BRYSON IS MUSCLING IN ON BIG TIME NOW
Chamblee says extraordinary DeChambeau is game changer
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU says “my time is coming” amid forecasts his new physique will mark the biggest change since Tiger Woods came on the scene.
World No12 DeChambeau now weighs more than 17st after putting on 20lb of muscle this year and it has dramatically increased his driving distances.
His longest measured tee shot was 367 yards as he finished in a tie for third at last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas – his average drives in 2019 were 302.5 yards.
DeChambeau outdrove playing partner Rory McIlroy by 30 yards on some holes on Sunday but just missed out on making the play-off, where Daniel Berger triumphed against Collin Morikawa.
“I didn’t get the job done this week but my time is coming,” said DeChambeau.
And Golf Channel pundit Brandel Chamblee believes the rest should now be taking him seriously.
He said DeChambeau’s new traits are as significant to golf as the breakthrough of 15-time Major winner Woods in the late 1990s and
John Daly’s startling
USPGA Championship victory in 1991. “It is extraordinary,” said Chamblee. “He took the chance to bulk up. He took the risk to try to change his golf swing.
“These are huge risks with millions of dollars at stake but week after week he is just getting longer and better with the driver. When Daly made his mark in 1991 and then Tiger came out, those were seismic moments. “They changed the game and this has the potential to change the way people set up.
“Not only can he pick up this kind of distance, he is also following it with a pretty darn good degree of accuracy.
“If you are consistent in a world of 340 yards off the tee and 110 in, you are going to win golf tournaments.
“Bryson has done it. If you are a pro golfer and are not paying attention to what he is doing, it is like not paying attention to moneyball if you were in the baseball world a couple of decades ago.” The transformation in DeChambeau over the past year has seen him swap medium-size shirts for XL.
Now the US Ryder Cup star boasts a swing speed of around 140mph and a ball speed of 200mph. Previously, DeChambeau’s unorthodox tactics led some to describe him as the ‘mad scientist’.
Past experiments included using a compass to calculate angles of shots, spraying water on his practice balls to mimic earlymorning dew, using irons with shafts all of one length and putting like a croquet player.
But DeChambeau may have the last laugh on his critics, who also moan about his slow pace of play.