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NORTON — On Thursday, Bryson DeChambeau tucked his right hand into his pocket, and the tip of his middle finger was stuck by a tee. The skin on his fingertip was peeled right back.
“Very easily done and it hurt really bad,’’ DeChambeau said after Friday’s first round of the Dell Technologies Championship. “It actually caught the top and split it back.’’
Then he shrugged and added, “But it’s all right, shot 2 under.’’
It’s about results, regardless of how a golfer gets there. DeChambeau is known for getting there in idiosyncratic ways, but this time he had to play with a Band-Aid around the tip of the damaged finger.
DeChambeau fought his way around TPC Boston in swirling winds, dropping three birdies and avoiding a bogey until the very last hole for a 2-under-par 69. He is three shots back of leader Dustin Johnson.
“This is only my second event in the playoffs,’’ he said. “I’m just excited to be here.’’
Only 23, DeChambeau has been labeled the most interesting man in golf, as well as a “mad scientist.’’
He’s known for his retro Ben Hogan cap, and he’s known for his love of science, and he’s known for his unusual equipment (his irons and wedges are cut to exactly the same length, 37½ inches). But it wasn’t until July of this year that he became known as a PGA Tour winner.
That’s when he wrapped up the John Deere Classic, knocking down four birdies in the last six holes, including a 14-foot putt at 18 that clinched the win.
“About a month and a half to two months ago, before I won the John Deere, I didn’t even know I was going to be in the playoffs,’’ said DeChambeau, who came to Boston ranked 48th in the FedEx Cup standings. “That’s the weird part and scary part about it as well.
“I think that it would mean the world to me to be able to come from not even having a chance to making it and then all of a sudden here, having a pretty darned good chance to make it.’’
DeChambeau first built his name in golf when he won both the US Amateur and the NCAA championship in the same year, 2015. It’s a feat only four others have accomplished (Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore).
The story of his unusual clubs and scientific bent came with him to the Tour in 2016, but the results were not such a good story when he had but one top-10 finish and had to play in the Web.com finals to retain his Tour card.
Now he seems to be picking up steam, even as he is still learning how to play.
“It’s not easy,’’ he said. “I’ve been managing myself really well. That’s one of the things I’m learning out here. Being able to get it in the hole when the going gets tough.
“When your swing really isn’t on par, being able to get it in the fairway or hit it on the green and two-putt from 50 feet, just to keep the momentum going.‘’
DeChambeau’s latest equipment project is the golf ball, a collaboration with Woods and Bridgestone. They’re trying to make a ball that flies better.
“We have some input as to what we like and feel and see, want to see out of a ball flight, the trajectory of it,’’ DeChambeau said.
“The golf ball, you can’t do much with a golf ball. There’s so many limitations on it now that all you can do is better the aerodynamics a little bit, and so seeing different trajectories in different winds is what we’re trying to accomplish now.
“I know Tiger is obviously trying to do that. He’s coming back. It was great to see him chipping the other day, or yesterday. It was pretty sweet seeing that.’’
DeChambeau knows now it’s not about the number of dimples on the ball. He acknowledged that it was not the look of things that mattered so much.
“Ultimately it comes down to that: Who plays the holes better,’’ he said. “It’s not necessarily who has a better advantage technically, it’s who plays the holes better at that point in time.’’
