Shane Lowry: Bryson’s US Open win is more than just tee-box booming

There’s been a lot of chat about Bryson DeChambeau’s US Open win but it’s pretty simple really.

Bryson used his strength to his advantage and fair dues to him. We all have our strengths and he’s using his very well at the minute.

From the outside looking in, there’s the temptation to think Bryson won by bombing it 350 yards off the tee and then using a pitching wedge to get to the green, while the rest out us were just hitting it 300 yards and using a 7 iron.

But when you dig into the breakdown of his scores, his all-round game was very good.

I had a look on Sunday evening at the stats and he was top five for putting – and that is what you’ve got to do to win the big tournaments.

His new-found length off the tee has helped an awful lot – but it’s not everything. What’s incredible is how straight he hits it as well.

There’s plenty of big hitters on Tour who can hit it that far – but they’re nowhere near as straight as Bryson is. Matt Wolff is a big hitter and got himself into contention on Saturday on the back of that, but he then paid the price on Sunday for being too wayward off the tee.

A course like Winged Foot will punish you severely if you stray too far off the fairways and that’s ultimately what happened to everyone else – even if they could drive as far as Bryson.

There’s a danger in thinking that Bryson has just arrived on the scene since he’s started hitting it miles, but he’s a multi-tournament winner and was top five in the world rankings before his first win in a Major at the weekend.

He was a top player even before embarking on this strategy of bulking up and hitting it as far as he could.

There’s plenty more to his game than meets the eye.

He’ll go into the US Masters in November as one of the favourites to win it now and his ‘long driving’ strategy will really, really suit Augusta at that time of year.

The course will play long and soft with the date change to the winter and the longer you hit it and the straighter you hit it – the better chance you’ll have to win the US Masters.

Read More:

• Shane Lowry: I feel a sense of duty towards the Irish Open
• Shane Lowry: The lack of spectators hasn’t changed my attitude on tour
• Shane Lowry: Tony Soprano and the gym kept me sane during Lockdown

THE PADDY POWER GUIDE TO RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW