DeChambeau made one of the former U.S. Open champion's three birdies in unconventional fashion on Wednesday, adding a second-round 73 to an opening 65 at wind-swept Augusta National.
After hitting his tee shot into a tree, DeChambeau chose to hit his second shot toward the adjacent 14th fairway, but before doing so he decided to remove the large signpost himself.
“Yeah, I picked up a signpost. I was trying to direct people. I was trying to get them to go to the bathroom,” DeChambeau joked in his post-round press conference.
“For me, that was pretty much the only option. I was looking for a chance to hit it back to the 13th fairway, but I knew I could hit the 140-150 yard shot around the corner from the 14th fairway.
“So that's what I decided to do, and the patron was kind enough to move to the side so I had enough width that if I misfired, no one would get hit by the ball.
“I hit a great shot in the corner and was able to take advantage of the pretty open entrance to the green near the flag in the back right to make a great birdie putt.”
DeChambeau revealed that his new set of irons was approved by the USGA only 48 hours before the start of play on Thursday.
“I have to say it was pretty close,” he added. “We never thought it would be non-conforming, but the edges of the groove were just too sharp.
“Last week, we found out literally Thursday afternoon that they were non-conforming from the USGA.
“And we worked on them all weekend and finally got them to a place Tuesday morning where they were fit and ready to go.”