Strydom rallies in Singapore for 2nd Euro victory

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Patrick Reed says a much-needed visit to the eye doctor and his first pair of corrective lenses may have been the secret to his breakthrough Masters victory last month. The doctor’s visit led to Reed getting a new pair of contact lenses the Monday of Houston Open week, and less than two weeks later he was wearing the Green Jacket. “You know, it was just something (where) I was able to make a lot of putts,â€� Reed said Wednesday at Quail Hollow Club, home of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship. “Honestly, that has to be credit to not only the work that we put in the week before, but also the work my wife (Justine) had to do to drag me to Vision Source to get my eyes checked. “First week ever wearing contacts,â€� Reed added, “and I go ahead and make every putt I look at and win a golf tournament.â€� A year ago, when the Wells Fargo Championship was at temporary home Eagle Point Golf Club in nearby Wilmington, Reed had a chance to win but came unglued with a final-round 75 to finish well back. He came to Quail Hollow for the PGA Championship in August, and finished second. What no one knew then was that he was competing with less-than-perfect vision. Anything outside 30 yards, he says now, was blurry, and he was constantly asking his caddie, Kessler Karain, where the ball went. The situation finally came to a head when Reed was watching TV with his wife and in-laws 10 days before the start of the Masters. “I’m sitting at the kitchen table in our kitchen, and we have a pretty big TV in the den, and kind of flipped through channels and I cannot read the guide,â€� Reed said. “I’m just moving slowly. Justine goes, ‘You can’t read that?’ I’m like, ‘No, can you?’â€� As it turned out, everyone in the house could read the words on the TV screen, except Reed. He could, however, make out the disbelieving looks from all of them, even his father-in-law, who wears thick glasses and still had no trouble deciphering the words. How could Reed not be able to read the screen? “He’s like, ‘Maybe that’s the reason why we haven’t been making putts for a year,’â€� Reed said. You could say the trip to the eye doctor has paid off. Reed had to learn how to put contacts in his eyes, but they’ve proven surprisingly effective. Before picking up his sixth TOUR title at the Masters, where he held off Rickie Fowler by one and a hard-charging Jordan Spieth by two, Reed, 27, hadn’t won since THE NORTHERN TRUST in August 2016. To his father-in-law’s point, part of the problem was his putting. He came into the Masters ranked 75th in strokes gained: putting, but was third best in the field at Augusta. “I got a prescription for contacts, put them in, and all of a sudden I’m just looking out like, ‘Wow, I can see everything,’â€� Reed said. “Now all of a sudden I’m not having to ask Kessler where that ball goes. … Now all of a sudden I can read greens pretty well, and it worked at Augusta.â€�

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Bryson DeChambeau thinks he knows what caused dizzy spells at the Masters. His brain was working too hard. DeChambeau was the betting favorite in November with his enormous size and power to go along with his six-shot victory in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot a few months earlier. He fell behind early and complained of feeling dizzy and something being wrong with his stomach. He says he saw doctors for any issues with his inner ear, had tests for eye pressure and ear pressure and even had an ultrasound on his heart. “The one thing I will tell you is that I’ve done a lot of brain training … and the frontal lobe of my brain was working really, really hard,” DeChambeau said Friday. “And that’s kind of what gave me some weird symptoms.” DeChambeau finished a disappointing T34 at Augusta National, his only finish outside the top-10 in four starts this season. He was T7 at last week's Sentry Tournament of Champions, where he led the field in driving distance (303.6 yards) and Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (+6.52). He played his final eight holes at Kapalua in 6 under par, including an eagle at the final hole, where he hit his 244-yard approach to 6 feet. DeChambeau is fourth in the FedExCup standings. He did not elaborate on what made the frontal lobe work so hard or how it affected him. DeChambeau, ever the scientist, uses a program called “Neuropeak Pro” to use proper breathing control his heart rate and calm his brain. “As I started to to relax my brain a little bit and just get into a more comfortable situation and got on a really good sleep schedule routine, a lot of those symptoms went away,” he said. “And they come back every once in a while, but as I do a lot of breathing, it goes away and that’s really what I’m focused on trying to do.” As he chases speed — he says he reached a ball speed of 211 mph on the range at Kapalua last week, but nowhere near that on the golf course — the immediate target outside the ropes is his stomach. “I’m really working on gut health right now,” DeChambeau said. The most obvious difference is the 40 pounds of muscle and mass he has added as he tries to build a body that can tolerate swinging the club as hard and as fast as he can. He said he now is trying to lean out what he described as a “dirty weight gain bulk.” He also said he was taking digestive supplements at the Masters as he worked on the “gut stuff,” and that contributed to him not feeling his best. Then there’s the additional layer of stress from being at Augusta National under a brighter spotlight than ever. “It all took a toll,” he said. “I don’t think it was exactly that specific thing. But it was a combination of a few things that escalated my brain, overworking and just giving out.” Meanwhile, the chase for speed and distance continues as he keeps tabs on his body. DeChambeau’s quest is to swing so fast that the golf ball comes off his driver at 210 mph. He topped that on the practice range, but found his ball speed at 193 or 194 mph during the tournament. “That just shows you how the brain reins you in going, `No, I need to hit it straight because I’m a professional golfer and I still need to keep it in play every hole.’ So you kind of lose that ability to just free yourself up and let it go,” he said. “I can get it over 200, no problem. It’s just about how can I get that on a golf course now.”

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