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When the PGA Tour restarted in June, Webb Simpson found himself grouped with Bryson DeChambeau for three rounds at the RBC Heritage at tight, borderline claustrophobic Harbour Town Golf Links.
Once Simpson got past DeChambeau’s physical transformation – how he had fast-forwarded his weight gain like he’s done with his ball speed – Simpson was struck by something else.
How DeChambeau was taking an enormous risk with his career and how he was making it work. In the weeks and months since Hilton Head (where Simpson proved straight still can win), Simpson has grown more impressed with what DeChambeau is doing.
From a purely competitive sense, Simpson would seem to be the type of player who can be impacted most negatively by DeChambeau’s heavy-handed demonstration that power rules. Simpson, who ranked eighth in the world heading into last week’s play, averages 298.6 off the tee, which makes him long by normal standards but only 133rd longest on the PGA Tour.
Simpson’s game is built on distance control, accuracy and being what Xander Schauffele calls the tour’s leader in “strokes gained with attitude.”
So why is Simpson, whose slow, careful pursuit of more power led to a few more mph of clubhead speed across a couple of seasons, applauding the guy some say is breaking the game?
“I feel like he had a plan and the plan was risky,” Simpson said during some down time at home in Charlotte, North Carolina. “At the time, he was top-10 in the world, playing really good golf and he wanted to go further. He wanted to go to a new level even for him.
“To take that risk shows a lot of self-belief. He’s done it. Everybody talks about how far he’s hitting it but what is such an overlooked skill is how he’s relearned how to swing the club, not just with a driver but with a 9-iron.
“He’s put in way more work than people realize. To already have won twice and a major is an amazing thing.
“Whether guys will admit it or not, they have to respect what he’s done. Any of us can go and try to do it. It’s a whole other thing to do it. I don’t think guys are willing to risk their careers the way he was. But he’s so smart he was able to do it as carefully as he could.”
Simpson has been so impressed that before the Ryder Cup was postponed, he reached out to DeChambeau about partnering for the U.S. team at Whistling Straits.
“I think it will be a big conversation if he goes and shoots 20 under and wins by 10."
webb Simpson on bryson dechambeau at the masters
Through the years, players have changed their bodies and the success rate, especially when the changes are substantial, has been spotty. Johnny Miller and David Duval can talk at length about that.
Chasing distance means playing with fire, too. Ask Luke Donald and others.
DeChambeau has busted those preconceptions, creating his own path. In a sense, it’s simple. With the penalty for missing fairways offset by the advantage length provides, DeChambeau has taken the full plunge. He ranks 205th in accuracy off the tee but coupled with his 344.4 yard driving average, DeChambeau leads the tour in strokes gained off the tee.
It allows him – and others with dynamic distance – to play from an advantage.
“Brooks Koepka won the PGA at Bethpage and I’m pretty sure he was last in fairways hit and first in strokes gained off the tee,” Simpson said. “We’re talking about a course with long rough.
“Then we go to the U.S. Open and the longest guy in the field wins. Guys are showing they can muscle it out of the rough now and hitting fairways is not as important as it was.
“If you said I can have 30 yards and miss another five fairways a round, I would take that. I would take my 30 yards. It’s just the way the game is right now.”
While Simpson puts his schedule together around courses that suit his skill set, he understands there are some weeks when he starts at a disadvantage. If Dustin Johnson is going to shoot 30-under par at TPC Boston, more power to him. For Simpson, all he can do is be sharper at what he does.
If Simpson were in charge of course design, he would lean toward shorter, tighter layouts with more doglegs, more rough and smaller greens.
Like everyone else, Simpson is interested to see how DeChambeau plays Augusta National starting in 10 days. It doesn’t take a math whiz to apply DeChambeau’s driving distance to each hole there and extrapolate how he could deconstruct the place.
But the Masters is about more than bombing it as Mike Weir, Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson and Jordan Spieth can attest. In Simpson’s mind, if Augusta National wants to combat DeChambeau’s distance, adding length isn’t the answer.
“Hopefully they will make the greens a little faster, the greens a little harder,” Simpson said. “But he still has to hit it somewhat straight, even at Augusta. I think it will be a big conversation if he goes and shoots 20 under and wins by 10.
“I feel like I could have saved (Augusta) $25 million on (No.) 13 because they purchased the land from Augusta Country Club for whatever the price was. All they had to do was get a tree, plant it 25 feet in front of the tee box on the left.
“The problem right now is Dustin Johnson, he hits a cut over the corner. You’re like, ‘How do you hit a cut on 13?’ It’s because he can hit it so high. They don’t like him having a 9-iron in. But if you put a tree there, now they can’t cut it.
“At Winged Foot No. 4, it’s a dogleg left but there was a tree there so they couldn’t cut it so most of those bombers were hitting 3-wood if they can’t draw the ball.
“I think (Augusta) made a mistake thinking they need to go longer there. They just need to put that tree in.”
While the world will focus on DeChambeau at the Masters, Simpson, who plays to his strengths as well as any player on tour, likes his chances at Augusta.
“Dustin has an advantage on me (along with DeChambeau) before we tee off, but that’s a golf course where you have to think,” Simpson said. “Short hitters win, long hitters win. If we get a little cool weather, a little wind, it’s going to be hard. There won’t be any chip 9-irons on No. 12.”
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