Bryson DeChambeau is Back, But He's Still Searching For Old Form After Missed Cut at Memorial

DeChambeau shot 76-77 in his two days in Ohio. He left happy with the state of his wrist, but befuddled by the state of his golf swing.

DUBLIN, Ohio — Bryson DeChambeau is back, but he promptly missed the cut at the Memorial Tournament.

Winner of this event in 2018, DeChambeau more closely resembled a rookie on this year's Muirfield Village layout while shooting 76-77 for a 10-over-par total that was nowhere close to the weekend cut.

Of course, none of this was unexpected. After missing the cut at the Masters, DeChambeau had surgery on his left wrist to repair a fractured hook of the hamate.

The 28-year-old has not played competitively since the surgery and while he did appear at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills two weeks ago, he withdrew after a couple of days of practice, stating he was not ready yet to compete.

This week at the Memorial, DeChambeau said that he did not feel any pain with his surgically repaired wrist, but did not have a swing to match up with his desire to play the weekend.

“I’m glad it held up,” DeChambeau said after his second round. “It's not worse and the swelling is almost down. Now it's almost like it's getting better as the time goes on.”

As impressed as he was with his wrist, DeChambeau was equally unimpressed with his golf swing.

“I need to work a little harder with it,” DeChambeau said of a swing that still had its pop, but none of its accuracy. “Just didn't have anything out there. Attitude is great. I love being out here again and respond to compete, but it sucks playing bad golf. So, it's just trying to climb the mountain top.”

He ranked ninth on the measured driving distance holes for the two rounds, but DeChambeau was T113th in driving accuracy and 118th in Strokes Gained: Approach The Green, giving himself no real chance to make the cut, much less compete for a victory.

Winning clearly could not have been part of the equation this week and as much as DeChambeau may have hoped for a better result, he learned a few things from his two rounds this week: He knows he is healthy. Hitting shots that may have given him pause at the PGA in his practice rounds or at home are no longer an issue. He pointed to one iffy shot on Friday out of the rough with a hybrid and didn’t experience any issues.

DeChambeau leaves Muirfield Village knowing what he knew before, that he wanted to recreate the swing he had during the 2017-18 season when he won three times, with 9 top 10’s and more than $8 million in prize money.

“I did something in 2017-18 that was, like, magical to me, where I just felt like I was invincible,” DeChambeau said. “Every day, I could have the same exact shot no matter what, no matter the conditions, no matter the pressure, no matter nothing.”

DeChambeau is trying to find a similar motion that he used in that dream season. So far he can’t find it.

He understands that the swing can be a little different as well as the spin of the ball, but the motion through impact should be relatively the same, and he just can’t get back to the same feels as he used to. So, when he talks about getting to the top of the mountain or going back to the drawing board, the quest is to get his feels back.

Currently, DeChambeau believes he is deep down a lot of different rabbit holes in regards to his swing and is looking for a consistent base to work from.

“I'll try and swing it more inside out for me to get it to draw more, and the ball will cut,” DeChambeau said, citing one example. “It doesn't make sense. You see the divot did and even though I swing it more inside out, the divots still left and I'm like, OK, there's a huge misconception between my perception and reality and so I can't resolve those two."

DeChambeau is used to being able to consistently draw and control the ball, and now for some reason he apparently can't.

“I know exactly what shots to hit,” he said. “I know how to shape it. I can visualize it, I can do everything that you know any psychologists would say to do, but don't think about the swing -- well, okay, that's great if you're swinging it really well. But if you're if you're moving it in the wrong way, and not giving it the right force, see you later.”