2023 Masters: Bryson DeChambeau doesn’t regret par-67 comments, is ‘slowly progressing back’

It wasn’t long ago when Bryson DeChambeau was on top of the golf world. 

He captured the 2020 U.S. Open while revolutionizing the sport with his long-driving skills. Then, a few months after his first major championship triumph at Winged Foot, he entered the 2020 Masters in November as confident as ever, saying he viewed Augusta National’s par-72 layout as a par-67. 

“I’m looking at it as a par-67 for me because I can reach all the par 5s in 2, no problem,” he said in 2020. “If the conditions stay the way they are, that’s what I feel like par is for me. That’s not me being bigheaded. I can hit it as far as I want to.”

Now, three Masters since, his game — and life — is in a much different place. However, DeChambeau still stands by those comments. 

Full-field tee times from the 87th Masters Tournament

“Do I regret? Everybody has a perspective on it,” DeChambeau said Monday. “I don’t think I regret anything. What I do understand is that I have a lot of respect for the course. Because of that statement, [people] think I don’t have respect for the course. Are you kidding me? This is one of the greatest golf courses in the entire world, and if anybody thinks I don’t have respect for the course, they’d better go check out who I actually am, because it’s not accurate one bit.

“Hypothetically, theoretically, look, if you make 18 birdies, it’s going to be 54, right? It’s a perfect score, right? Unattainable; 67 every day, unattainable. It can happen, but is it likely to happen? Probably not. With the distance I’m hitting it and was hitting it, I thought there was a possibility, but that’s only with your A-game, and I should have rephrased that. If you have your A-game, there’s a good chance of being able to do that. 

“Long story short, I don’t want anybody to take it out of context.”

In 2020, DeChambeau finished T-34 in Augusta. He followed that up with a T-46 in ’21 and an MC last year, when he was 12 over after two rounds. 

In 2021, DeChambeau was still a top player in the world, but then injuries started to take a toll on him and he’s now ranked No. 155 in the world, largely because LIV events don’t receive world ranking points. At last year’s Masters, he said he was 80% healthy but then underwent surgery to repair a fractured hook of the hamate bone in his left wrist. 

The 29-year-old Texan then defected to LIV Golf last summer and has struggled with his game, having not finished higher than 10th in nine LIV starts. DeChambeau has recently endured struggles off the course, too, with his father passing away late last year. 

“I’ve never had a traumatic experience like that in my life, and I had a lot of weird stuff happen last year,” he said. “Not just going to different tour and Dad dying, I had other stuff, too. It was a huge learning year. I felt like it was just rooting me and humbling me all last year, and then this year I feel like I’m slowly progressing back again.”

DeChambeau says he’s “finally healthy” and isn’t swinging at “max speed” like was the past few years. And though things are much different than they were when he was looking at Augusta National as a par-67, he still feels he can get back to the top of the golf world. 

“I don’t come here to finish second,” he said, “but I will say that I’ve got a lot of work to do before I can get there.”