DeChambeau feeling good about his hand, not so much his game

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Bryson DeChambeau launched his first tee shot that mattered seven weeks after he had surgery on his left hand for a broken hamate bone. The swelling was going down, he felt no pain even hitting a hybrid out of the rough and he was impressed with all but one thing.

“My golf swing is a wreck,” DeChambeau said.

In his first tournament since the Masters, he missed the cut at the Memorial with rounds of 76-77 and headed home to Dallas for a few days of rest and then full days of practice ahead of the U.S. Open.

“I just didn't have anything,” DeChambeau said. “My attitude was great. I loved being out here again. It just sucks playing bad golf.”

He laughed before adding, “Just trying to climb the mountain top again.”

When he returned from golf's pandemic-caused shutdown with an additional 40 pounds of muscle and mass, and a ball speed that was approaching 200 mph, DeChambeau won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot and reached as high as No. 4 in the world.

He's more interested in a few years prior, specifically 2017 and 2018. He wasn't as big. He wasn't as strong. But he considers that his best golf, and that's what he wants to create again.

“I hit it well in 2020 and 2021 sometimes,” he said. “I did something in ‘17-18 that was magical to me, where I felt like I was invincible. Every day I could hit the same exact shot no matter what — no matter the conditions, no matter the pressure, no matter nothing. For me, I've been trying to create those motions, and I can't find it."

DeChambeau appreciates that he is bigger, even though he is losing a little weight, and that his chest is wider and he's still chasing speed in his swing. He thinks that should have no bearing on finding the motion to “get to a place where it's