Bryson de Chambeau has staged a remarkable weekend surge after an embarrassing mistake saw him fly home from the PGA Tour event in North Carolina two days early.
De Chambeau thought he'd missed the cut after opening rounds of 70-74, taking a private jet back to his Texas home while the second round was still in progress.
He failed to take into account the tricky conditions at the Wells Fargo Championship, which saw other players fall back as de Chambeau scraped inside the cut line.
The problem was, he had an 8.10am tee time for the third round, necessitating a 2.45am departure to get back in time, once again on a private jet.
De Chambeau admitted he briefly considering withdrawing from the tournament, but returned to shoot 68-68 over the weekend to vault into eighth spot, meaning the extra flying time didn't go to waste.
"It was worth it," DeChambeau said.
"It no doubt was worth it. That's what I was hoping to do this weekend when I was on that plane at 2.45 a.m. Yeah, I wanted to make it worth it. I didn't want to come out here and finish 60-whatever."
De Chambeau picked up just under $300,000 for his troubles, admitting that the prize money for eighth place will cover his unexpected travel costs.
"It definitely will, for sure," DeChambeau said after finishing at four-under, six shots behind the winner, Rory McIlroy.
"But it was more for me. The cost wasn't really anything I was worried about. I really didn't want to disappoint Wells Fargo and Quail Hollow and the guys who put up this tournament and give so much to charity.
"I mean, that's one of the things I want to support. And fans out here, didn't want to disappoint them. That's something that's super important to me about growing the game. I would definitely make that expense twice, twice as much for me to get back here to do that again."
De Chambeau made good use of his brief time in Dallas on Friday evening, with the world No.5 spotted in the gym. The US Open champion has made headlines for his remarkable body transformation, stacking on more than 10kgs of muscle and becoming one of the biggest hitters in the game.
"We did a lot of scrambling last night to get back," de Chambeau said after the third round.
"One of the scenarios was turning right back around, but the [flight] crew couldn't do it. So we had to get a new crew, and we were like: 'Well, let's just go in the morning.'
Cameron Davis was the best of the Australians, in a tie for 26th, while Matt Jones was one shot further back.
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/golf/bryson-de-chambeau-wells-fargo-championship-finishes-eighth-after-flying-home-missed-cut/eaa5c6f1-57e5-4d55-89e1-7ecace8ba9df
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