SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – Forget the sixth hole at Bay Hill.
This was the most excited Bryson DeChambeau had ever been on the course.
With 20-mph wind at his back – just as he’d hoped in practice – DeChambeau cleared the gallery down the right side of the fifth hole, took an absurd line over the water and prepared for liftoff at Whistling Straits.
“I said to myself, ‘All right, I have to aim at the green,’ so I did,” he said afterward. “So I just aimed at the green, and bombs away.”
His head-turning, 417-yard blast at the Ryder Cup left him just a flip wedge into the par 5. He converted the 4-footer for eagle on his way to a tied fourballs match against Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.
Match scoring for the 43 rd Ryder Cup
“I didn’t want to make par,” DeChambeau said, “because if I did, I would be walking home.”
DeChambeau’s partner, Scottie Scheffler, was still amazed at what he’d witnessed, even if they’d talked about this exact scenario earlier in the week.
“To have an opportunity to do that in competition was amazing,” Scheffler said. “I was jacked up for him as well.”
Scheffler said that DeChambeau pushed his drive slightly, but he was still taking a line that was roughly 200 yards right of where Scheffler was aiming. DeChambeau had only 72 yards into the green.
“It’s crazy for him to be able to commit to that shot,” Scheffler said. “It was great. That was a good spark for us and good momentum for the rest of the day.”