Lose, lose, lose, win.
That has been Bryson DeChambeau’s result in his last four events, but as he stood on the 18th green in the final round of the LIV Golf Korea event, the three previous losses were far in the rearview mirror with his third LIV individual win.
Losing is a familiar result if you play professional golf for a living. Still, in DeChambeau’s case, he was in the final group at LIV Miami, The Masters, and LIV Mexico, but faltered in the final round every time.
So, when DeChambeau started Sunday in Incheon, the last three events had to be somewhere on his mind.
“I was personally pretty nervous on the front nine for whatever reason,” DeChambeau said after his final round 66. “That putt I made on 8 was great, two-putt on 9. After the 9th hole, I don’t know what hit me, I just said, you know what, just play like a kid again, and I started doing that on the back nine and striped a 3-wood on 11, gave me a lot of confidence.”
Recording 20 birdies and a lone bogey in the final round, DeChambeau showed nothing but supreme confidence, almost like the last three failures meant nothing.
The other dynamic that DeChambeau had to address was the fact that the final threesome included his Crusher teammate Charles Howell III.
Good friends, Howell started the day five shots behind the Crushers’ captain but methodically chipped away at DeChambeau’s lead.
Starting the round with three consecutive birdies, Howell was a constant irritant to DeChambeau, and when he made his lone bogey of the tournament on the sixth hole, and then Howell made his fourth birdie, the lead was just one shot.
When the group made the turn, they would record 12 birdies, and when Howell made a birdie on the 14th, the lead had evaporated.
After both birdied the par 5 15th hole, the match turned on the par 4 16th hole when Howell found the right fairway bunker, 30 yards behind DeChambeau, who was at just 137 yards from the hole.
The Augusta native could not get to the green, and his third stayed on the front edge, leaving Howell with a 17-footer that was short of par.
Getting back his one-shot lead propelled DeChambeau with birdies on the final two holes, 48 footer on the 17th and tap-in on the 18th and a two-shot victory over Howell.
“Chucky and I had a great battle out there. He never wavered today, it felt like, until 16,” DeChambeau said. “It felt like he was just pushing forward, and he was going to shoot 10, 11-under today. I thought, my goodness, I don’t know if I could beat that today.”
When Howell made birdie on the final hole he signed for a 9-under 63, it was the 45-year-old’s lowest round under par in his LIV Golf career.
Listen, I knew today would be a tough day to catch Bryson and even to try to beat him, but I gave it my best,” Howell said after his round. “I definitely would have thought 9-under would have done it, and clearly it didn’t.”
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