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Muscle man Bryson DeChambeau won his second tournament as the first golf professional of the season.

At the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, the 27-year-old American was one shot better than the Briton Lee Westwood after the final round on Sunday.

DeChambeau played a round of 71 on the final day and needed a total of 277 strokes.

He had won the US Open in September, and overall the success in Florida was the ninth tournament victory of his career.

DeChambeau's approach to the sixth track should be remembered even more than the success.

The muscle man used his physical advantage to the delight of the fans admitted to the Bay Hill Club & Lodge when he hit the ball twice directly over the lake on the weekend instead of playing the par-5 course designed in the form of a U conventionally.

When he almost aimed in the direction of the green for the first time on Saturday, the team-mates looked in disbelief, the spectators hooted and cheered DeChambeau on.

It looked like it was aiming at the open sea.

But somewhere behind the water there was land again after a good 300 meters.

"I felt like a child again"

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"I was pretty nervous," admitted DeChambeau later, who had already thrown his arms up while the ball was flying.

Both Saturday and Sunday the ball flew well over the water.

For almost every competitor, such an attempt would have been a blow in the water, which is why no one else attempted this venture in the first place, as the following graphic shows.

The red line shows DeChambeau's strike, the landing points of the other players can be seen at the bottom.

DeChambeau strikes across the water, the rest of the field takes the route planned by the architect

Source: PGA Tour

“Oh man, I felt like a kid again,” he said of the moment we landed: “It was almost like winning a tournament.

I got goosebumps when I saw that there was no splash. "

And so the weekend showed that DeChambeau is finally playing in a league of its own, yes, in a new era.

At least as far as the lengths of his strokes are concerned.

The American had used the lockdown and gained over ten kilograms of muscle mass in the past year alone, a total of over 20. He now weighs 115 kilograms with a height of 1.85 meters.

310 km / h ball speed on average

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The transformation had only one goal: more length.

The success is immense.

According to his own information, he hit the ball over the 400-yard mark (365 meters) for the first time in October 2020.

On the PGA tour, he leads all the relevant statistics in this regard.

Nobody hits from the tee (on average 295 meters), nobody gives their ball more speed (on average 310 km / h).

They used to call the studied physicist "Professor" because of his scientific and meticulous approach.

In contrast to the competition, DeChambeau plays with a set of irons in which each club has the same length.

Depending on the distance to the hole, golfers use clubs whose angle of inclination (loft) changes.

The bigger it gets, the shorter the shaft actually is.

Not so with DeChambeau, who, regardless of the distance, always has the same distance to the ball and can therefore always perform the same swing.

Nevertheless, the "professor" was yesterday.

Today they call the once slender DeChambeau "Hulk".

In the industry there is a mixture of admiration and disgust for his achievements.

Some say that he uses every opportunity to subordinate himself to the game.

Others see the entire sport in jeopardy because DeChambau with its lengths makes large parts of the golf course architecture ad absurdum.

DeChambeau reaches out: Pay attention to the shape of the racket just before the moment when it hits the ball

Source: AFP / SAM GREENWOOD

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In his US Open victory in the fall, which was also his first major triumph, DeChambeau thrashed the ball so far that obstacles such as bunkers or lakes were simply no problem.

The fact that he lost accuracy in the process and that he often lay in deep grass could not harm him.

His strength also enabled him to hit precise strokes from such positions, especially since he hardly had a relevant distance to overcome.

The evidence for this is provided by the statistics of the drive accuracy.

This measures how often the professionals hit the fairway.

DeChambeau ranks 128th here with 58.7 percent. It's not even average.

Despite all the criticism of his approach, people tend to forget that DeChambeau has also mastered the subtleties of the game, without which, despite all his strength, it would not work.

In the Fed-Ex-Cup, the annual ranking of the PGA Tour, he is already leading, and in the world rankings he is sixth.

It is probably only a matter of time to the top.

Especially since DeChambeau wasn't that happy with his game at Bay Hill.

At the end of a memorable tournament, he followed the physical threat with a verbal one: "Even if I don't have all the components of my game together, I am able to deliver and win."

The sixth green in Bay Hill: In the distance behind the lake is the tee from which DeChambeau aimed here

Source: AFP / Mike Ehrmann