Bryson DeChambeau and Augusta National are a perfect pair

Bryson DeChambeau winning the Masters this week, at a course seemingly made for him, would change the game of golf forever

Ninety years ago, golf legend Bobby Jones first laid eyes on Fruitland Nurseries in Augusta, Georgia.

The land was so pristine, the colors of the blooming flowers so spectacular, it was if, as Jones later recalled, it had been waiting all those years for someone to build a golf course on it. But whatever vision Jones had, he couldn’t imagine that one day a player like Bryson DeChambeau would threaten to make his masterpiece obsolete.

DeChambeau’s game was crafted for a course like Augusta National and a tournament like the Masters. His booming drives leave all the par-fives on the course easily reachable for him. The fairway obstacles that were put there to challenge other players pose no problem for him; he simply hits it past them.

Already, as DeChambeau prepares this week to play his fifth Masters, he’s shown glimpses of how he plans to play the course during his practice rounds. On the first hole, his line off the tee is over the trees on the right, taking the fairway bunker out of play and leaving him nothing more than a wedge into the green. He’ll attempt to drive the green on the par-four third hole and go above the trees on the ninth. The deep fairway bunkers on No. 5? DeChambeau drove past them into the wind in practice.

DeChambeau recognizes that, at Augusta more than most other courses, his prodigious driving ability gives him a distinct advantage. “I certainly believe that to be the case. I think there is a place where I do put an expectation value that, I think I have a good chance to play well here,” he said at his Tuesday morning press conference.

“There’s certain holes out here where length does help tremendously. So if you look at it from a statistical point of view, there are a lot of advantages to be had with length for me.”

DeChambeau leads the PGA Tour this season in driving distance (320.8 yards) and Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. He’s first in par-five scoring and played the par-fives at Augusta in nine-under when the tournament was held last November. The last four Masters champions have been an average of 10-under on the par-fives that week.

Based on these numbers, DeChambeau should dominate a place like Augusta National, just as he did at Winged Foot in winning the U.S. Open last September. But, at least so far in his career, his prowess hasn’t translated into success. His best finish remains a tie for 21st as an amateur in his first Masters in 2016. Last November, when he came in as one of the pre-tournament favorites amid speculation he would obliterate the course, he struggled to a tie for 34th and complained about feeling dizzy all week.

His problems have been on Augusta’s notorious sloping greens. While DeChambeau ranks sixth in driving since his Masters debut, he’s 70th in putting. Augusta is a course that forbids players from using the green-reading books that DeChambeau has come to rely on. He’s made some strides to improve his performance on the greens; when he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, DeChambeau ranked sixth in putting during the final round. He also ranks 15th in Strokes Gained: Approach this season, a stat that, more than any other, best predicts how a player will perform at Augusta National.

A victory by DeChambeau at the Masters would ignite a firestorm in golf about where the game is headed. He’s been testing a new Cobra driver this week, one with a five-degree face that provides more consistency at ball speeds approaching 200 miles per hour. It could be the weapon he needs to overcome his past Masters struggles.

In 1997, after Tiger Woods won his first Green Jacket by out-muscling everybody and blowing it past the rest of the field, the powers that be at Augusta “tiger-proofed” the course; it plays 500 yards longer than it did 20 years ago. DeChambeau slipping on the jacket in Butler Cabin on Sunday would produce a similar era-changing effect: how to stop him and the next generation from reducing Jones’s vision to dust.

It’s a seismic shift that’s already happening at the lower levels of the game. “You’re already starting to see it with kids. I’ve had numerous college kids (messaging) me on Instagram asking me how do I get stronger, how do I get faster. So you’re already starting to see it all the way from the collegiate level to the junior golf level,” DeChambeau said.

“There’s still a chipping aspect to it, there’s still a putting aspect to it. But from a driving aspect, that’s where the gains will be had is with these athletes coming out in the future. It won’t stop. There’s just no way it will stop. I think it’s good for the game.”

The wave is coming. DeChambeau is simply leading the way, and there’s little Jones’ former nursery could do to stop it.