogeys on 12 and 15 sent him down to a T5 finish, two behind Tiger Woods. Shot 72-78 this time to miss cut by six. Jason Day - Trendy pre-tournament pick had four top-10 finishes at the Masters, including a T2 in 2011, but blew up with a 78 in the second round to bow out early at 4 over. DeChambeau fought a right miss in Round 2, and for the second straight round hit just 11 greens in regulation. He double-bogeyed the 13th hole in the first round, and triple-bogeyed the par-4 third hole in the second. The third and 13th holes are two of the shortest on the course. Where exactly his tee shot wound up at the third hole - he had to take a lost ball and return to the tee to hit three - is unknown. It's assumed to have plugged in the wet grass. "It just seems like there’s a lot of things going not in the right way," DeChambeau said. "I’ve certainly played worst golf than this and won golf tournaments. So, you know, it’s one of those things where it’s golf. You can’t control everything as much as you try. He had an eagle putt when he returned to the 13th hole at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to complete his second round, but missed it and settled for a birdie to get to even par. A birdie at 14, where his drive missed way right but kicked off a tree back into the fairway, got him into red numbers. More driving problems, though, left him in the right trees at the par-5 15th, where he had to settle for par. A birdie at the par-3 16th seemed to give him breathing room, but he closed with bogeys at 17 (again missed right with his drive) and 18 (airmailed green from 150 yards in fairway). As for his health, he said he started feeling dizzy Thursday night. "Yeah, every time I’d bend over and come back up, I’d like lose my stance a little bit," he said. "So I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve got to go and do some blood work and get checked out and figure out what’s going on for this off‑season."

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Most golfers, when considering a purchase to possibly improve their play, are more apt to look for something that goes in their golf bag, rather than on their face. However, Oakley with it’s PRIZM Golf lens, makes the latter worth considering. Before we get into the “how” of Oakley’s PRIZM Golf lenses, consider this possibility: the better you see, the better you’ll play. Think about everything a golfer has to process in the course of planning and executing shots (and putts). In addition to being able to more clearly see a white golf ball against the blue sky, a golfer benefits from more clearly seeing transitions between fairway and rough, and from being able to more accurately see a lie in the rough and process depth cues on an approach from the fairway. On the putting green, the ability to more clearly discern grain and undulations is a welcome one. Oakley’s PRIZM Golf Lenses’ High Definition Optics (HDO) dial back distortion for sharper, clearer vision. According to the company, the PRIZM family of lenses began with an environment-optimized lens for snow and a solution for the loss of visual acuity that’s common in wintry environments. Oakley engineers learned that if they could control and filter light, wearers could see better. The technology has evolved into, among other things, PRIZM Golf Lens technology. According to Wayne Chumbley, Oakley R&D Engineer Manager, PRIZM Golf lenses are a ultimately a tool for golfers to facilitate better information — to better leverage the strengths of their eyesight, and to compensate for natural weaknesses. The lenses allow “good light” through (which enhances contrast and aids depth perception) while filtering out “bad light” (which creates visual confusion). “You have to trust the information to make the right choice,” Chumbley said, pointing out the fact that golf course architects and superintendents often try to create visual confusion with blurred transitions, false fronts, and other techniques. So, does what does a golf course looks like through PRIZM Golf and PRIZM Golf Dark lenses? First, as all golfers know, golf is played in a predominately green landscape. The lenses work primarily to reduce the dominant green tones and amplifies colors adjacent to green. Among other effects, this amplifies the white of the golf ball, allowing golfers to track it better against the backdrop of both course and sky. By contrast, a traditional lens is very flat with no colors amplified and little color separation. By creating peaks and valleys across the spectrum and color separation, PRIZM Golf lenses are able to deliver more beneficial information to golfers’ eyes. PRIZM Golf vs. PRIZM Golf Dark: What’s different about the two? Drilling down further, Oakley has two golf-specific lenses. PRIZM Golf and PRIZM Golf Dark. The company has found the Dark Golf lens, which presents a more balanced, less contrasting view, is more appearing to the weekend warrior. Initerestingly, the pros, perhaps because of their already heightened on-course visual acuity, prefer the standard PRIZM Golf lens with its more pronounced color amplification and higher contrast. Additionally, Oakley says PRIZM Golf is ideal for low to medium light with a VLT of 30% and has a lighter tint, and PRIZM Dark Golf will excel in bright and sunny conditions and has a darker tint with VLT 22. Both lenses feature Plutonite lens material, which blocks 100% of UVA and UVB rays up to 400nm. Flak 2.0 XL The company’s most popular frame for the PRIZM Golf lenses, not surprisingly, has been the flagship Flak 2.0 XL. An iconic Oakley style, Wayne Chumbley called the Flak 2.0 XL “a sport frame that has crossed over for universal appeal” citing the fact that it fits a vast number of head shapes and sizes. With an O-Matter frame for durability, the Flak 2.0 XL is considered Oakley’s most comfortable frame offering “performance fit with lifestyle comfort,” according to Chumbley. As a final note, PRIZM Golf lenses are available in prescription, and a few of the PGA TOUR professionals you’ll see in the lens are actually sporting the prescription variety.

