Monday, August 7, 2023

'Mr 58' Bryson

 


Has 'Mr 58' Bryson DeChambeau Staked His Ryder Cup Claim?

There have been calls for the American to make Team USA after his stunning 58 to win the LIV Golf League event at The Greenbrier

Bryson DeChambeau celebrates holing a putt
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Bryson DeChambeau won his first LIV Golf individual title with a sensational 61-58 final 36-hole score at The Greenbrier.

The Crushers GC captain shot 12-under-par in the final round with 13 birdies and four pars along with one bogey.

It is the culmination of a good run of form for DeChambeau, who was runner-up to Talor Gooch at LIV Golf Valderrama last month after a T4 finish at the PGA Championship in May and a T20 at the US Open in June.

 

He now sits fifth in the LIV Golf League table and calls have come in from LIV fans that Bryson simply needs to be on Team USA in Rome. 

"Well, I appreciate that," DeChambeau said in response to LIV Golf's Dom Boulet, who told the American that he deserved to be on Team USA.

"I'm playing really well. I've got some equipment that's performing quite nicely off the driver, and that's a deadly combination with my putting. So clearly I putted well, drove it well, wedged it pretty well.

"You couldn't have written it up better than this, but if I do get a call, that would be awesome. If not, I'll be rooting them on over in Rome."

Bryson DeChambeau hoists a LIV Golf trophy in the air

(Image credit: Getty Images)

While he's clearly in good form, it is by far a given that he'll make his third Ryder Cup appearance.

Zach Johnson hasn't exactly shown himself to be a huge fan, or follower, of LIV Golf this year - after hinting in May that he didn't even know which channel it was on - and three-time LIV winner Talor Gooch is probably ahead of Bryson in the pecking order, and even he now seems an unlikely pick for Johnson.

Once Johnson's six automatic qualifiers are confirmed, he'll have an extra six picks. As things stand, the front runners for those picks will be the likes of Max Homa, Jordan Spieth, Tony Finau, Cameron Young, Rickie Fowler, Sam Burns and Justin Thomas. Gooch and DeChambeau, along with Dustin Johnson who went 5/5 at Whistling Straits last time out, could find themselves being overlooked.

Realistically, Spieth, Young, Fowler, Homa and Young are all frontrunners to be on the team, meaning there could only be a couple of spots left. Johnson may also opt for Justin Thomas due to his experience and partnership with Jordan Spieth after his T12 at the Wyndham Championship showed that his game is at least trending back towards where it needs to be.

Zach Johnson names his wildcards on the 28th August. DeChambeau has just one event left in the LIV Golf League before the picks are announced - this week at Trump Bedminster. He has just two events left before the Ryder Cup including this week.

Bryson caught the eyes of the golfing world with his 58 at The Greenbrier, including Zach Johnson's, but golf moves on very quickly. If he doesn't win this week and the likes of Finau and Burns light it up in the Playoffs, he may well find himself looking on from the sidelines.

We're set to learn a lot more in the next three weeks as the Playoff events are where those on the verge will either make it in or fall out. If none of the contenders find form and DeChambeau wins or finishes well this week, he might just make it in.

DeChambeau knew what he signed up for when he joined LIV, that his chances to earn Ryder Cup points would come in the four men's Majors. His results this year have been solid (MC-T4-T20-T60) but those alone won't have been enough to walk onto the team.

On the flip side, though, he is clearly playing some excellent golf.

Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler fist bump at the 2021 Ryder Cup

Scheffler and DeChambeau won 1.5 points from two four ball matches at the 2021 Ryder Cup

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Johnson may fancy him to partner up with Scottie Scheffler in the four balls again, with the duo forming a good partnership last time out. He also won his singles match against Sergio Garcia.

The US Captain may also like the DeChambeau/Koepka partnership with the former rivals now seemingly close friends.

So has he staked his Ryder Cup claim? Yes but no.

Only time will tell, but his 58 may just be a little too late with the US side set to play three consecutive weeks in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Johnson's PGA Tour wildcard hopefuls will be doing their best to catch his eye before the picks are announced on 28th August, and one or two might do just that.

Elliott Heath
Senior Staff Writer

Elliott Heath is our Senior Staff Writer and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news, features, courses and travel sections as well as our large FacebookTwitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as four Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays at West Byfleet Golf Club in Surrey, where his handicap index floats anywhere between 2-5. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: TaylorMade SIM2 Max

Hybrid: TaylorMade SIM Max

Irons: Mizuno MP5 4-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

Pee-wee Herman

 



PASSAGES

PAUL REUBENS (1952–2023)

Paul Reubens on the set of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), directed by Tim Burton. Photo: Barry King/Sygma via Getty Images.

PAUL REUBENS, who died on July 30, aged seventy, was not just an American original, entertainer, actor, mischief-maker, and mensch, but a great artist. His most famous creation was, of course, Pee-wee Herman, the adorably bonkers, puppy-dog-eyed anarchist in red bowtie and gray plaid suit who took TV off into a wild and wonderful dreamscape totally beyond anywhere (or anything!) it had been before. A CalArts alumnus (student of Allan Kaprow; classmate of David Hasselhoff), Reubens said, “I always felt [Pee-wee] was conceptual art but no one knew that except me.” Yup, he got right into the Reagan-era mainstream when things were hideous to the max and created all kinds of hallucinogenic chaos. Behold his masterpiece, Pee-wee’s Playhouse (1986–91): At the height of the AIDS crisis, queer royalty came over every Saturday morning: Little Richard! Sandra Bernhard! Grace Jones! His adventures, lair, and pals were wholly innocent and extremely subversive, an outrageous celebration of imagination and otherness run amok at a time when that was severely endangered. No other show (nominally “for kids”) has ever been louder or more delighted about being Art, a simultaneously freaky and extremely heartwarming carnival high on its own psychedelic rollercoaster aesthetics, full of nonstop chaos. It was a neon gift and a gateway drug for tons of kids who grew up to be artists. Gathered below, a mourning chorus of friends, collaborators, and devotees give just a hint of the magical singularity of his talents and influence—and of how deeply he’ll be missed.

Charlie Fox

Pee-wee Herman is right up there with Howdy Doody and Lassie on the Greatest Characters in American TV list. Paul Reubens was a loyal friend, a gentleman, and a scholar of the delightful. Even fashion will never be the same without him. Didn’t Pee-wee come before Thom Browne?

John Waters

In the late ’90s, I visited his house and he and I were having a conversation about the disappearance of street hustlers in Hollywood. “Most are gone except the one on Santa Monica near Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, big muscled dude, wears only shreds of what must’ve once been silk gym shorts and a pink bikini top.” “Oh, you must mean Reggie. You know I’ve been wondering where my favorite bikini top had wandered off to.” I kind of “oh golly” believed him for a moment.

Richard Hawkins

Publicity still from Pee-wee’s Playhouse, a television show on CBS, 1986. Miss Yvonne and Pee-wee Herman (Lynne Marie Stewart and Paul Reubens). Photo: John Kisch Archive/Getty Images.

Paul Reubens is in heaven now with all those Last Wish kids he said goodbye to long ago. He cared greatly that all kids find their way.

Gary Panter

I remember my mother would get upset if she caught me watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse on TV when I was a child because she thought it was ‘perverted.’ Perhaps she was right; however, sometimes things that are perverted are also really good.

Sam McKinniss

the world sucks ass!!!! it’s not a place i want to be all the time. pee-wee’s playhouse is the universe i want to live in. it was the perfect paradise all us freaks wished we could visit as kids and remains the place we still wish we could go as adults. i didn’t just “watch” pee-wee’s playhouse as a kid: i went to FREAK PARADISE!!!! i was invited there!!!! i was allowed in!!! it was the coolest hangout in town!!!!! it was so fucking real to me and i had all these crazy friends who lived inside the fridge and the fishtank and i was surrounded by beautiful art made by the best freak weirdo artists and musicians and comedians. 

in pee-wee’s playhouse, humans and puppets and cartoons alike spoke a shared language that inspired us and made us laugh. it’s where sweetness and camp and REAL humor and pure, unadulterated JOY reigned supreme. it transformed the way many of us create art: what if our art could be the playhouse you could teleport into when everything fucking sucks and is total crap and shit!!!!!!!! everything i ever make is in pursuit of recreating the experience of going to the playhouse, of capturing that feeling of first being sent on a magic rocket ship ride through the claymation woods, through the red front door, and into that room with talking windows and magic screens and the little weirdo in the little gray suit. 

it’s hard to talk about paul reubens. how can i ever put into words the meaning of the singular artist and comedian who shaped my entire worldview and showed me what art makes possible? the man who created a whole world and deserved so much more than he got? life was boring, and then paul showed up and made it exciting. and more than that, he showed us that the excitement was right there all along, waiting to be coaxed out. to me? that’s godlike behavior.





