By Andrew Both
AUGUSTA, Ga. (Reuters) – Pre-tournament Masters favourite Bryson DeChambeau said he has had a coronavirus test as a precaution after feeling “weird” during the season’s final major.
DeChambeau barely made the halfway cut with nothing to spare on Friday morning, a distant nine strokes from the lead at Augusta National.
“I was feeling something a little weird two nights ago and I came out yesterday and was fine for the most part,” the powerful American said after adding a two-over-par 74 to his opening 70.
“As I kept going through the round, I started getting a little dizzy. I don’t know what was going on, a little something weird.
“So I got checked for COVID last night, and I was fine, nothing. But I had to do the right thing and make sure there was nothing more serious than that.”
As well as feeling under the weather, U.S. Open champion DeChambeau on Friday was rocked by a triple-bogey at the par-four third, where he could not find his ball within the three-minute time limit after an errant drive into the wet and muddy rough.
To add insult to injury, a marshal located the ball a few minutes later.
“Definitely throws you for a loop when the guy goes and gives you the ball on the fourth tee box (and says) ‘oh, I found it’.
“So it just seems like there’s a lot of things going not in the right way. I’ve certainly played worse golf than this and won tournaments.
“It’s one of those things where it’s golf. You can’t control everything as much as you try.”
Returning to the subject of his health, DeChambeau remained puzzled as to why he was not feeling well.
“These past couple days, I’ve felt really, really odd and just not a hundred percent,” he said.
“I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure.
“I don’t know what it is. There’s like something in my stomach that’s just not doing well.”
(Reporting by Andrew Both, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
