Up and Down: DeChambeau Knows

This article is part of our Up and Down series.

While the PGA Tour is on pause, Len Hochberg will periodically examine two golfers – one who was playing well when play was halted (Up), and one who was playing poorly at the same time (Down). 

He will pinpoint the reasons these players are where they are in the FedExCup Standings and offer some numbers to keep in mind when the season resumes. FedExCup points aren't generally used as a guide, but they are a good indicator of where a golfer stands in relation to others on the PGA Tour this season. He will also look at perhaps the purest stat of all – greens in regulation – as well as birdie or better percentage, an integral component of DFS scoring. 

In this edition: Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

PLAYING WELL

Bryson DeChambeau

FedExCup Standings rank: 16

We thought we'd have a little fun this week by bringing together the two social-media sparring partners. DeChambeau was talking six-packs while Koepka was talking four-packs, as in majors (advantage Koepka). There's a good chance DeChambeau never gets to four majors, but that's not our focus today.

Remember when DeChambeau took the golf world by storm with four wins over nine starts from late 2018 through early 2019? That simply was unsustainable, of course, but DeChambeau's reversal was extreme, as he managed only three top-10 finishes over the next eight months. DeChambeau is always tweaking with some part of his game, but at the time he also was being branded as the poster boy for slow play. (That sound you hear was J.B. Holmes breathing a sigh of relief.) DeChambeau clearly wasn't handling it properly, being combative instead of repentant, or at least silent.

Fast forward to the 2019 Tour Championship. DeChambeau finished seventh, beginning a stretch of vastly improved play that not so coincidentally accompanied a less argumentative persona, at least on the course. Off the course, for some reason he picked a fight with Koepka, leading to Koepka's one-punch knockout.

In the last 11 events, beginning at East Lake, DeChambeau notched six top-10s, including three straight top-5s just before the PGA Tour halted play. Even Koepka's Twitter takedown didn't slow him down. Quite the opposite. In the five events after that Koepka Tweet in mid-January, DeChambeau ran off four top-10s. Clearly, he handled things in the best way possible – with his clubs.

A Look At The Stats

Joe Six-Pack, er, DeChambeau, sure is pounding the ball. He leads the Tour in driving distance at an average of 321.3 yards -- up almost 20 yards from last season. That's enormous. It has helped him improve his greens-in-regulation ranking, which was 113th last season. You can see below how much better he is now. But even his play around the green has improved, from 115th in SG: Around-the-Green last season to 75th in the current campaign. DeChambeau's putting has always been very good, and he ranks 22nd now. Clearly, with the three top-5s in a row, he was heading for a victory very soon. Nobody wanted the season to stop, but DeChambeau might've been hurt by the hiatus more than anyone else.

Greens in regulation rank: 52
Birdies or better percentage: T13 

SITTING DOWN

Brooks Koepka

FedExCup Standings rank: 213

Koepka is no longer No. 1 in the world. He's no longer No. 2. He's now No. 3, with Justin Thomas right on his heels. We shouldn't forget that Koepka won another major last year and also the WGC event in Memphis. He notched a fourth-place finish at the Tour Championship. Much of his fade since then was related to a torn tendon in his left knee. He had stem-cell treatment, then a setback. He played only six competitive rounds of golf in the final four months of 2019 and skipped the Presidents Cup.

Koepka has played five events in 2020. That's not as many as others, but since we were only 10 weeks into the year when play stopped, it's not like he missed many opportunities. He struggled to regain his form, finishing 34th in a so-so Abu Dhabi field, then tied for 17th in Saudi Arabia. His three PGA Tour starts have been worse: a T43 at The Genesis Invitational, a MC at The Honda Classic, and a T47 at the Arnold Palmer event. 

Koepka said his knee was healthy, but he might just have been saying that. We don't know. We do think that, just as the stoppage in play came at the absolute worst time for DeChambeau, it may have come at the best possible time for Koepka. Clearly, stopping play under these conditions is not good in any way. We're just saying that Koepka's golf game may end up benefitting more than most from this horrible situation.

A Look At The Stats

Well, the numbers are atrocious. Koepka has lost distance off the tee, but only two yards. His accuracy, however, is way off. And that has trickled down to the rest of his game. He was 11th in SG: Approach last season, but sits just 128th in that department this season. He was 11th in GIR last season, and you may want to cover your eyes before looking below at this season's ranking. As for putting, you would think that might be the part of Koepka's game least affected by his knee injury, if one still existed. Koepka's putting has actually been regressing for a few years since he finished in the top 20 in SG: Putting three years running from 2015-17, including an elite rank of fifth in 2017. In 2018 he was 68th and in 2019 he was 48th. But now? He's 208th. What? We're talking peak-Hideki, peak-Keegan. Coming out of the break, that's a big thing to keep an eye on for Koepka. As you can see below, it's very hard to make birdies if you can't putt.

Greens in regulation: 217
Birdie or better percentage: 196