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It was sometime this spring – maybe March, maybe April – when Brendon Todd and his swing coach Bradley Hughes were having lunch at a club in Georgia. They had worked together for less than a year, trying to return Todd, once a top-50 player but now struggling just to make a cut, to world-class stature. Todd stared intently at his coach. Then he made a declaration. “You know I’m going to win again,â€� he said. Hughes didn’t hesitate in his response: “I have no doubt.â€� Based strictly on results, that was laughable to hear. After all, Todd had entered the 2019 calendar year having made the cut in just six of his previous 47 starts. He was not on anybody’s radar to claim a second PGA TOUR title, his first one coming at the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2014. Most observers likely had dismissed him as a golfer who had simply lost his swing. But those people didn’t know Todd, his work ethic, his fighting spirit, his ability to battle and overcome demons that might crush lesser golfers. On Sunday at the new Bermuda Championship, Todd made good on his promise of six months earlier. Rallying from a two-stroke deficit to start the day, he threatened to break 60 after a hot start (birdies in nine of his first 11 holes) before settling for a 9-under 62 and a four-stroke victory at 24 under. “Thrilled over the moon,â€� Todd said. But a trip to the moon hardly does justice to the journey Todd traveled in his return to the winner’s circle. Four years ago in the middle of the FedExCup Playoffs, he found himself in the mix at the BMW Championship, playing in the final threesome of the third round with tournament leader Jason Day and Daniel Berger. “Obviously a big moment for me,â€� he recalled. His tee shot at the 484-yard fourth hole at Conway Farms that Saturday had found the fairway. With 212 yards to the hole, Todd grabbed his 4-iron. One swing later, his golfing career began a downward spiral to such depths that he eventually contemplated a new profession. The 4-iron sailed 50 yards right of the green, past the first set of bushes and into a second set that cost him a penalty. He eventually walked off the green with a triple bogey. The score cost him any chance of winning that week, but it was the wayward shot that stuck with him. Haunted him, really. Sept. 19, 2015 – the start of Brendon Todd’s ball-striking yips. The big miss right kept appearing in his play during the wraparound fall schedule. And then it wouldn’t go away. The 2015-16 season was nightmarish – 29 starts, 25 missed cuts. At one point, he missed 15 straight cuts. He ended 2016 outside the world top 400. Eventually, he would fall outside the top 2000. “I lost golf balls. I was hitting in hazards and hitting it right,â€� Todd recalled Sunday. “A lot of it was mental. Some of it was the fact that I changed my swing – and I basically battled that scary yip feeling all of ’16. “And even if I had a tournament where I didn’t hit it, I was so scared of hitting it, I would hit it to the left and I would chip and putt my way to 72 and I missed a thousand cuts. Then you’re trying to find whether it’s a new teacher or a new method or whatever it. I basically spent ’16, ’17, ’18 doing that. … I just couldn’t figure out what it was.â€� He made just nine starts in the 2016-17 PGA TOUR season – and missed the cut eight times. He made six TOUR starts the next season, missing the cut each time. Also missed two cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour. His TOUR status was gone. He had lost, in his words, “three yearsâ€� of his career. He thought about quitting, pursuing other opportunities. “I was talking to my manager about potentially opening up another business,â€� he said. Mechanically, Todd’s swing and footwork were off-track. Former swing coach Scott Hamilton, in a 2017 interview with PGATOUR.COM, said he and Todd were trying to get higher launch angles with his driver and long irons, but it resulted in Todd hitting too far behind the ball. “His timing got all off, and then it was down the rabbit hole,â€� Hamilton said. “I taught BT when he was at his best,â€� Hamilton said in 2017, “and I’m half-involved in screwing him up.