Bryson Dechambeau (a.k.a. The DeChambino) has experienced a precipitous fall—in both performance and perception—since he exploded out of covid lockdown in the summer of 2020. Bloated, and with milkshakes in each hand, Bryson proceeded to bomb-and-gouge his way to 3 wins in less than a year—highlighted by the U.S. Open at Winged Foot that fall.

For a brief moment it looked like golf might never be the same...

But rocky times lay ahead for The DeChambino. While he managed to maintain his new-found power, all other aspects of his game have seemingly suffered as a result. More importantly, a few minor injuries he picked up during his search for distance became serious when he fell playing ping-pong at the 2022 Saudi International—he eventually needed surgery to repair his wrist.

Flash forward to last Sunday, where Bryson birdied his final hole (the 12th..) to finish T44 at LIV Tucson—ahead of only Charl Schwartzel, Jed Morgan, and Sihwan Kim. His 50-round strokes-gained moving average has plummeted to -0.6 strokes per round, over 3 shots worse than its peak in the fall of 2020.

While he may not be as popular as he once was, golf is undoubtedly better when Bryson is feeling well and driving par 5s. Hopefully we see him back competing at his best in the not-so-distant future.

Tommy's Troubles

Tommy Fleetwood is following in the steps of European stars past who have come to America in search of a PGA Tour win. Fleetwood has played in the US full-time since 2018, gaining a lot of strokes over his peers in that time. However, after another close call at last week’s Valspar Championship, that first win remains elusive.

Here are the top 10 active players without a PGA Tour win by cumulative strokes-gained (PGA Tour data-only):

1. Tommy Fleetwood: 506.2 strokes-gained (398 rounds played)
2. Alex Noren: 354.1 (478)
3. Harold Varner III: 273.5 (613)
4. Cameron Tringale: 260.6 (1087)
5. Denny McCarthy: 244.9 (487)
6. Byeong Hun An: 242.2 (533)
7. Maverick McNealy: 213.1 (351)
8. Rafa Cabrera Bello: 206.0 (453)
9. Cameron Young: 158.3 (127)
10. Christiaan Bezuidenhout: 141.3 (211)

Rankings Update

Top 10 (see all)
Player	DG		OWGR
Jon Rahm	1	—	2	—
Scottie Scheffler	2	—	1	—
Rory McIlroy	3	—	3	—
Patrick Cantlay	4	—	4	—
Tony Finau	5	—	12	—
Xander Schauffele	6	—	7	—
Max Homa	7	—	6	—
Tyrrell Hatton	8	—	16	1
Viktor Hovland	9	—	9	—
Collin Morikawa	10	—	11	—
Notables
Jordan Spieth	16	5	14	—
Taylor Moore	35	16	49	54
Adam Schenk	83	37	91	52
Bryson DeChambeau	134	31	143	12
Danny Lee	144	40	267	1
Matthew Baldwin	238	102	283	—

Player Feature

Viktor Hovland

age 25 yrs, 6 months

dg rank 9th — owgr rank 9th

weeks in dg top 100 192

dg skill +1.68 strokes-gained / round¹

style elite ball-striker, above-average putter

career wins
PGA Tour: 5
European Tour: 2
Amateur: 5

player comps
2022 Collin Morikawa (similarity score²: 85.7)
2021 Scottie Scheffler (80.7)
2019 Jon Rahm (78.5)

Letzig's Insight
Hovland’s strengths are well-known: he is the 6th best ball-striker (OTT+APP) according to our numbers. His weakness is also well-known: among the top 25 players in the world, Hovland is the only player with a negative skill in one of the SG categories (ARG).

1 Relative to an average PGA Tour field.

2 Similarity scores are uniformly distributed from 0 (least similar) to 100 (most similar). Similarity is based on overall skill and playing style over the previous 3 seasons and a measure of career-long performance. Comps are restricted to players of the same age.

Week That Was

Winner	Event	True SG	xWin
M. Baldwin	DPT — SDC Champ	+3.45	0.258
T. Moore	PGA — Valspar Champ	+3.21	0.119
D. Lee	LIV — Tucson	+2.53	0.003
M. Tabuena	ASA — The DGC Open	+1.3	0.0
D. Micheluzzi	ANZ — NSW Open	+0.17	0.0
E. Els	SNR — Hoag Classic	-0.03	0.0

Explainers: True SG, xWins

Matthew Baldwin’s 7-stroke victory at the SDC Championship was the best performance by True SG of the week, edging out Taylor Moore by 0.2 strokes/round.