Putt simply, not everyone needs to drive like DeChambeau

Unless you are Bryson DeChambeau, the old adage, "Drive for show and putt for dough", has long been a reliable formula for success on the golf course.

Last year, DeChambeau shook up the sport, with his Popeye-like forearms and power-packed swing enabling him to launch ball after ball further than anyone. The American was ranked as the tour's longest driver in 2020 with an average 322 yards off the tee, and currently leads the 2020-21 season stats with an eye-popping 337 yards.

A 428-yard drive by DeChambeau at the Travelers Championship last June, was recorded as the longest-ever drive on the tour. But while DeChambeau did put on a show, it was Dustin Johnson who ran off with the dough that week. The world No 1 claimed the first of three wins in 2020 en route to becoming the FedExCup champion.

Distance and power is vital in today's modern game and the 27-year-old DeChambeau, who has used science and plenty of protein shakes to great effect, has reaped the benefits of his hard work by adding two more titles in 2020 to his career haul of seven PGA Tour wins.

As the tour begins a new calendar year, starting with this week's Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Hawaii, Asia's leading stars are unlikely to emerge from their winter hibernation with added muscles－at least not to the same extent as to how DeChambeau showed up last June. Instead, improving their green play is a better bet.

China's Zhang Xinjun will for one be determined to regain his putting touch this year. After three top-10s and seven top-25s last season en route to a 71st-place finish in the final FedExCup standings, the tenacious Zhang has somewhat struggled on the greens so far this season.

The 33-year-old started the new campaign promisingly with two straight top-15s in September, but subsequently missed four successive cuts, thanks largely to a misbehaving putter. While he ranked 86th in Strokes Gained: Putting last season, Zhang's woes on the greens in recent months sees him entering 2021 ranked a lowly 229th on that list.

Chinese Taipei's CT Pan often relies on his short game to propel him up the leaderboard and showed deft touches with an impressive tied-seventh finish in his Masters debut in November.

A relatively modest hitter, Pan knows a sharp short game is vital to keeping up with the big boys and he improved from being 188th in Strokes Gained: Putting last season to his current 79th ranking.

"It feels great. I struggled the whole year, so this is definitely a big step up for me and a big confidence boost," said Pan after his Masters top-10, which earned him a quick return to Augusta National in April.

Japan's Hideki Matsuyama will be fired up to end a winless streak that dates back to the 2017 World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Matsuyama, who turns 29 in February, is widely regarded as one of the purest ball strikers in the game and has the stats to back that up. He has consistently ranked high up in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green and Approach the Green stats over the years, finishing second and fifth on those lists respectively last term.

However, he currently ranks a lowly 158th in Strokes Gained: Putting. In his work as an analyst for CBS, England's six-time major winner Nick Faldo has often highlighted Matsuyama's uneasiness with the putter.

Matsuyama still finished 15th in the 2020 FedExCup final standings and qualified for his seventh successive Tour Championship. If he figures out his putter, 2021 could be a sensational year for the Japanese.

South Korea's An Byeong-hun is another player keen to finally secure a breakthrough victory on the PGA Tour. Like Matsuyama, the former US Amateur champion is often let down by his putting. Last year he hired Brad Faxon, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, to improve his green play and ended last season ranked 40th in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, 14th for Around the Green and a modest 176th in Putting.

"There are a few things we're working on, more of a visual, green readings and trying to get better at those. To be fair, not much technique… changed my routine a little bit. It's so simple I changed it within like four, five days," said An, who finished a career-best 33rd in the 2020 Fed-ExCup rankings.

India's Anirban Lahiri and Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand are also tipped to challenge for a maiden PGA Tour title this year. Lahiri has shaken off some poor form which dogged him over the past two years. During golf's COVID-19 shutdown, he rebuilt his game with longtime coach Vijay Divecha and was rewarded with a first top-10 since 2018 at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship, followed by a tied-11th at the Bermuda Championship.

While big-hitting Kiradech may not be as long and powerful as DeChambeau, like all top Thai golfers, he is blessed with a great touch around the greens, and once he gets back to full fitness, could well break through in his third season on the tour.

The writer is senior director of international marketing and communications for the PGA Tour and is based in Kuala Lumpur.