OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – Bryson DeChambeau has become known for his brawny physique, but he displayed blazing speed the last time he competed at Olympia Fields.

He had to run to his rental house to avoid a rules infraction that could have derailed his dominant performance in the 2015 U.S. Amateur.

DeChambeau started that week with a 70 on the South Course, which is hosting this week’s BMW Championship. He inadvertently turned up late to his second-round tee time on the North Course and was penalized two strokes. He didn’t believe the penalty was justified, however, and he set out to state his case.

He sprinted to retrieve a piece of paper that proved he’d been provided with an incorrect tee time, one he was not late for. He started his round not exactly sure where he stood on the leaderboard before being advised the penalty would be rescinded.

“I just sprinted and said, ‘Guys, I’m telling you, this is not correct. ‘They must have been going, ‘What is Bryson doing?’ So I came back and showed him the piece of paper, and he goes, ‘Well, that’s interesting.’ So that’s when he took the piece of paper to the committee, and they told me that they’d be out in a little bit. It was an hour later. They came up with a conclusion that I was fine,” DeChambeau told reporters at the time.

DeChambeau signed for another even-par 70 on the South Course to easily qualify for the U.S. Amateur’s match-play portion. That’s where he put on a historic performance en route to hoisting the Havemeyer Trophy.

He needed just 103 holes over seven rounds to defeat his six opponents (the final match is 36 holes). That tied the record for fewest holes needed to win the Amateur in its current format (which has been in place since 1979). None of his matches went past the 16th hole, and two of them ended on 12. He beat two current PGA TOUR players and Paul Dunne, who earlier that summer held the 54-hole lead in The Open Championship.

DECHAMBEAU'S ROAD TO VICTORY IN 2015 U.S. AM

DeChambeau’s win made him just the fifth player to win the NCAA Championship and U.S. Amateur in the same year, joining Jack Nicklaus (1961), Phil Mickelson (1990), Tiger Woods (1996) and Ryan Moore (2004) in that elite club.

DeChambeau has lived up to his potential in the five years since his victory at Olympia Fields. The 26-year-old arrives at the second event of the FedExCup Playoffs with six PGA TOUR victories on his resume, including this year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. He is seventh in the FedExCup standings.

He will have plenty of good memories to draw on this week, even if several of his matches didn’t last long. His first match was an 8-and-6 win.

That opponent, Robby Salomon, was a youth baseball star turned golf convert. Five years ago, he was 26 and playing college golf at Cal State-Monterey Bay. He was an elder statesman on the college scene, but lacking the golf experience of those around him. Salomon only took up the game a few years prior after his baseball ended.

And he’d already been thrown into the fire in the Amateur’s stroke-play portion, being paired with Jon Rahm.

“I had friends text me prior saying, ‘Do you know who that is? He’s the World No. 1 amateur.’ So I was like, OK great. But the experience was amazing. Jon was a very friendly guy, we spoke a lot. But he was also a fiery guy who could release emotion and come back from it and I really loved that as a competitor,” Salomon recently told PGATOUR.COM. “I got a glimpse into what level of golf was needed under pressure. Near the end of stroke play, Jon made two putts for crucial birdies from outside 30 feet to make it to a playoff (for the final spots in the match-play bracket). It was incredible.”

Salomon had bested Rahm by a shot to make his way to the knockout stage. Once again, his friends started texting him when his opponent was slated.

“Now it was, ‘Do you know who this guy is? He’s the NCAA champion. He’s the guy with the funky swing.’ I was excited for the match. I was thinking I can’t wait to see this guy on the range,” Salomon recalled recently. “I get to the range and I’m thinking, who is this guy? Look at what he is wearing, look at that swing, look at those clubs. But he was powering balls down the range. I knew I was in for a challenge.”

But Salomon still didn’t expect DeChambeau to win six straight holes from the fifth through the 10th, nor was he ready for the deliberate play and intense analytics DeChambeau brought to his game.

