Bryson DeChambeau Finishes Second At Long Drive World Championship

The world's longest hitters descended on the finals of the Professional Long Drivers Association’s World Championships on Saturday and, amongst the 16 was none other than former US Open winner, Bryson DeChambeau.

Last year, the American finished seventh at the tournament but, coming in to this year's event, he had only one week of preparation and hand surgery not so long ago. However, that didn't stop DeChambeau from nearly pulling off a huge upset, as he made it through to the last eight and into the final against Germany's Martin Borgmeier.

Going head-to-head in the final against Borgmeier, DeChambeau drove three of his six drives into the grid, with his maximum being a gigantic 406 yards. Borgmeier though, demolished his third to 415 yards, before a 426 yard bomb proved to be the decisive blow. 

Following his victory, a clearly pumped up Borgmeier said: “There is one very, very important thing, and all of you guys know, I would not be here, none of us would be here with the improvements in technology, if one guy wouldn’t have come in a year ago to make the sport what it is right now. And I think he’s on a very good track to come back. And that guy is Bryson DeChambeau.

“He also came in second! What is going on! That guy is a professional golfer and he’s putting up these ball speed numbers … he lights it up in the final, hitting 400 plus! No one has ever done that before! People don’t realize how crazy that is!”

Although the LIV golfer didn't speak on the broadcast, he did acknowledge the German's statement, as DeChambeau finished five places higher than last year in what has been a rather difficult year for him. Moving to LIV Golf from the PGA Tour, he has also suffered with injury through the early part of 2022, needing hand surgery in April.

However, in a tournament which started with 128 competitors at the beginning of the week, the 29-year-old passed every hurdle as, after getting easily through to the final 32, he used his last golf ball to get inside the top 16. From there, he finished above the likes of Kyle Berkshire, Justin James and Zack Holton to secure a spot in the final.