South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen has hailed Bryson DeChambeau’s impressive US Open triumph and believes the American could be redefining the way golf is played.
DeChambeau delivered a final-round masterclass as he stormed to his first-ever Major victory with a six-shot victory at Winged Foot Golf Club.
The big hitter was the only player to finish the week under par and also the only player on Sunday to break 70 for the final round.
Oosthuizen, who finished in third place after he concluded with a 73 on Sunday, believes DeChambeau’s different approach to playing golf helped him stay afloat, while all the other players tumbled under the testing conditions in New York.
READ: Big hitter Bryson wins US Open
‘Bryson is playing his own little golf course at the moment. This golf course definitely showed its teeth today with the firmness of the greens and the fairways and the wind, and it was just tough,’ said Oosthuizen after his round.
‘I think he’s busy setting his own little way of playing, in the sense of I don’t think they can set it up for him, to be honest. I don’t know what they can do really because he’s hitting it so far. He’s so strong out of the rough and he’s probably one of the best putters out there, which in a week that he really putts well, you’re going to have a lot of trouble.’
Since golf’s restart after the Covid-19-enforced break, DeChambeau has emerged as almost a complete new player, having bulked up and adjusted his swing to make him one of the longest hitters in the game currently.
His unconventional and scientific approach to shot playing – often criticised as too time-consuming – has also had a massive influence on his success on the PGA Tour, according to Oosthuizen.
4-shot lead.
4 holes left.@B_DeChambeau is cruising at the @USOpenGolf. pic.twitter.com/k7SQuelTpO— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 20, 2020
‘It’s great to see. Hats off to him for what he’s doing. He went out on this journey, and he’s pulling it off. He’s playing great golf,’ added Oosthuizen.
Speaking about his own personal performance at the US Open and particularly the tough battle during the final round, Oosthuizen believes he was very much in contention but DeChambeau’s brilliance made it impossible to catch up with him.
WATCH: Bryson wins at Winged Foot
‘It was really tough today. If you take him [DeChambeau] out, I’m right up there, but you know, if you take him out, then probably a little bit more nerves and stuff coming down the stretch, so there’s a lot of things that could go different then. But, you could see early on that I was looking behind me, just the two second shots they hit on the 1st into that hole location today were unbelievable shots. So, early on I could see the type of golf they were going to play, and I needed to step up a little bit.’
