Hungry DeChambeau devours Wolff but Power off his greens in Detroit
Bryson DeChambeau of the United States celebrates with the trophy after winning during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on July 05, 2020 at the Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Seamus Power can reflect on his uptick in form and look to the future with optimism but a mediocre day on the greens forced him to settle for a share of 12th place behind big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau in the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.
Tied for fourth, five shots behind overnight leader Matthew Wolff starting the day, the West Waterford man knew a fourth successive sub-70 round would catapult him close to the top 125 in the FedExCup standings as he bids to remain full playing rights but it was not to be.
He made a 13 footer for birdie at the first and a 17-footer at the third to get off to the dream start. But as DeChambeau (26) carded a best of the day, seven-under 65 to Wolff’s 71 to come from three shots behind the 21-year old to win his sixth PGA Tour title by three strokes on 23-under, Power played the remaining holes in two-over.
It added up to a level par 72 that left him in a nine-way tie for 12th on 14-under. Scores
Ranked third overall for strokes gained off the tee, the Toornaneena native crucially had 32 putts on the final day, leaving him 64th in the 70-man field on Sunday as he lost 2.198 strokes on the greens.
Things might have been different had he birdied the 621-yard fourth but after hitting a brilliant chip from an awkward lie to three feet above the hole, he missed that short birdie putt and immediately bogeyed the par-three fifth.
The 33-year old missed the 169-yard short hole to the right and left with difficult recovery from below the level of the green, he played for a backstop left of the pin but ended up leaving himself a slick 10 footer for par that eventually stopped on the lip.
Even when he two-putted the par-five seventh to move back to tied fourth on 16 under, he three-putted the eighth from 15 feet, missing from just 30 inches for his birdie.
He did well to avoid another three-putt at the 11th, walking away with a par after leaving a long-range birdie putt 12 feet short.
There were still enough holes left to make a charge but his hopes to a first top-10 finish since the RBC Heritage 14 months ago suffered successive killer blows when he made back to back bogeys at the 12th and 13th before picking up a final birdie of the day at the par-five 14th.
While he made $131,875 and moved up from 206th to 177th in the FedEx Cup standings, he does not get to start in this week’s Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village and may have to wait until the 3M Open In Minnesota from July 23-26 or the following week’s opposite-field Barracuda Championship in California for his next PGA Tour start.
As for DeChambeau, the Californian let his clubs do the talking following Saturday’s embarrassing rant, when he remonstrated with a TV camera man for following him too closely and explained that he was annoyed as unwanted TV coverage might damage his “brand” if he was caught misbehaving.
As Wolff played his first 10 holes in three-over, DeChambeau played the same stretch in five-under to take a five-stroke lead and after briefly opening the door by hitting a lay-up into water and bogeying the par-five 14th, he won going away.
While Wolff closed to within a shot with birdies at the 12th, 13th and 15th, DeChambeau birdied the 16th, then hit a 232-yard eight-iron from rough to the heart of the par-five 17th to extend his lead before completing the job with another birdie at the 18th.
This time he battered a 367-yard drive down the fairway — his 47th drive of 300 yards or more (average 329.9) and flicked a 98-yard wedge to four feet to claim his first win since the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open last November.
There were other moments, too, such as the extraordinary, 276-yard, sky-high approach over trees to the heart of the fourth green, setting up a two-putt birdie, or the way he waited for the green to clear before attacking the 399-yard 13th.
He was excited to win and emotional too because “I did do something a little different, I changed my body, changed my mindset in the game and I was able to accomplish a win while playing a completely different style of golf.”
He added: “And it's pretty amazing to see that and I hope it's an inspiration to a lot of people that if they set their mind to it, you can accomplish it. It just takes a lot of hard work, a lot of figuring out things that you may not know and understand yet, but if you keep going down the line and you keep working on it, figuring stuff out, eventually you'll get a little bit better each and every day and hopefully that leads to something great in the end.”
As for his comments on Saturday, when he felt a TV cameraman had over-focussed on him in the moments after he had a fit of pique in a bunker, potentially damaging his “brand”, he felt misunderstood, showing it was he who had understood little.
“I mean, look, I'm not going to comment any more on the stuff that happened yesterday. Look, I respect everybody and I think people took it the wrong way and I'm sorry that they did so,” he said.
“My job and my idea is never to devise [sic] anyone -- not create any divisive nature, I just want to provide the best entertainment out here. I just felt like a minute long for videoing me was kind of a little weird, but we talked it out and it was all great and no issues, no issues whatsoever. So, appreciate what they do, appreciate everybody that works hard out here to provide great entertainment.”
As for Wolff, the 21-year old was left to regret his slow start and he chalked the final round to experience.
“The only thing you can do is learn from this experience and feel more and more comfortable the more times you're in that position, so next time I'll feel more comfortable and the time after that I'll feel even more comfortable,” Wolff said.
“Obviously it would be really nice to win, but how I started off the day, I feel like I was letting things get to me a little more than I had at the beginning of the week, just little bad breaks, bad shots, stuff like that.”
Power will be in action on Korn Ferry Tour in the TPC San Antonio Challenge at the Canyons Field in Texas as Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry return to action at Muirfield Village for this week’s Workaday Classic
