Bryson DeChambeau shot a sublime six birdies in his third Round 2 at Pinehurst to give the American the lead on the final day of the US Open
Bryson DeChambeau passionately celebrated several important holes on Saturday
Bryson DeChambeau firmly embraces the role of scientific showman as the American and his “salty balls” chase US Open glory.
DeChambeau holds the lead heading into the final day of the US Open. He is the only major he plans to win, having done so in 2020 at Winged Foot. He racked up an impressive six birdies on Saturday, shooting three under. 67 and leads Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay and Matthieu Pavon at three under seven.
Such leadership as a major is no accident. DeChambeau takes his craft very seriously, carefully treating golf like a science to find any edge in his game, including the use of salt balls.
“I put Epsom salts on my golf ball,” DeChambeau told reporters. “I’m lucky that Connor, my manager, does that now. I don’t have to. But basically we float golf balls in the solution to make sure the golf ball doesn’t get out of balance.
It used to be a big deal where golf balls were unbalanced and it was simply due to the production process. There will always be mistakes, especially when dealing with a ball with raised edges. You can’t center it perfectly. So what I do is almost an imbalance of how unbalanced it is. The heavy slide floats to the bottom and then we mark the top with a dot to make sure it always rolls over itself. It acts like mud.
“If there is too much weight on one side, you can put it 90 degrees to where the mud is on the right side or the mud on the left side. I use the mud as a reference for the weight there. It flies differently and inconsistently Most of the golf balls we get don’t matter.
I try to be as accurate as possible and it’s another step to make sure my golf ball flies as straight as possible because I’m not that good at hitting it straight.
DeChambeau may not consider himself “good” at hitting the ball straight, but he hits it well enough to pass Pinehurst No. 2. He’s in prime position to add a long-awaited second major, and it certainly wasn’t a straight road to get here..
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