2020 Masters: Bryson DeChambeau on no green-reading books: ‘It’s a lot harder’

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Unlike at regular PGA Tour events, players won’t have their noses deep into those detailed green-reading books here at Augusta National.

That can make a big difference for a data-driven player like Bryson DeChambeau.

“Absolutely, it’s a lot harder,” DeChambeau said Tuesday. “But growing up in college, we didn’t have greens books, and I played well then. I’ve played well here the last couple years and gotten pretty comfortable with the greens.”

Ranked 10th in strokes gained: putting on Tour last season, DeChambeau has fared reasonably well on the greens at Augusta National, finishing inside the top 10 in putts per round in two of his three career appearances (he was 50th in that statistic in 2018).

Asked about the impact of not having the books that show each green in forensic detail, DeChambeau said: “It’ll be a lot more time spent on the greens these next few days. I’m going to go out there today. We know somewhat where the pins are going to be, but I’m going to try and really get comfortable with those areas and in my mind know what they are just based on how much it’s breaking off of our starting line in that area. So I’ll do a really detailed practice around that on each and ever hole location over the next couple days. …

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“At the end of the day, I still go based off of my intuition most of the time. I look at something, OK, I think it looks a little like this. The times where I’ve putted best have been where my intuition is matched up with reality, and what it’s actually doing because sometimes (the greens books) can be wrong.”