By Kent Gray
Record score. Record margin. Record final round. Bryson DeChambeau didn’t need any of those to become the Omega Dubai Desert Classic’s most intriguing champion but seized them all anyway. Welcome, perhaps, to the future of golf, exactly where DeChambeau is headed and is convinced he’s taking the game with him.

Indeed, the 25-year-old American didn’t even need his “A-Game” for three-quarters of the 30th edition of the $3.25 million European Tour event to claim a prized first international win and his fourth victory in eight starts, nine if you count Tiger Woods’ unofficial Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas before Christmas.

DeChambeau did bring something very close to his Sunday best to Emirates Golf Club, formulating seven birdies, an eagle and some of the finest final round putting this venerable championship has ever witnessed in an imperious 64. Matt Wallace, the best of the blown-away rest, finished a distant seven shots shy of his record 264 aggregate, 24-under-par.

It was a masterclass in closing encapsulated in clever (albeit sometimes painfully slow) course management, brilliant ball striking, at times astounding distance control and a deftness on and around the Majlis’ grainy greens that he had forecast in his pre-tournament presser. The ‘Secret sauce’ as he called it.

The world No.5 is not the owner of Rolls Royce swing like three-time champion Ernie Els, Sunday’s sentimental favourite who started a shot back, ended 10 adrift but will forever remain the people’s champion. But maybe there really is method in the maddeningly methodical, unorthodox and unwieldy looking way the Californian approaches the royal and ancient game.

And if you thought his nine-under closing was impressive, wait until we get to DeChambeau’s champion’s press conference. The best from golf’s most interesting man and in this intriguing sidebar, is yet to come.

But first, the facts before the science-nonfiction.

Even blotted with a bogey, DeChambeau’s 64 eclipsed by a stroke the Desert Classic’s previous best closing score by a champion, held by eight players including Woods, Ballesteros, Els, McIlroy and Garcia. Also gone is Haotong Li’s -23 winning score from last year. Els was also forced to relinquish another of his plethora of Classic records with DeChambeau’s seven stroke stretch erasing by a shot the Big Easy’s winning margin when he claimed the first of his three Dallah’s in 1994.

Wow. What a week. Thank you for all of the hospitality this week @OMEGAGolfDubai and @EmiratesGC. Hopefully this is the first of more international victories! pic.twitter.com/wfQAwws17C

— Bryson DeChambeau (@b_dechambeau) January 27, 2019

Like his record-breaking canter to victory, DeChambeau’s aforementioned presser got better and better too. Sure, why can’t he do with science what Tiger did with fitness to advance the game. Will kids copy you like Tiger?

“Shoot, I would hope so. It’s done well so far. I mean, what was it, four wins in nine starts? That’s not bad,’ he said.

There was even an answer that has him doing to golf what Einstein did for general relativity. Move over Tiger.

“For Einstein, general relativity, he wanted to figure that out and he did. It’s pretty amazing what he’s done for the world and his work stands the test of time, and I want something in the game of golf that will do the same.”

RELATED: How DeChambeau believes he can advance golf with science like Tiger did with fitness

More on those fascinating theories here. For now, let’s focus on what your maiden European Tour win means to you.

“It’s incredibly special,” the five-time PGA Tour winner said. “You know, being able to win internationally is something that I’ve always wanted to do after winning so many times in the States and to get it at the Dubai Desert Classic is incredible. It’s literally a dream come true. I couldn’t be more honoured to win this event.

“The first three days, struggled with my game. Even though I played well and performed well and shot good numbers, I knew it wasn’t up to my calibre, and today was a good representation of what I can do.”

With a sizzling 63 to set the early clubhouse target at -15, South African journeyman Justin Harding hinted at what was possible in Sunday’s benign conditions. Playing a group apart, Englishmen Paul Waring and Ian Poulter then advanced the target to -16 with a pair of 64s that would eventually earn a share of T-3 alongside 2017 champion Sergio Garcia, the Masters winner’s fellow Spaniard Alvaro Quiros and Li – until the Chinese player was penalised two shots for a rules infraction on the 72nd hole, a controversial decision that cost the Li €100,000.

But the final round, as much as the galleries willed Els on and as hard as Wallace tried, turned into a victory lap of the Majlis for DeChambeau.

The rookie Ryder Cupper started with a blitz of three successive birdies, kept the momentum going with a sumptuous up and down from the hay beside the 6th green and birdied the 9th from a fairway trap to turn in 32 strokes, three under and good for a three-stroke lead. When he eagled the par-5 10th with a perfectly weighted iron approach from 224-yards, and birdied the next by creeping a 12-foot putt in off the flag-stick, the lead was six. Or more like 10 four over and out for his pursuers.

Even the adventurous bogey on the 12th was quickly forgotten with a fist-pumping birdie from the front bunker on the par-5 next.

“Especially under the gun with the heat of, you know, good players coming up and playing well from behind me. I knew I needed to step on the pedal and that’s what I did today, so I’m very proud of that.”

DeChambeau’s par five scoring this week:

? birdies
2⃣ eagles
4⃣ pars
0⃣ bogeys#ODDC19 pic.twitter.com/eSThErtgR7

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 27, 2019

It must give you great confidence going into the Majors?

“I think so. Last year I was hitting the ball really well most of the year, but it seemed like at every major, my ball-striking kind of left me for a little bit at those majors. That’s really why I didn’t play as best as I could.

“I believe if I have the ball-striking capabilities like I did today, and even maybe hopefully a little bit better, I knew there’s a couple things, the drive on 12 [en-route to his lone bogey] should never have happened. If I can clean up stuff like that, I can definitely, definitely contend.”

The great news for European Tour galleries and particularly those in Dubai is that DeChambeau has every intention of continuing on with his global expansion plans.

Will you come back next year and defend the Dallah trophy Bryson?

“I would assume so. I would assume so. There’s a season-long race out here, as well and I want to win that, as well. That would be great.”

“I mean, being able to win overseas is a big deal, and for me to finally get it done is just amazing. I’ve dreamed of it my whole life. I’ve had a lot of dreams and I’ve accomplished a lot of them, but this one’s incredibly special, and Dubai, it’s a futuristic city and a place I loved coming to in 2016 and again here in 2019.

“So this is definitely an event that I would love to come back to many, many times. But as an international player, yeah, I hope I can be somebody that can win consistently overseas.”.

The Dallah is engraved with some of modern golf’s greatest international names but the Desert Classic will never salute a more complex, inimitable or fascinating character than DeChambeau. Well at least not until next year perhaps. The future of golf, at least deep in the recesses of DeChambeau’s mind, is now.

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