05 April 2023 , 08:10
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LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau has insisted he has "a lot of respect" for Augusta National and does not regret claiming he could play it as a par-67 course.
DeChambeau made the bold claim ahead of the 2020 Masters, having just claimed his first major championship a month earlier with victory at the US Open. "I'm looking at it as a par-67 for me because I can reach all the par-5s in 2, no problem," he proclaimed about the par-72 course.
"If the conditions stay the way they are, that's what I feel like par is for me. That's not me being bigheaded. I can hit it as far as I want to."
However, DeChambeau's comments backfired as he finished T-34 that year, T-46 the following year and then failed to make the cut at all last year. Despite his poor record at the Masters, DeChambeau has stood by his comments ahead of this year's Masters.
"Do I regret? Everybody has a perspective on it," he said. "I don't think I regret anything. What I do understand is that I have a lot of respect for the course.
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"Because of that statement, [people] think I don't have respect for the course. Are you kidding me?
DeChambeau has stood by his previous claim the Augusta National is a par-67 course (Getty Images)"This is one of the greatest golf courses in the entire world, and if anybody thinks I don't have respect for the course, they'd better go check out who I actually am, because it's not accurate one bit.
"Hypothetically, theoretically, look, if you make 18 birdies, it's going to be 54, right? It's a perfect score, right? Unattainable; 67 every day, unattainable. It can happen, but is it likely to happen? Probably not.
"With the distance I'm hitting it and was hitting it, I thought there was a possibility, but that's only with your A-game, and I should have rephrased that. If you have your A-game, there's a good chance of being able to do that."