Arnold Palmer must have loved looking down and seeing the Bryson DeChambeau long-drive show this week.
Palmer, who famously drove the green at the par-4 first hole in the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open en route to victory, lived to go for broke and his advice for competitors at the tournament bearing his name was to play boldly.
One day after DeChambeau dazzled fans with a 370-yard blast at the par-5, sixth hole at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, he crushed one even farther.
This time, DeChambeau took two deep breaths and smashed driver 377 yards. His ball cleared the water at the double-dogleg easily and bounced through the fairway into a fairway bunker. He had 88 yards left to the hole.
That was 50 yards longer than the previous longest drive on Sunday, a 327-yard poke by Brendan Steele.
Arnold Palmer Invitational: Leaderboard | Photos
Lee Westwood had the unenviable task of following DeChambeau’s blast and hit one 306 yards along a safer line, leaving him 256 yards from the hole. That was only 168 yards farther from the hole than DeChambeau. Westwood celebrated being dry off the tee by raising both arms to the sky, mimicking DeChambeau’s celebration on Saturday. As he walked up the fairway, Westwood knocked knuckles with DeChambeau.
Architect Dick Wilson created one of the great risk-reward par-5s, where competitors get to choose how much of the water they want to bite off. The farther left you aim, the shorter the approach shot. However, the sixth hole can bite both ways.
A few groups earlier, Rory McIlroy, 7 under at the time and still in the thick of the trophy hunt, rinsed two tee shots in the water. The Northern Irishman is one of the best drivers of the ball in golf and he had smoked one 361 yards on Saturday. He had enough in the tank to nearly match DeChambeau, but under the gun on Sunday, he fired multiple blanks. McIlroy did hit his third tee shot 324 yards and stick his sixth shot close and salvaged a double bogey, but it essentially ended his hopes of becoming a two-time champ at Arnie’s place.
As much as DeChambeau’s power game stole the show this week, he failed to fully take advantage of his prodigious drive. He came up short of the green with his second shot, just as he had the day before. But he pitched to 4 feet and converted for the birdie to keep pace with Westwood, and remain tied for the lead at 11 under.
DeChambeau never did aim for the sixth green during the tournament, which would have required a carry of 342 yards. But he recorded three birdies on the hole, taking advantage of his power and whipping the reduced crowds this week at Bay Hill into a frenzy.
The sixth hole at Bay Hill showed once again why it is one of the coolest holes on the PGA Tour. It gave us Victor Perez making an 11 on Saturday and DeChambeau’s smoke show. Arnie would’ve loved every bit of it.