A year ago in winning LIV Golf Greenbrier, Bryson DeChambeau shot a final-round 58. He made 13 birdies. But he didn’t make an eagle – and he suffered one bogey.
Theoretically, he left some shots out there.
So, while DeChambeau famously tries to Break 50 in tandem with other golfers and/or celebrities – the latest one with two-time major winner John Daly dropped Wednesday on his YouTube channel – might the Crushers GC captain Break 58 this week at The Old White?
“I’m sure someone is going to do it one of these times at some point,” DeChambeau replied Wednesday. “We’re just too good now.”
Someone actually did it earlier this year on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour, when Chile’s Cristobal del Solar shot 57 at a tournament in Colombia. In 2019, David Carey shot 57 on the third-tier Alps Tour.
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DeChambeau’s fellow LIV Golf competitor, Stinger GC captain Louis Oosthuizen, shot a 15-under 57 in 2002 during his amateur days while playing his home course in Mossel Bay, South Africa. The 57 reference is now part of Oosthuizen’s brand – his Louis 57 Academy, his Louis57 wines, his Louis57TM social handle, and so on.
But no player on a top-tier professional tour or league has shot 57. DeChambeau’s 58 last year was the fourth 58 recorded at the highest level, joining Ryo Ishikawa (Japan Golf Tour) in 2010, Jim Furyk (PGA Tour) in 2016 and S.H. Kim (Japan Golf Tour) in 2021.
58, though, is the new 59.
When Al Geiberger became the first to shoot 59 in 1977, it took 14 more years until Chip Beck shot the next 59, and another eight years for David Duval to shoot the third one.
Breaking 60 has now become commonplace in recent years. It’s happened 14 times at the top tier since 2017, including four times in the first seven months of 2024 – and two of those players are competing in Greenbrier this week.
Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann opened the LIV Golf season with a 59 in the first round at Mayakoba, and reserve player John Catlin – replacing Graeme McDowell in the Smash GC lineup – shot 59 at the International Series Macau on the Asian Tour in March.
Bryson scorecard INSIDE image
“It’s starting to get a little easier,” DeChambeau said. “It’s like runners breaking I think the 4-minute mile; it was one person that broke it, and the next year there were 12 or whatever or something like that.
“I feel like that opens up the door, and with Joaquín shooting 59 this year, you’re just starting to see it more and more. I believe there will be a 57 at some point, even a 56 potentially.”
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Certainly no one should be surprised if any LIV Golf player shoots in the 50s this week. Besides DeChambeau’s 58 last year, The Old White gave up a couple of 59s when it previously hosted the Greenbrier Classic.
Of the 27 sub-60 rounds shot at the top level, more than 10% have been recorded at The Old White course. Why?
“It’s the condition of the course first,” said RangeGoats GC Captain Bubba Watson, a former Greenbrier resident who knows Greenbrier as well as anybody in the field. “The greens are always running really nice. They’re smooth. So that gives you confidence there. Then if you’re hitting your driver well.
“I think if you look at everybody, obviously they’re all playing well to shoot in the 50s, but this place, it breeds that confidence in you.”
DeChambeau recalled that he “kind of semi-blacked out” during last year’s round. So focused on winning the tournament, and then battling the rain down the stretch, he never deviated from the immediate task.
Of course, he knew when he drained his final birdie putt, a 40-footer at the 18th, that 58 was in the books.
“He didn’t think about the rain,” Watson said of DeChambeau. “He was so focused on what he was doing because he was in that moment, blacked-out moment where he just was so focused on his goal that he wasn’t even thinking about the score, and then next thing you know you add up the score and you’re in the 50s.”
Patrick Reed is another big fan of The Old White course. He said it’s a perfect set-up for a bomber who keeps his tee shots in the fairway. At Greenbrier last year, DeChambeau put a new Krank Golf driver in the bag for the first time, and he fed off the confidence that club provided.
Reed said Greenbrier’s scoreable set-up encourages players to be aggressive.
“Every time I come here it reminds me of every time I’ve played the Monday qualifiers,” Reed explained. “You had 18 holes, you had to shoot 6-, 7-under a day, at worst 5-under to have a chance. I mean, it shows. Every time you come out here, you have sub-60s a couple times out here, but at the same time, you see I’m pretty sure a decent amount of 61s, 62s, 63s happen.
“Here on LIV when you only have 54 holes, if someone goes out and shoots something like that, you can’t go out and shoot 68 and have a chance. You have to go out and get out to a 5-, 6-, 7-under par start and after that you have to do it every day because you have to go low.”
DeChambeau did shoot 68 in the opening round a year ago, but it took a 61-58 weekend to earn his first LIV Golf title. He was tied for 25th after the first day, so he had to be super-aggressive just to get back into contention.
It was the perfect storm for shooting 58.
DeChambeau, who had struggled for results up to that point since joining LIV Golf, called it “the day my life changed for the better.” He won his second LIV Golf title soon after, and his renewed confidence carried over to 2024 in which he finished a career-best T6 at the Masters, shot 20 under to finish second at the PGA Championship, then culminated with his second U.S. Open title at Pinehurst in June.
No wonder he described his 58 at Greenbrier “a special moment, a special place in my heart forever. The greatest scoring round of my life.”
Well, for now at least.
Main image: Bryson DeChambeau. LIV Golf
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