“I had my B or C game that day in the 12 holes I played but he played unbelievable and had five birdies. He just demolished me,” Salomon says. “It was a huge learning experience for me. In that round I was taken so far outside my element and outside of my playing style. Bryson was obviously very analytical. … It was a big contrast to Jon. Bryson was very different on the golf course. Not as friendly, all business, and I respect that. He tore that place apart. It was playing like a U.S. Open course and he made it look it easy.”

Next up was NeSmith, who finished 100th in this season’s FedExCup. NeSmith had qualified for the U.S. Open earlier that year and started the U.S. Amateur with a first-round 65. DeChambeau won six of the first eight holes of their match. He made five birdies and no bogeys on the front nine.

DeChambeau met another future PGA TOUR player, Maverick McNealy, later that day. McNealy was the consensus college player of the year in 2015, winning both the Haskins and Nicklaus awards. McNealy also had good history at Olympia Fields, winning the prestigious Olympia Fields Intercollegiate the previous year (he would go on to repeat a month later, as well). McNealy, who’s 67th in the FedExCup, joins DeChambeau in this week’s field.

The match with McNealy may have been DeChambeau’s toughest of the week. They were tied after DeChambeau bogeyed the 10th hole, but he went on to win Nos. 11, 13 and 14.

DeChambeau had made match play in all nine USGA amateur events he’d played, but this was just the second time he advanced to the quarterfinals. He also did it in the 2014 U.S. Amateur Public Links.

His quarterfinals opponent was Paul Dunne, who’d received a special invitation to the championship after his incredible performance in The Open Championship at St. Andrews. Dunne held the 54-hole lead before fading to 30th after a final-round 78.

DeChambeau made six birdies en route to a 3-and-2 victory that could have been larger if not for the fighting spirit of a wayward Dunne, who ground out several clutch pars to stay within reach. He holed putts of 25 and 45 feet on the back nine, but DeChambeau was able to pull away with birdies on 11 and 13.

The semifinals are a pressure-packed round at the U.S. Amateur. Not only has the 312-man field been whittled down to just four players, but there’s a lot at stake for the Final Four. The two finalists earn invitations to the Masters and U.S. Open.

Crocker, who played for USC, said he’d been ‘waxed’ earlier in the week on a communal ping-pong table for competitors. He felt the same way after facing the buzzsaw that was Bryson DeChambeau. He pulled away by winning Nos. 12-14.

When asked what he would do to prepare for the 36-hole final against Derek Bard, DeChambeau joked, “I think I’ll go play the 17th and 18th holes. I haven’t played those two yet.”

Bard was definitely the underdog, but he’d proven himself with a 6-and-5 win over future PGA TOUR player Sepp Straka and a 1-up win over Rahm in the quarterfinals.

“As the week went on my putter just kind of got hotter and hotter. While tee to green I was pretty average, maybe slightly above average, I felt like I was making everything that week on the greens,” Bard, who’s played on both the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Latinoamerica. “There were a couple of stretches and some of those matches where I felt like I couldn't miss. It was a really cool feeling to have. The Rahm match was tough. He was three up through 10 so it was getting to the stage early on the back nine where it was almost out of reach. But I refocused, made a couple birdies to get back into It and fortunately for me he missed a few makeable putts coming in to help me gain the upper hand.”

There were early signs Bard might be able to pull off another upset. He was 2 up through seven holes and looked set to extend his lead further.

“On the eighth hole, he hit it over the green a good 20 yards past, into the rough and I was in there 15 feet for birdie,” Bard said. “Then he flopped it in and I missed. That was a big change of events.”

At the time Bard called it “one of those signature shots” you get from champions. DeChambeau would then wrestle control, squaring the match through 10 and leading by two holes at the 18-hole lunch break despite a double-bogey on the final hole of the morning round.

Bard won the first hole after the break to be just 1 down, but then DeChambeau charged ahead with birdies on five of the next seven holes. He won seven of the nine holes from Nos. 20-28 and halved the other two.

“It felt like it happened so quickly. When I won that first hole after the break I felt some momentum was turning my way but then he just kind of blitzed me. All credit to him, he was really good back then and since then he has obviously done some amazing things.”

Now DeChambeau is trying to add the FedExCup to his impressive resume. He’ll have plenty of good memories to draw upon this week at Olympia Fields.