AUGUSTA, Ga. – Bryson DeChambeau said Saturday morning that he’s been experiencing dizziness and stomach pain the past few days at Augusta National.
DeChambeau said he first noticed the dizziness on Thursday night, after his opening round of the Masters. Since then, he said, he’s been feeling “dull” and “odd” and “numb.”
DeChambeau said he and members of his inner circle were tested for COVID-19 on Friday night, out of precaution, and received negative results.
“I’m not good, unfortunately,” he said. “I don’t know what it is. There’s something in my stomach that’s just not doing well.”
DeChambeau was sweating the cut line after bogeying his last two holes on Saturday morning to sign for a second-round 74. At even-par 144, he was nine shots off the lead.
It’s been a struggle the first two rounds for the reigning U.S. Open champion, who entered the week as the oddsmakers’ favorite. He had an adventurous 70 in the opening round, when he made a double-bogey 7 on the par-5 13th hole, but he still was within five of the early lead.
Teeing off late Friday, DeChambeau got a bad break on the third hole when his tee shot plugged in the second cut and couldn’t be found during a 3-minute search. He walked off with a triple bogey, then dropped shots on the next two holes.
When he resumed his second round at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, he was 1 over par, one shot off the cut line with six holes to play. He birdied three of his first four holes, then drove into the trees on No. 17 and couldn’t get up-and-down behind the 18th green.
“I don’t know what it is or what happened, but these past couple days I’ve felt really, really odd and just not 100%,” he said. “Some of that’s played into it. I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure.”
With his Masters bid likely over, DeChambeau said he’ll soon undergo bloodwork to determine the issue.
“I’ll go figure it out, just like anything,” he said. “Golf is golf. You’re going to have stuff go on, but I want to fix my body. You know me. Last time I had back issues, I went and fixed that, and I haven’t really had any body issues since, until now it’s internal. So I’ve got to go fix that.”