Little things add up to big frustration at Masters for Bryson DeChambeau

On Thursday, it looked as if Bryson DeChambeau had solved the Augusta National riddle in only his third Masters.

On Friday, he was sent back to the lab. After six relatively routine holes, DeChambeau’s second round became a series of fits and starts. His three birdies were buried by four bogeys and a double, resulting in 3-over-par 75 a day after his 66 shared the 18-hole lead.

The golfer with the mad scientist reputation initially reviewed it in rudimentary fashion.

Photos: 2019 Masters Round 2

“Just weird stuff,” he said. “Weird, weird, weird stuff. It was just a really weird day.”

The double-bogey on 10, he mostly understands. He caught a mud-ball from the fairway that sent his approach way left to begin his troubles. But before that, an approach on the ninth that went long and led to bogey? He explained that one in a more educational tone.

“I think what happened there was that I didn’t catch the spin rate,” he began. “I caught a lower spin rate with a lower trajectory and it just flew right over the green and just kept ascending.”

There’s more.

“Normally, we think on a downhill slope to an uphill flag, it's going to go shorter, it's going to play even more uphill and clearly the wind must have shifted just a little bit off of the right and not into us and I drew it with the wind and it actually helped it, probably helped it and then I had a lower spin rate and it just said, ‘See ya later.’ ”

It began well on Friday for DeChambeau.

With a two-putt birdie on No. 2 and after Brooks Koepka’s double-bogey on the same hole, DeChambeau held the lead alone through most of his first nine holes.

After his bogey on the ninth, things got worse on the 10th, where his approach sailed wide left and his recovery pitch went well over the other side of the green.

DeChambeau’s tee shot on the 12th stuck on the front bank. He pitched to 5 feet but missed the par putt. After par on 14, he appeared to right the ship on 15 with an up-and-down birdie from the right fringe. But he immediately gave that back with a sloppy 3-putt bogey on 16 – the missed par putt was just 3 feet. A pair of 2-putt pars completed the day.

Though consistency is obviously missing, he arrives at the midway point well within range of the leaders. He left the course, however, more concerned about function than scores.

“From a score perspective, I don’t care,” he said. “It’s more about the execution in situations, that’s what I care about the most. Every time I hit a good shot, I just seemed to not get rewarded, or every time I hit just a fraction of a bad shot it got amplified by something.

“And that was the story of the day, unfortunately, but I’ve got two more days to figure this out.”