The China Mail - DeChambeau aims for 57 and lower in LIV return to Greenbrier

The 30-year-old US golfer matched the lowest score on a major golf tour last year when he shot a final-round 58 with a closing birdie to win the event at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

"I don't know how to explain it. Just kind of semi-blacked out I guess," DeChambeau said. "To make the 40-footer on the last hole for 58, that was just the cherry on top.

"A special place in my heart forever... probably one of the most special moments of my entire life."

He matched the 58 fired by countryman Jim Furyk at the 2016 Travelers Championship as the lowest rounds on either the PGA Tour or LIV Golf.

DeChambeau said Wednesday he expects 57 and maybe lower scores are out there.

"Breaking 58, I'm sure someone is going to do it at one of these times at some point," DeChambeau said. "We're just too good now. There's going to be a time where everything kind of lines up.

"It's like runners breaking the four-minute mile. It was one person that broke it, and the next year there were 12 or whatever. I feel like that opens up the door.

"I believe there will be a 57 at some point, even a 56 potentially. It's going to just get more consistent over the course of time. We're just too good now."

Greenbrier has offered up two other sub-60 scores in elite-level events.

Australian Stuart Appleby fired a 59 at the 2010 PGA Greenbrier Classic in the final round to win the event.

In 2019 at the PGA's Greenbrier event, US golfer Kevin Chappell shot 59 in the second round and went on to finish level-47th.

"They're all playing well to shoot in the 50s, but this place, it breeds that confidence in you, like you start making putts," two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson said.

"And then it builds from there."

Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters winner, likes the chances for a sub-60 round this week.

"These greens are so pure that if you're hitting the ball really well and giving yourself a lot of looks, once that putter gets hot, you have an opportunity," he said.

"There's a decent amount of short enough holes where you're going to have a lot of wedges. The par-5s, you're getting to both of them with irons in your hand."

DeChambeau, who played with a new driver last year when he made 13 birdies and only a lone bogey at the par-three eighth, birdied six of the first seven holes and the last four.

He said the 58 sparked his run to his major win this year.

"I had been struggling with my golf game, not really understanding how to get the job done," DeChambeau said. "Just didn't feel like I had it to win.

"That's what jump-started me to how I've been playing this past year, jump-started me to winning the US Open this year and continuing to play some really stellar golf."

J.Thompson--ThChM