Bryson DeChambeau's course-record chase ends four shots short at Maine's Sunday River

Bryson DeChambeau came to Sunday River Golf Club needing one more course record to reach his goal for the season. He left with a 3-under 69, four shots worse than the 65 on the board.

The latest episode of his course-record series went up on his YouTube channel on Nov. 9. The rules are the same as always: one round on a public course he's never seen, with no practice round. In the video he says he had broken two records and missed three in the season's first five episodes. That made Sunday River his last chance to hold three course records in a single season.

The course and the conditions

Sunday River is a par-72 Robert Trent Jones Jr. design at the ski resort in Newry, Maine. The resort lists the black tees at 7,051 yards. Anthony from the club told DeChambeau the record was 65, or 7 under, and said the course is more forgiving off the tee than Sugarloaf, which DeChambeau played for an earlier video. The approach shots are what matter here, Anthony said.

The weather made that harder. DeChambeau puts it at 45 degrees with wind blowing 30, and it kept switching direction. Some shots flew 20 to 30 yards off the number he played, and a drizzle came through midway through the front nine. With the wind and hazards in play, he couldn't hit driver on the par 5s. "This is not allowing me to expose its vulnerabilities of, you know, my length," he says.

The round

He turned at 1 under with two bogeys and a couple of missed par-5 chances. That left him needing 6 under on the back nine to tie the record and 7 under to break it.

He opened the back nine with a run of pars, including a miss from about six feet, then birdied a par 5 with an eight iron from 209 yards and a two-putt. A full pitching wedge to two feet late in the round got him to 3 under, which is where he finished. By his count, that makes two records in six tries this season.

"I've made putts today. I just have not made putts that have mattered," he says.

More than once he said a course like this would be good practice before Augusta, with its elevation changes, swirling wind and sloped greens. "We say impossible. We over exaggerate things," he says, "but I can't explain to you guys enough how literally this is impossible the first time out."

Also in the episode

DeChambeau uses a break in the round to promote a Break 50 collection with Swag Golf, the apparel company he signed a multi-year deal with this week. It drops Nov. 19 at Dick's Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy and swaggolf.com. Each black bag holds one of 13 mystery headcover designs across four tiers. Fifty headcovers are signed, and four gold ones come with a day on a Break 50 shoot.