By Kent Gray
The golfing world stops for no man, rolling relentlessly on week after week, from country to country. This week the focus is firmly on King Abdullah Economic City and not just because the Saudi International, a new $3.5 million stop on the European Tour, has lured four of the world’s top five players including the new Omega Dubai Desert Classic champion.
But before we get engrossed in the battle at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club and the inevitable political commentary, we couldn’t help but take one last review of Bryson DeChambeau’s record-shattering seven-stroke victory at Emirates Golf Club on Sunday.
The rewind is not without justification; the five wins the 25-year-old American has racked up in the last 13 months is more than anyone in golf.
DeChambeau started the week in the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and ended it atop the Burj Al Arab with the fabled Dallah taken along for some pretty special celebration snaps.
Amazing experience today at the top of the @BurjAlArab. Thank you to Falcon Golf for arranging this for us! pic.twitter.com/fZ7vWaeX2x
— Bryson DeChambeau (@b_dechambeau) January 28, 2019
It wasn’t quite Tiger Woods walloping balls from the Burj Al Arab’s helipad but a nice touch from Falcon Golf nonetheless. But the piece of social media we’ve really enjoyed in the aftermath of DeChambeau’s final round 64 on Sunday is this ditty between the Californian and his caddie Tim Tucker courtesy of the European Tour. Enjoy:
An insight into @B_DeChambeau’s process ? pic.twitter.com/WfTyzstkDu
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 27, 2019
Some have questioned the time it takes DeChambeau and Tucker to go through this next level pre-shoot routine. The scientific approach can be painfully slow but the American has support from some of his peers, including the always thoughtful Eddie Pepperell:
Some of the slowest players I’ve played with have also been the best. It isn’t at all clear to me that a lack of deliberation improves performance, in fact, my experience shows the contrary.
— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) January 28, 2019
The back and forth with Tucker over air density takes us back to DeChambeau’s fascinating champions’ press conference where he said he hoped he could do with science what Tiger Woods did for golf with his previously unseen fitness regime back in the 90s.
Here’s a refresher of that intriguing interview where DeChambeau says: “I think more people are going to start taking into account, like, oh, my gosh, this is actually not a joke. This is legitimate science.”
While we are at it, here’s a look at DeChambeau’s key stats from the week on the Majlis. Let us not forget he didn’t bring his “A-Game” until Sunday either:
The numbers behind the victory.
Here’s Bryson’s @RSMUK winning formula ? pic.twitter.com/x5VOJdX0i8
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 28, 2019
The European Tour, always on point with their social media, produced this handy new interactive cap as well:
Swipe through an interactive recap of the facts behind @B_DeChambeau‘s victory in Dubai… https://t.co/cZrGbw9knD
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 28, 2019
Finally, talking of superstars in the making, how about the rise and rise of the Spaniard Pedro Rodriguez? He certainly played well on the Majlis, didn’t he?
We made up a golfer. And asked fans about him…
The myth of Pedro Rodriguez ? pic.twitter.com/chYsfSQK85
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 28, 2019
If you were one of those duped, we wish you well facing your mates on the tee next time. Well played European Tour, well played.