LAS VEGAS – Bryson DeChambeau often makes you scratch your head when he starts talking. The cerebral five-time PGA TOUR winner – and defending champion of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open – had his media audience doing just that in the lead-up to his title defense at TPC Summerlin. A year ago, DeChambeau collected a fourth win in 12 starts, but since then, he has fallen short of another triumph. Related: Leaderboard | Cantlay continues TPC Summerlin dominance When asked about how hard it can be to maintain excellence, he went deep in his answer during his press conference. “There are so many things that have to go right in life. I was talking to a poker player couple nights ago and talking about luck; talking about how sometimes people get really lucky for long periods of time,â€� DeChambeau explained. “As we look at what should happen over the course of your lifetime, it’s too difficult to even know what statistically should happen, because our lifetimes are so small compared to an infinite amount of time. “In fact, we could always be on the third standard deviation our whole entire life, which all that means is you can have really weird stuff happen to you your whole life. It could. Or be normal or be the opposite and vice versa.â€� After an opening-round 66, DeChambeau spent Friday’s second round firmly on the third standard deviation. The 26-year-old couldn’t buy a putt, with multiple lip-outs leaving him stuck on a metaphorical treadmill. He was even on his round with three holes to go before the “weird” worked in his favor. Having made nothing all day, DeChambeau connected for birdie from 8 feet, 11 inches on his third-to-last last hole – his longest made putt of the round. Shortly after, he holed out from a bunker for another birdie and added one more to finish for a bizarre 68, leaving him at 8-under-par and just four off the lead. “Hey, you know what? Some people live in that area their whole lives. And maybe that’s me,â€� he said post-round about the infamous third standard deviation. “For the past couple weeks, I’ve felt like there’s been some really weird stuff going on. I just can’t get a normal round in. “I just want to go play golf and have a good time, make a couple putts, miss a couple; I’m okay with that… Nah, I’ve got to lip out 10 and hole a bunker shot. It’s like, what’s going on?â€� If Bryson doesn’t know what’s going on, how are we supposed to figure it out?
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