Washington, Aug 15, 2024 Agence France Presse: Bryson DeChambeau, who captured his second US Open title in June, sees a chance to go lower than his stunning 12-under par 58 when the LIV Golf Greenbrier starts Friday.
The 30-year-old US golfer matched the lowest score on a major golf tour last year when he shot a final-round 58 with a closing birdie to win the event at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
“I don’t know how to explain it. Just kind of semi-blacked out I guess,” DeChambeau said. “To make the 40-footer on the last hole for 58, that was just the cherry on top.
“A special place in my heart forever... probably one of the most special moments of my entire life.”
He matched the 58 fired by countryman Jim Furyk at the 2016 Travelers Championship as the lowest rounds on either the PGA Tour or LIV Golf.
DeChambeau said Wednesday he expects 57 and maybe lower scores are out there.
“Breaking 58, I’m sure someone is going to do it at one of these times at some point,” DeChambeau said. “We’re just too good now. There’s going to be a time where everything kind of lines up.
“It’s like runners breaking the four-minute mile. It was one person that broke it, and the next year there were 12 or whatever. I feel like that opens up the door.
“I believe there will be a 57 at some point, even a 56 potentially. It’s going to just get more consistent over the course of time. We’re just too good now.”
Greenbrier has offered up two other sub-60 scores in elite-level events.
Australian Stuart Appleby fired a 59 at the 2010 PGA Greenbrier Classic in the final round to win the event.
In 2019 at the PGA’s Greenbrier event, US golfer Kevin Chappell shot 59 in the second round and went on to finish level-47th.
“They’re all playing well to shoot in the 50s, but this place, it breeds that confidence in you, like you start making putts,” two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson said.
“And then it builds from there.”
Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters winner, likes the chances for a sub-60 round this week.
“These greens are so pure that if you’re hitting the ball really well and giving yourself a lot of looks, once that putter gets hot, you have an opportunity,” he said.
“There’s a decent amount of short enough holes where you’re going to have a lot of wedges. The par-5s, you’re getting to both of them with irons in your hand.”
DeChambeau, who played with a new driver last year when he made 13 birdies and only a lone bogey at the par-three eighth, birdied six of the first seven holes and the last four.
He said the 58 sparked his run to his major win this year.
“I had been struggling with my golf game, not really understanding how to get the job done,” DeChambeau said. “Just didn’t feel like I had it to win.
“That’s what jump-started me to how I’ve been playing this past year, jump-started me to winning the US Open this year and continuing to play some really stellar golf.”
DeChambeau aims for 57 and lower in LIV return to Greenbrier
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DeChambeau aims for 57 and lower in LIV return to Greenbrier
Two own goals save Arsenal blushes against Wolves
LONDON: Arsenal avoided a major embarrassment against Premier League bottom club Wolves on Saturday, benefiting from two own goals — one in stoppage time — to win 2-1 and move five points clear of Manchester City.
Manager Mikel Arteta admitted that his team had struggled to create clear chances and that the win should have been much more comfortable.
But he said that the manner of the victory would give the team a major boost.
“That gives you belief that regardless of how the game goes, you can always find a solution to win it,” he told TNT Sports.
“But now we’re going to have a clean week. We need to start to train certain aspects slowly, because if you don’t train them, you start to deteriorate a little bit.”
Arteta’s men were blunt in the first half, failing to muster a single shot on target as Gabriel Martinelli wasted a clutch of chances.
The Arsenal boss made three changes shortly before the hour mark, bringing on Leandro Trossard, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino for Martinelli, Eberechi Eze and Martin Zubimendi.
The Gunners mounted wave after wave of attacks, and Declan Rice’s shot midway through the second half — their first on target — was well saved by Sam Johnstone.
But in the 70th minute the sheer weight of pressure told to the enormous relief of an impatient and nervy Emirates crowd.
Johnstone flicked Bukayo Saka’s corner onto a post as he scrambled to reach the ball but it rebounded back onto his arm and into the net for an own goal.
Gabriel Jesus came on for Viktor Gyokores for his first home match after 11 months out injured.
Astonishingly, Wolves pulled level in the 90th minute, when Mateus Mane’s flat cross was headed in by Nigerian striker Tolu Arokodare.
But just as the Arsenal fans contemplated a damaging draw, the Gunners benefited from a second own goal.
Saka delivered a perfect cross which Jesus attacked but the ball was diverted into his own net by Wolves defender Yerson Mosquera.
Winless Wolves, with a ninth league defeat in a row, have mustered just two points from their 16 games so far and are on course for the worst season in Premier League history.
Pep Guardiola’s City travel to in-form Crystal Palace on Sunday seeking to close the gap to Arsenal, who have not won the Premier League since 2004.
