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How an expensive mistake helped Bryson DeChambeau get his groove back at Quail Hollow

Bryson DeChambeau has had an eventful past 24 hours.

When he finished on the 18th hole in the second round of the Wells Fargo Championship on Friday, he figured he had missed the cut to advance to the third round. He was sitting at 2-over-par, which, at the time, was above the projected cut line at even par.

So after the round, he flew in a private plane to his Dallas home expecting to prepare for the next week’s tournament.

But halfway through the flight, his agent texted him. His positioning had changed, meaning the cut line had, too.

“Hey, you’re 68th now,” his agent said.

“I was like, ‘What? No way,’ ” DeChambeau recalled after his third round. “There’s no way I’m still — I’m not going to make it, there’s no way.”

Fortunately, DeChambeau was wrong. When he landed he found out he made the cut.

And 12 hours later, after an hour-long workout, six hours of sleep and a flight that left Dallas at 2:45 a.m. Central time, DeChambeau was back in Charlotte for his 8:10 a.m. tee time.

Even with his mishap, DeChambeau put together his best round of the tournament. He shot a a 3-under 68 on Saturday, and will enter Sunday’s final round 1-under.

After his round, he was five strokes behind the leader, though that changed.

DeChambeau could have been closer. He birdied Nos. 7, 8, 10, 12 and 14.

His only mistake was on 18, when his third shot out of the far right bunker traveled only six feet and remained in the sand. He hit the next shot about 10 feet from the cup, but missed the next put wide left, before tapping in for a double bogey.

It was the difference between a 66 and a 68. DeChambeau is ranked fifth in the world and is currently second in the FedEx Cup standings behind world’s No. 1 Justin Thomas. In 10 events, he has two wins and five top five finishes.

Although it likely will be difficult for DeChambeau to win the tournament, he gave himself a chance to compete on Sunday.

DeChambeau said the private flights were expensive, and for a second, it crossed his mind whether he should just stay in Dallas.

“It did. It did actually. But I said there’s no way I can do that,” he said. “I can’t let down Wells Fargo, I can’t let down Quail Hollow.”

DeChambeau was a crowd favorite on Saturday. He drew one of the largest galleries of the tournament, as hundreds of fans followed him to each hole.

When asked was he tired after the past 24 hours, DeChambeau responded, “Very tired, yeah.”

“This morning was not easy, he said. “But, you know, for whatever reason I just feel like the more weird things happen to me, the greater my resolve sometimes can be, and today was a case of that.

“And got a little unlucky on 18, but other than that, you know, I played a great round of golf today.”