Bryson DeChambeau and the Hole That Refuses to Let Go — Masters 2026
Bryson DeChambeau came to Augusta National this week carrying momentum, a 3D-printed iron he built himself, and two consecutive LIV Golf victories. He is leaving the first two rounds clinging to the cut line, haunted once again by the same par-4 that has tormented him year after year at the Masters.
DeChambeau was even par through the first 10 holes of Round 1 when he striped a 347-yard drive down the fairway at the par-4 11th. Then everything unraveled. From 191 yards out, he pushed his approach into the right-side greenside bunker — and could not get out. What followed was one of the most painful sequences of the tournament.
His first bunker shot traveled just three yards, not even approaching the lip. His second attempt went nowhere, appearing as though he nearly missed the ball entirely. It took a third bunker shot to finally escape, rolling only about 15 feet clear of the sand, and he two-putted from there to walk off with a triple bogey. The damage was done, and the dechambeau masters story for 2026 had its defining moment before the sun had even begun to set Thursday.
It was DeChambeau's seventh score of '7' or higher at Augusta National, a haunting statistic for a player who enters each year as one of the game's most powerful and analytically driven competitors. The 11th hole has now become a recurring character in his Augusta narrative. Last year, DeChambeau also suffered a double bogey at the 11th hole during the final round, contributing to the collapse that prevented him from catching Rory McIlroy in their Sunday showdown.
Thursday's disaster at the 11th was compounded earlier in the round when DeChambeau drilled a patron with a tee shot that sailed left on the par-3 sixth hole. He walked over, handed the fan a golf ball, and shook his hand. The incident drew widespread attention and became another entry in what is becoming a defining Masters chapter for the 32-year-old.
After his round, a visibly frustrated DeChambeau told reporters he simply did not have his irons under control, saying he drove it left on numerous occasions — unusual for someone who had arrived in Augusta with two straight LIV victories. He carried that 3D-printed 5-iron he spent eight hours building, a piece of equipment that generated enormous pre-tournament buzz but has not yet produced the results he was hoping for at Augusta.
Friday did offer some relief. DeChambeau made back-to-back birdies at holes 7 and 8 in Round 2 to climb back to 3-over for the tournament and temporarily move inside the projected cut line, which was sitting at 4-over. The cut line for the 2026 Masters had moved from 3-over to 4-over by early Friday afternoon with 53 golfers at or inside the number, making it one of the higher cut numbers in recent Masters memory due to the firm and fast conditions at Augusta National.
Whether DeChambeau ultimately survived the cut or was heading home for the weekend was still being determined as Friday wound down, with his fate tied entirely to how the afternoon played out across the rest of the field. The two-time U.S. Open champion had been paired with Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele for Round 2, teeing off at 1:20 p.m. ET in the afternoon wave.
DeChambeau bogeyed two of his final three holes in Round 1 to close with a 4-over 76, leaving him nine shots behind co-leaders McIlroy and Burns and with a genuine cut-line battle heading into Friday. For a player who entered this week as one of the headliners, the dechambeau masters experience in 2026 has once again turned into a survival story rather than a championship run.
