Bryson DeChambeau has revealed how dizziness derailed his Masters campaign after admitting he needs to “get healthy” before meeting his aspirations for further major success.
The American went into last week’s final major of the year as the clear favourite due to his new big-hitting strategy, but failed to meet expectations as he barely made the cut before finishing up on Sunday two under par for the tournament - 18 shots behind eventual winner Dustin Johnson.
DeChambeau did himself no favours by backing himself to turn Augusta National - one of the toughest courses in the world - into a par 67, five shorter than its current design, which added the pressure to his campaign as many backed him to follow up his maiden major victory at the US Open earlier this year.
But the 27-year-old revealed that he had struggled throughout the weekend with health issues in his head, which resulted in bouts of dizziness particularly when he attempted to line up his putts.
"I've got to fix whatever is going on up here,” DeChambeau said. “I have no idea. Just dizziness. It's only when I go from down to up, so I can't even like think and talk right now. But that's just what happens, I go down and up and my brain gets all disoriented.
"There was numerous times where I was over it and I just felt super uncomfortable. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't see the line. It was really weird. I missed a lot of putts today. "
DeChambeau confirmed that he had taken a fresh coronavirus tst that had returned negative, but remained at a loss to understand what had gone wrong over the course of the weekend.
"I've got to get healthy first and foremost,” he added. “The good thing is my body feels great other than my head so I've just got to figure that out and I'll be good from there."
DeChambeau knew he had talked himself up at the start of the week only to struggle from the opening day, but he believes that there was enough in his game to prove he can go out and deliver the type of round that he insisted he was capable of.
"At the beginning of the week I felt like I could have a great chance to win the tournament if I just played my game,” he said. “Shoot, I made enough birdies (18) this week and eagles (1) to have a chance to win.
"I made way too many mistakes that I've got to talk about with my caddie and go, ‘Hey, how do we not make these mistakes anymore, how can we work better as a team to have that not happen?’
"At Winged Foot we did a great job of it. This week we didn't. We didn't place it in the right places and I mis-hit a lot of shots that usually are pretty easy for me.
"Numerous factors that were in play, but to have all this adversity and to still finish it off somewhat decent and be under par for the week is great, even though I feel like I shot 15 over for the week to be honest with you. It was one of those things, one of those weeks."