ARTISTS REMEMBER ARTISTS. For Artforum, writer Charlie Fox asked a number of people to share tributes to the late Paul Reubens, the “entertainer, actor, mischief-maker, and mensch” who played Pee-wee Herman, and the responses glow. Reubens, who died last week at 70, “was a loyal friend, a gentleman, and a scholar of the delightful,” filmmaker John Waters said. “He cared greatly that all kids find their way,” in the words of cartoonist Gary Panter. Artist  Richard Hawkins shared a gem of an anecdote—and there is more! Meanwhile, in ArtReviewJeremy Deller discussed the life and work of the outré wrestler and artist Adrian Street, who died late last month. His Florida home, Deller said, “was an entire world of his creation, filled with mementos, images and videos of him wrestling—a museum to himself and his achievements.”  




Sarah Sherman (aka Sarah Squirm)

DeChambeau wins LIV with final round 58

 

DECHAMBAU SHOOTS 58 TO WIN LIV EVENT

Bryson DeChambeau
Bryson DeChambeau produced one of the most remarkable rounds in the history of golf on Sunday, shooting a final round 58 to win the LIV Golf Greenbrier title.
Find Out the DeChambeau's Record-Breaking Round





Bryon DeChambeau leaps into the air after holing a 40-foot putt on the 18th hole to record a 12-under-par 58 at LIV Golf Greenbrier

DeChambeau wins LIV Golf Greenbrier with final round 58

Bryson DeChambeau produced one of the most remarkable rounds in the history of golf on Sunday, shooting a final round 58 to win the LIV Golf Greenbrier title.

The 2020 US Open champion had 13 birdies and one bogey in his 12-under-par round to finish 23-under for the 54-hole event in West Virginia and win by six shots from Chile’s Mito Pereira, who had a closing 63.

The 202o US Open champion birdied 22 of his last 34 holes – he shot a 61 on Saturday – to record his first victory since the 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. He closed out his final round – which was played in heavy rain – with a 40-foot birdie putt. 

The Old White course which hosted this week’s LIV tournament has a history of producing low scores, and was the scene of a 59 from Australian Stuart Appleby during a PGA Tour event in 2010.

DeChambeau’s score matches the lowest round on the PGA Tour, set by Jim Furyk in 2016 at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut.

DeChambeau said: “It is probably the greatest moment in my golfing career. I’ve been working so hard for a long time and I knew something special was going to come at some point. I just didn’t know when. I had something special going on today, and I just felt super comfortable over tee shots and was able to play the course the way it was designed.”

He added: “It has been a really difficult couple of years, but doing it this way and finishing out with a 58….it’s just amazing what I was able to do. I’m super excited.”

Bryson DeChambeau won his first LIV Golf event after firing 21 birdies in the final 36 holes of the 54-hole tournament

HOW MANY ROUNDS OF 58 OR BETTER HAVE THERE BEEN?

There have only been a handful of rounds of 58 recorded in top-level professional golf. Two were on the Japan Tour, posted by Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa in 2010 at The Crowns and by South Korean Kim Seong-hyeon in 2021 at the Golf Partner Pro-Am. German Stephan Jager had a 58 on the Web.com Tour in California in 2016 and Spain’s Alejandro del Rey hit the same mark on the Challenge Tour in Switzerland in 2021. There have also been a number of 58s on developmental tours, while Irishman David Carey made a 57 at the Cervino Open on the third-tier Alps Tour in 2019.

De Chambeau’s performance was quite enough to help the Crushers win the team event, which went to the all-Spanish speaking Torque GC,  with Pereira, David Puig (66) and captain Joaquin Niemann (66) supplying the counting scores Sunday for a team total of -49. They finished three shots in front of Crushers GC. with Stinger GC took the last podium spot at 40 under.

Hampshire’s Richard Bland enjoyed his best finish of his LIV Golf career with a third-placed finish which took the 50-year-old into 23rd in the individual points list for the season. Only the top 24 players are guaranteed spots for the 2024 LIV Golf League at the end of the season.