New York Post, Sunday, November 15, 2020nypost.comBy Mark CannizzaroAUGUSTA, Ga. — Bryson
DeChambeau, golf ’s biggest
story and the favorite to win
the Masters this week, has
become an afterthought at
Augusta National the past
two days.
He barely made the 36-
hole cut on Saturday morn-
ing and afterward revealed
he’s been feeling sick — ill
enough that he went for a
COVID-19 test Friday night,
testing negative. DeCham-
beau enters Sunday’s final
round at 3-under, 13 shots
behind leader Dustin
Johnson.
The 27-year-old light-
ning rod struggled
through his opening
round and was fortu-
nate to finish with a
2-under 70 on Thurs-
day. He wasn’t as for-
tunate in his second
round, which began
on Friday and was
marred by a lost-
ball triple-bogey 7
on the par-3 third
hole.
Resuming his
second round on
the 13th hole Sat-
urday morning,
DeChambeau
rallied with
birdies on 13, 14
and 16 to get
himself to2-under and seemingly in a
comfortable spot to make
the cut, which ended up be-
ing even par.
But he had bogeys on Nos.
17 and 18, his final two holes,
to finish with a second-
round 74 and stand at even
par through 36 holes.
He then had to sweat out
the final groups coming in
hoping the cut, which was
low 50 scores and ties, did
not move to 1-under. It
didn’t, and DeChambeau es-
caped the ignominy of miss-
ing the cut after speaking so
boldly of his chances to win
this week.
Complicating matters,
DeChambeau, who seems
to have drama follow his ev-
ery move, said after his sec-
ond round that he wasn’t
feeling well physically on
Thursday and went for the
COVID-19 test Friday night.
“I was feeling something
a little weird two nights
ago, and I came out [Fri-
day] and was fine for the
most part,’’ he said. “As I
kept going through the
round [Saturday], I started
getting a little dizzy. I don’t
know what was going on, alittle something weird.
“I got checked for COVID
[Friday] night and I was
fine, nothing. It wasn’t that.
It’s no respiratory anything.
It’s more of just very dizzy,
and I’ve got a pain in my
stomach. Just some weird
stuff going on. Every time
I’d bend over and come
back up, I’d like lose my
stance a little bit.
“So, I don’t know what’s
going on. I’ve got to go and
do some blood work and get
checked out and figure out
what’s going on for this off-
season.’’
Asked if he was still feel-
ing ill after the round, De-
Chambeau said, “Yeah, I’m
not good unfortunately.
There’s like something in
my stomach that’s just not
doing well.’’
Still, after a short break,
he went out to played his
third round, during which
he shot a 3-under 69.
“I just felt kind of dull and
numb out there, just not
fully aware of everything
and [was] making some
silly, silly mistakes,’’ he said.
The worst thing to hap-
pen to DeChambeau on thecourse was the jarring triple
on No. 3 Friday.
After the allowed three
minutes to search for his tee
shot in the left rough, De-
Chambeau had to go back to
the tee and reload. As he
was on the fourth hole, a
marshal who found the ball
while DeChambeau was
putting out for his triple on
the third green, gave him
the ball.
Too little too late.
“I mean, definitely throws
you for a loop when the guy
goes and gives you the ball
on the fourth tee box [and
says], ‘Oh, I found it,’ ’’ De-
Chambeau said. “It just
seems like there’s a lot of
things going not the right
way. I’ve certainly played
worse golf than this and
won golf tournaments. It’s
golf. You can’t control ev-
erything as much as you
try.’’
Louis Oosthuizen, one of
DeChambeau’s paying part-
ners the first two rounds,
said he “could see he was
off,’’ adding, “I could see he
wasn’t on his game, and you
get those things. You get
those days.’’DeChambeau just makes it
after week full of bluster
By Mark CannizzaroAUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods’ last official
act at this week’s Masters will be slipping the
green jacket over the shoulders of the 2020
winner on Sunday afternoon. Because his
chances of defending his 2019 title evapo-
rated in a haze of non-descript, mediocre
golf on Saturday.
Woods began the third
round Saturday four shots out
of the lead. By day’s end at
Augusta National, Woods
was 11 shots out of the lead
held by Dustin Johnson — Woods
5-under and Johnson 16-under.
Woods spent his third round
running in place, shooting an
even-par 72, while most of the
rest of the contenders passed
him by.➤Jon Rahm was in no
mood for the first question
he faced after shooting a
frustrating even-par 72 in
the third round to fallfrom a tie of the lead to seven shots behind
leader Dustin Johnson.
“How would you describe the day?’’ Rahm was
asked.
“Seriously?’’ Rahm said. “How would I de-
scribe? Pretty awful. I mean, playing good golf,
[I] got a great mud ball on 8, a great mud ball
on 18 and I didn’t make a single putt. No way I
can be happy about it. The golf course was
there for scoring, I was playing good,
and couldn’t take advantage of any-
thing.
“[I] fought my ass off at the end to
try to salvage an under-par round, and
I couldn’t. [I’m] really far back to start [Sunday].
That’s all I can say. I’ve got to hope to shoot a
miracle score to have a chance.’’➤As the second round concluded Saturday
morning, it marked the first time in major cham-
pionship history that the top three players in the
Official World Rankings were tied for the lead
entering the final 36 holes.
Dustin Johnson, ranked No. 1, Rahm, ranked
second, and Justin Thomas, ranked third, were
tied with Mexico’s Abraham Ancer (ranked
21st) and Aussie Cam Smith (45th).Woods plays way out of contention
MASTERS
NOTES
BRY’, OH MY:
Bryson DeChambeau
reacts to his putt on the
15th hole as he
finished his second
round of the Masters
on Saturday. He
recovered in his third
round with a
3-under 69 after a short
break. Getty Images