Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy charge up Masters leaderboard

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Bryson DeChambeau had turned in one of the day’s best performances, outdriving the next-longest driver by an average of 15 full yards and needing only 24 putts to get through his opening round of the Masters. So what did he do? DeChambeau reported right to the driving range Thursday evening for some postround practice.

He kept swinging, shot after shot, until he was the last golfer remaining. Soon it was dark, past 8 p.m. All of the fans and most of the workers had left for the day, but DeChambeau continued blasting balls into the Georgia night.

He was certain he had a better round in him, and DeChambeau reported to work for the second round Friday eager to prove it. The 31-year old reigning U.S. Open champion made a charge up the leaderboard, carding five birdies and posting a 68. He entered the clubhouse at 7 under par, a shot off the lead and helping set the stage for what promises to be a memorable weekend, with several of the game’s heavyweights in contention.

DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are all in the hunt, trying to reel in Justin Rose, a two-time runner-up here. He shot a second-round 71, putting him atop the leaderboard at 8 under par. This marks the third time the 44-year -old Englishman has had at least a share of the lead 36 holes through the Masters.

“This is what golf is about. Got a lot of great names up there,” DeChambeau said, “and looking forward to an unbelievable test of golf.”

After McIlroy’s disappointing finish on Thursday – two double bogeys in the final four holes for a par round – the North Irishman provided some fireworks on Friday, a bogey-free round that included a spectacular eagle on No. 13. He turned in the lowest round of the day, a 6-under 66 that left him at 6 under and two shots behind Rose heading into the weekend.

“Overall, just proud of myself with how I responded today after the finish last night,” McIlroy said. “I just had to remind myself that I played very good golf yesterday and I wasn’t going to let two bad holes dictate the narrative for the rest of the week.”

Friday’s gusty conditions and slick greens laid waste to several of the game’s most accomplished players, including Brooks Koepka (5 over), Cam Smith (5 over), Adam Scott (5 over), Sergio Garcia (4 over) and Dustin Johnson (3 over), as well as Bernhard Langer, the two-time Masters champion who was playing in his 41st and final Masters.

DeChambeau is assured of playing the weekend, though he’s never been viewed as a perfect fit for an Augusta National course that demands precision, patience and discipline. In his first five trips here, he finished no better than 21st – and that came when he was the low-amateur at age 22.

“I think as an amateur, I felt like I knew the golf course pretty well, but I didn’t know how to control a lot of the nerves that flowed through my body,” he said, “and that was something that I still work on today.”

DeChambeau missed the cut in 2022 and 2023, and at one point went six consecutive rounds scoring no better than 74. But last year he was the first-round leader after posting a 65, and though he failed to break par in the three ensuing rounds, DeChambeau showed himself and the golf world that he knew his way around the course.

“Each year I learn a little bit more about winds and how it affects the golf ball on a certain hole or a certain slope around a pin location,” DeChambeau said earlier this week, “just little things that continue to improve my knowledge around the golf course.”

His opening-round 69 on Thursday meant he’d begin the second round tied for fifth. But he didn’t stay there long, posting birdies on three of the first five holes, including chipping in from the bunker on the par-3 fourth hole. Perhaps most impressive was his birdie on the fifth hole, which is playing harder than any other hole thus far and has seen only eight birdies compared with 57 bogeys midway through Friday’s round.

Over the years, DeChambeau has approached the game as both a muscle-bound brute and a calculating mad scientist. The current iteration of DeChambeau is a bit of both, an overzealous student determined to master the maddening game.

On the first day of this Masters, DeChambeau hit 210 balls at the range, according to tournament statistics. No one else hit more than 164 and most hit well below 100. Rose, the first-round leader, hit only 30 on Thursday, in fact.

But for DeChambeau, the entire tournament is a process, and he’s constantly fine-tuning – his equipment and his game. On the range, a member of his team carries more than a dozen driver heads in a backpack. Surely, one of those will work, he figures, and DeChambeau will keep swinging until he finds the right one.

“For speeds of my caliber, it has to be super precise,” he said. “So I’m testing different heads to see how it reacts, how I feel, how it feels in my hands.”

The extra work has paid off thus far for the LIV golfer. He was tied for first after the second round last year, but then shot 4 over par on the final 36 holes, ending the tournament tied for sixth. If there’s one thing that is certain, DeChambeau has spent the past 12 months working to improve on that – ball after ball after ball, with visions of a green jacket fueling him.

“A lifelong dream come true,” he said. “Something I dreamt about as a kid.”