The Telegraph
Bryson DeChambeau blames mediocre showing on ‘dizzy spells’ after narrowly avoiding Masters cut
Bryson DeChambeau, the pre-Masters favourite, scraped inside the cutline and then blamed his mediocre showing in the opening two rounds on “dizzy spells” that saw hims take a test for Covid-19. Resuming his second round on one-over in the storm-delayed event, the US Open champion seemed to have played his way back into the tournament when immediately picking up three birdies in four holes from the 13th. But then, DeChambeau sloppily bogeyed the final two holes to face an anxious wait to see if he would make it on level par after a 74. In tense scenes it came down to Rafael Cabrera-Bello’s last hole. If the Spanish Ryder Cup player had birdied the ninth (his 18th) then DeChambeau and a host of others including England’s Matt Fitzpatrick and 2015 champion Jordan Spieth would have been heading home. But Cabrera-Bello could only par and DeChambeau was able to take his place in the third round, albeit nine shots off the pace. It was hardly the performance that DeChambeau, or his hype-filled build-up, would have expected, but the 27-year-old had an explanation for an erratic display that featured a triple-bogey, a double-bogey, seven bogeys and 12 birdies in the first 36 holes, not to mention a lost ball and two provisionals. “Not good, to say the least,” DeChambeau replied, when asked how was feeling following his second round. “I was feeling something a little weird two nights ago, and I came out yesterday and was fine for the most part. But as I kept going through the round, I started getting a little dizzy. “So I got checked for Covid last night, and I was fine, nothing. I don’t know what happened, but these past couple days, I’ve felt really, really odd and just not 100 percent. Some of that’s played into it. I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure. DeChambeau expanded on how his game had been affected. “Every time I’d bend over and come back up, I’d lose my stance a bit,” he said. ”I’ve got to go and do some blood work and get checked out. I had to do my due diligence [by being tested] I made sure everybody on my team was negative as well. So it wasn’t that. It’s no respiratory anything. It’s more of just very dizzy, and I’ve a pain in my stomach. Just some weird stuff going on.” Certainly, over those opening rounds, DeChambeau looked nothing like the golfer who dominated Winged Foot at the end of September, bludgeoning his way to a six-shot triumph for his first major title. At that point, he became the favourite for the season’s final major and that status only solidified with reports of a 400-yard plus drive – on the fly – in practice, as well as uber-confident sounds from the Californian, including that he believed Augusta is “a par 67 for me and not a par 72”. As well as feeling under the weather, DeChambeau had another answer for his error-strewn form. “A couple of misjudgments with the wet ground,” he said. “Wet ground and water has always been my nemesis for some reason, just can’t figure it out, whereas some people have no problem. Something I’ve got to work on this off-season. I’ve got to figure out some golf ball stuff. “But I’m more concerned about the health. I want to fix my body. You know me. Last time I had back issues, I went and fixed that, and I haven’t really had any body issues since. Until now. It’s internal.”
