‘I messed up’ – Bryson DeChambeau addresses his huge Masters faux pas after stunning opening round

Bryson DeChambeau smashed his self-proclaimed Masters par in the opening round before admitting his infamous Augusta comments were a mistake.

It’s been three-and-a-half years since LIV Golf superstar DeChambeau claimed that Augusta National was a ‘par 67 for me’ due to his prodigious hitting.

But since impressing as an amateur in 2016, the big-hitting American has struggled at The Masters.

That all changed on the first day of the 2024 Masters as DeChambeau carded a seven-under-par 65 to leap into the early lead.

“Regarding the 67 comment, you know, you mess up, I’m not a perfect person,” DeChambeau admitted. “Everyone messes up.

“You learn from your mistakes and that was definitely one.”

Following a bad weather delay and with strong winds swirling around the famous course, DeChambeau combined his trademark long drives with some fine touch on and around the greens.

He birdied his first three holes and then shot a blistering 31 on the back nine.

Asked if his ‘par 67’ comment actually had merit given his opening round, DeChambeau was not about to take the bait again.

“You’re trying to pigeonhole me into saying that again, aren’t you?” he said with a smile. “I’m not going to comment on that.

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“Sure, if you want to line the math up that way, that is a perspective you can take. It was a perspective I had, and it cost me a lot of slack, I guess you could say. It definitely hurt some things.

“But look, I’ll say this again. I shot 65 today, and that was one of the best rounds of golf I’ve played in a long time. There’s three more days to go, and I’m not losing sight of that fact.”

DeChambeau leads world number one Scottie Scheffler by a stroke after the 2022 Masters champion opened up his tournament in typically impressive fashion.

On his opening bogey-free 66, Scheffler said: “I did a good job of staying patient today. We kept the golf course in front of us.

“And I executed some really nice up-and-downs to keep the round going. And, yeah, I enjoy coming here and competing in this golf tournament.

“You know, the first day is over and I’m off to a good start. And going into tonight I’ll just focus on going home, getting some rest.

“When I was walking up to the first tee, I was fairly surprised with how many people were under par already.

“Going into today with the forecast the way it was supposed to be, and I’ve played this tournament once before in some pretty high winds, and it’s an extremely challenging golf course. And, yeah, I felt like today I just did a really good job.”