â€� In the summer of 2018, one of Todd’s former college teammates at Georgia told him to look into Bradley Hughes, an Australian and one-time TOUR member who now teaches in the U.S. and had written a golf book called, “The Great Ballstrikers,â€� which had been released earlier in the year. Todd read the book … then booked a lesson. “It talks a lot about his playing days, the history of the great players, how they swung the club,â€� Todd said earlier this year. “It has a lot of pictures and drills and models in there. That kind of resonated with me as a player, a feel player, somebody who doesn’t really want to go try and paint lines with my golf swing, I want to kind of feel like a pressure or a force and that’s what he teaches. He’s all about ground forces and pressures. So the book really hit home with me, and I went and saw him and it’s just kind of been a home run ever since.â€� Hughes was not familiar with Todd, didn’t know the troubles he was having, had never watched him play. They had never met face-to-face until that first lesson. But unlike the amateurs that he teaches, Hughes said working with pros is easy “for the most part because it’s getting back to something he previously did.â€� Despite the big miss right, Hughes instructed Todd to open up his club face even more in order to free up his body to move through the shot and to get a better release. They also used a board that helped Todd with his footwork and to feel the pressure points. Todd took six weeks off to work on some drills in his basement. “Each time we did something,â€� Hughes said, “it worked.â€� Figuring out the mechanical solution is one thing. There was still the mental side – and with the yips, that’s usually the biggest challenge to overcome. Regaining confidence, finding a light in the darkness. It just so happened that about this time, Todd got a call from a former Korn Ferry Tour caddie, Ward Jarvis, who is now a performance coach focusing on the mental aspects of golf. Jarvis has battled his own kind of yips – the language yips, if you will – as a stutterer. “I know what you’re going through,â€� Jarvis told Todd. “I think there’s a way for us to work through it together.â€� Jarvis told Todd to read a book written by former major league baseball player Rick Ankiel called, “The Phenomenon: Pressure, The Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life.â€� Ankiel was a successful starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, but during the 2000 playoffs, he struggled to simply throw a ball across a plate. “He basically just fell off the map with pitching, had to reinvent himself as an outfielder,â€� Todd said. “It was a book about the yips. I read it; it kind of helped. And then I just continued to work with Ward and Brad on my game.â€� The results weren’t always great but some signs were encouraging. A 61 in Monday qualifying to make The RSM Classic field a year ago left him feeling he was on the right track. He managed a couple of top 20s at the Wells Fargo Championship and John Deere Classic. He qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, and a second place at the Nationwide Children’s Hospitals Championship led to regaining his TOUR card for this season. Four missed cuts to open this season might’ve seemed a setback, but the reason wasn’t his ball-striking – it was his putting. The big right miss was gone now. Plus, he’s no stranger to tough stretches; in his first slump between 2009-11, he once missed 26 straight Korn Ferry Tour cuts. Three years later, he was a TOUR winner. He saw the way back. He would get there again. “Knew that once I kind of get things right, I just have to believe and keep going after it,â€� he said. On a Sunday in Bermuda, wearing a pink shirt and firing dart after dart, Todd turned that belief into a win that offers hope to anybody who has lost their way. The light can be found again.

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