CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Bryson DeChambeau’s bid for another major title stalled late Saturday and left him needing to go “guns a-blazing” in the final round.
After moving into the lead at the PGA Championship with another audacious display of power and touch, DeChambeau came undone over a 30-minute span. He first rimmed out a 6-footer for par on 16 and then was fooled by the wind with his tee shot on the watery 17th – a bogey-double bogey stretch that didn’t just knock him out of the lead but likely cost him the PGA, too.
DeChambeau will now enter the final round six shots back of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
“A bit of misjudges and that cost me three shots,” DeChambeau said, “and I’m behind the 8-ball now. I’ve got to get my guns a-blazing tomorrow.”
What does that look like?
Not much different than what he put together Saturday at Quail Hollow.
DeChambeau hit driver on all but two holes as he continued to lead the field in driving distance, averaging 330.7 yards per pop. But in the third round, he finally capitalized on all of that length, getting it 5 under for the day before he stepped up to the tee on the 16th hole.
DeChambeau said he expected the wind, coming out of his right, to push his tee shot on 16 back toward the fairway but his shot still hung out in the right rough. And he also didn’t expect the breeze to turn back into his face on the tee on 17, when he watched what he thought was a perfectly struck 9-iron fall short into the pond. He settled for a third-round 69 and is now in a tie for ninth.
“It was just an unfortunate series of events that I can handle,” he said. “It’s just golf. Sometimes that happens.”
