If You Want to “Go Low,” Take a Page Out of Bryson’s Playbook

By capping-off the historic-week with an exclamation-point of this magnitude via the champion’s final-round score of 12 under-par, 58, Bryson DeChambeau reached 23-under and bested all of his competitors by at-least six-shots; including runner-up Mito Pereira (-17) and company during LIV Golf’s most-recent event hosted-at the Greenbrier located-in West Virginia.

After joining another U.S. Open-champion in 17-time PGA-Tour winner, Jim Furyk (of) who (-m) won his at Olympia Fields in 2003, as the only other-player who’s ever gone as low as 58 within any PGA-Tour/LIV Golf event , the 8-time PGA Tour winner generously offered-up the kind-of quality-insight into his playing/practice-regime (of) which is critical in order to fully-comprehend/appreciate how much of a complete-player the 29-year old (in) DeChambeau is today.

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In order to-embrace making birdie-after-birdie like Bryson did thru his 13 red-numbers within the final-round, the 2015 U.S. Amateur winner leans-on an unrelenting-mindset (of) which he refined during practice-rounds as a junior/men’s-golfer where he’d play the junior/ladies sets-of-tees. For single-digit players/high-level juniors who are learning to-go low or want to see how low they can go, playing the forward-tees like Bryson (does) is an excellent-tactic that’s definitely worth the two-to-four hours of your precious time.

Generally speaking, there’s an abundant-supply of good-golfers in-demand who tend-to underestimate the inherent-difficulty of going-low while (also) playing from short-distances/forward-tees. Over the course of roughly two-decades, I played hundreds-of-rounds on a par-35, 9-hole short-course that measures merely 26-2700 yards and, still, the tricky-layout wasn’t/isn’t a birdie-fest for players’ lacking a sharp short-game and/or accuracy/precision from the tee-box/into-the-green.

Regardless of the course’s reputation; (of) which is oftentimes reliant upon its length and subsequent/perceived level-of-difficulty, making-birdies or holing-the-ball in the least-amount of strokes requires quality-play inside 100-150 yards. If you know what it feels like to-play scared after playing-well for x-amount of holes or, to be more-specific, you’ve choked after rolling-along nicely at well-beneath par/under-par thru nine holes (or at any point in your round), you’re in prime-position to-learn how to better-manage your game/emotions amid an onslaught of birdies or good-scores.

As Bryson proved at the Greenbrier, learning how to-be more comfortable in relatively unchartered-waters comes with experience (in) putting yourself in those types-of situations. Even for the best players in the world, handling/managing the five, six, seven under (-par) mark within a (-ny) round-of-golf can be daunting; or everything-but straightforward/routine.

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At the end of the day, the guys who are getting up-and-down from all-over God’s creation are the same-guys better-handling high-intensity situations when compared-to the purer ball-strikers who too-often find themselves losing the battle on-the-greens; unless you’re today’s version of Jason Dufner at the 2013 PGA Championship. According to the 64-time PGA Tour winner, Ben Hogan, the secret to becoming a better-putter lies in your ability to hit it closer/nearer to the hole. Since we aren’t able to swing-it quite as well as Hogan once did, and even if we could, we still need all the help we can get when we’re trying to-go low/facing an uncomfortably-low score.

Despite the aforementioned-course’s short-length of 26-2700 yards, I have not witnessed one plus-handicapper, or any other-player for that matter, break-30/shoot 6-under or better on it. For those of you who are skeptical towards the merits tied-to playing courses from forward-tees, I can assure you that electing-to engage-in teeing-it-forward is beneficial for/as it provides the exact-perspective one needs to-attack all types-of golf courses.

Including Bryson’s pair of six-shot victories arriving-at the Greenbrier and the 2020 U.S. Open, the Southern Methodist University standout-player has captured five of his ten-total PGA/European/LIV Tour-titles by three-shots or more. Of these spectacular-performances, Bryson’s seven-shot win at the 2019 Dubai Desert Classic ranks as his most-dominant multiple-shot victory via strictly margin-of-victory.

Clearly, The Mad Scientist is no-stranger to blowing-away his competition, and doing so at levels which are reminiscent of past-performances put-on display by players like Brooks Koepka who won by 4 at the 2017 U.S. Open, Martin Kaymer who won the 2014 U.S. Open by 8, Rory McIlroy who won his first-major by 8, or Tiger Woods who seemingly won just-about everything in the early 2000’s by a lot. Although the average-player needn’t concern themselves with overcoming the mental-barrier (of) which oftentimes accompanies scores in the range of the low-60’s/high-50’s , the typical mid-handicapper still possesses goals and strives towards them while facing pressure-packed moments.

Aside from the obvious mental-hurdle that exists while playing for something/anything of meaning/substance to-you, playing a shorter-track than you’re used-to poses as a physical-challenge just as much as it applies-stress on your mental/emotional capacities. If your favorite-hole at your home-club is the 420 yard-par 4 second-hole from the men’s tees, that same-hole may not sit so well with you once you decide to play it from merely 360 yards. Suddenly, you might be forced to-negotiate the creek that bisects the fairway at 260 from the forward-tees as opposed to 320 from the men’s tees.

After choosing to-play aggressively thru flying the creek positioned-at 260-265 yards with your 295-yard tee-shot, such boldness off-the-tee only rewards you with a tricky, 62-yard flip-wedge to a front-left hole-location on-the-green (of) which is guarded upfront by a deep, green-side bunker and poses-as less-enticing/comfortable than hitting your smooth pitching-wedge from-122 would-be to that same-hole had you hit your typical tee-ball from the men’s tees.

Scared of short-siding yourself in-the-bunker with your 62-yard approach, you nuke your lob-wedge 40-feet past-the-pin to the back-portion of the green’s surface and before you have time to-blink you’re grinding-over your five-foot par-putt (and) on the same-hole which once had birdie written all-over-it; given that you were playing-it from the forward-tees. According to the USGA, the junior/ladies’ sets-of-tees are positioned 1,018 yards nearer-to the hole than the mens’ sets-of-tees are on-average (and) across all 18-hole golf-courses in the nation. Knowing this, the average-hole in America presents players with a 56.555-yard difference between the mens’ tee and the ladies’ tee.

Using an adequate sample-size of data to-arrive at the proper-conclusion, it’s reasonable to-expect golfers to-shoot significantly lower/better-scores on any 18-hole course from roughly 1000-yards closer in-proximity to the hole. Within this pre-defined context/range that contains “significantly better-scores” , there exists a variety of different, yet, better-scores whether it’s two-shots or ten-shots lower from the forward-tees. Oftentimes, 18-hole courses from the mens-tee/back-tee play-to a course-rating value (of) which is 4-or-5 shots higher/more-difficult than it is from about 1000-yards shorter via the junior-tee/senior-tee. Despite the condescending-nature of your personal-opinion; one which says that a course measuring about-5200 yards with a course-rating of 66/67, for example, meets-the-eye as more of a joke than an actual golf-course, I can assure you that many of the strongest-Division 1 college-players are (each) familiar with what it feels like to shoot 71 from 7,000 yards one-day and 69 from 6,000 yards the very-next.

Until they learn how-to keep the momentum-alive/going (mid-round, or) when the round is being-played by teeing-it-forward during practice and/or engaging-in other-practice/playing routines (of) which are designed-to help-them better-execute from inside 100-150 yards, rest-assured that going-low on ANY type-of golf-course is no picnic.

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