Bryson DeChambeau nearly pulls off upset at PLDA World Championships

Bryson DeChambeau is getting pretty good at this long drive thing.

Competing in the Professional Long Drivers Association’s World Championships for the second straight year, DeChambeau nearly pulled off a massive upset on Saturday in Mesquite, Nevada. He improved on last year’s seventh-place debut to finish runner-up to Martin Borgmeier in the Open division.

Borgmeier won with a long drive of 426 yards, 20 yards better than DeChambeau’s best total of 406. Borgmeier also hit a 415-yarder. DeChambeau found the grid three out of six times in the final after hitting a drive 407 yards to advance out of the semifinal.

DeChambeau did not talk with the YouTube broadcast afterward, but Borgmeier spoke fondly of DeChambeau in his victory speech.

“There is one very, very important thing, and all of you guys know: I would not be here, none of us would be here with the improvements in technology, if one guy wouldn’t have come in a year ago to make the sport what it is right now, and I think he’s on a very good track to come back, and that guy is Bryson DeChambeau,” said Borgmeier, who has become friends with DeChambeau since the 2020 U.S. Open champ and now LIV Golf competitor delved into long drive last year as part of his chase for extreme distance.

“He also came in second. What is going on?” he added. “That guy is a professional golfer and he’s putting up these ball speed numbers. He lights it up in the final, hitting 400 plus; no one has ever done that before. People don’t realize how crazy that is.”