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LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA | When the ball stopped on the lip of the par-3 eighth hole for a near ace, the Bryson DeChambeau train seemed inevitable as he broke ahead of a 10-player logjam within a shot of the lead on Sunday at Torrey Pines.
Then the wheels came off of golf’s tremendous machine in a shocking collapse. DeChambeau went from a share of the lead through 10 to T26, playing the last eight holes in 8-over par including a double on the par-5 13th when he slipped twice swinging and a gruesome quadruple-bogey on 17 to shoot 77.
“I didn't get off the rails at all,” he said. “It's golf. People will say I did this or did that, and it's just golf. I've had plenty of times where I hit it way worse than today and I won. It's just one of those things where I didn't have the right breaks happen at the right time. I could have easily gotten to 7, 8 under today. I just wasn't fully confident with the golf swing and just got a little unlucky in the rough and a couple other places.”
DeChambeau went 30 consecutive holes without a bogey to climb to the top of the leaderboard and give himself a chance to repeat as U.S. Open champion.
"I don't really care as much. I've already won it.”
Bryson DeChambeau
“I knew what I had to take to win today, and I was right there,” he said. “I'm just glad I gave myself a chance of being a defending champion. I haven't done that ever with any of my wins, and I was proud of it.”
He started struggling with a pair of sloppy bogeys at 11 and 12 before things went from bad to worse on 13. On a crazy hole that included a streaker hitting balls in the fairway before being tackled and hauled away by security, DeChambeau’s hopes disintegrated quickly with a double on 13 that included a skulled bunker shot over the green into a case of beer.
“Unfortunately, (I) had bad break after bad break happen,” he said. “I played two little shots next to the green, both weird lies, both trying to get cute with them and messed up on 13.”
He drove into the canyon on 17 and had a greenside shank from an awkward lie on the way to his snowman.
“It is what it is. It's golf. It's life,” he said. “I'm just proud that I can hold my head right now. I'm OK. I'm all right.
“Right now. I don't even care. … I've changed a lot, attitude-wise and everything. It's frustrating in the moment when it's happening, but afterwards for me now, I don't really care as much. I've already won it.”
Scott Michaux