Editor’s note: This is the final story in a three-part series.
Traveling through the mind of Bryson DeChambeau is quite the journey.
For starters, by no means are you riding in a horse and buggy. To keep up, you slide into the diamond lane and keep the pedal to the floor.
This is a guy who, at age 6, already had a grasp of algebra. As a teen, he checked out a physics book and copied down everything from the 180-pager into his own binder. He can sign his autograph backward with ease with his left hand – he’s a righty by the way.
He has been known to spritz golf balls with water on the range to simulate playing in the rain. He incorporates a system called vector putting to read the break and subtleties of greens. Investigates wind density. Eagerly goes down rabbit holes.
Oh, there’s plenty more from the cerebral physics major from Southern Methodist University. He employs single-length irons – all 37½ inches long (the length of a standard 6-iron) – and has given each a nickname. Has worn shirts with math equations on them. Used a protractor during rounds to determine hole locations, a practice that has since been banned. When asked if he would leave the flagstick in when putting, he said it depended on the coefficient of restitution of the flagstick.
Two books shook up his golf world – at 15 he started to eat up “The Golfing Machine,” by Homer Kelley, which detailed the computer-age approach to playing golf, and then after turning pro, he devoured “Every Shot Counts,” by Columbia Business School professor and the godfather of golf analytics, Mark Broadie, who developed the strokes gained system, which showed DeChambeau that he could drive for show and dough.
And he dropped this on the media at the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.
“You guys are going to eat this one up, but the laminar flow of the wind and how it works, there are certain times where over certain dune hills and stuff on greens and before the greens where the wind will flow down and up and over certain mounds, so that’s going to make it feel weird, play different, and it’s just going to affect how the ball goes,” he said.
Bryson DeChambeau prepares to play a shot on the sixth hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage on June 21, 2020 at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
No one else like him
OK, then. No wonder the 27-year-old is known as the Mad Scientist. Rain Man, too, which is a moniker Tiger Woods dropped on him. Then again, what would you call a guy who experiments with brain training?
“Breathing is a monster part of resting,” DeChambeau said. “Breathing in a way that will help get your brain into a parasympathetic state instead of a sympathetic state. It’s to make it easy on yourself to get to a more of a sleep state rather than a stress state. You can breathe in a stressful way. Or you can breathe in a relaxed state. Breathing in the proper state gets you into a state where you digest food better and calms your brainwaves down.”
Basically, Big Brain DeChambeau is a different animal who will grind his mind and body in search of superior ways. Less than six months into this year, Cobra Puma Golf already has created five prototype driver heads for DeChambeau; that’s more than it has ever developed for one player in an entire year.
“I will work my ass off to be the best I can be,” he said. “I’ve always been this way. When I was young, there were these math tables and I was trying to be the fastest in class. I tried to figure out how to be the fastest with memorization techniques, like speed reading. They don’t look at individual words. They look at groups of words. So when I was doing math, I memorized texture of what it would look like and associated the picture to what the answer was.
“I’m a total nonconformist. I’m a good experimenter. I’m competitive and I’ve always tried to find new ways to be better.”
It’s worked so far. He’s one of only five players to win the U.S. Amateur and NCAA individual title in the same year. He counts eight victories on the PGA Tour and another on the European Tour. When he captured his maiden major championship at the 2020 U.S. Open, he joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win the NCAA, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open.
Heading into his defense this week in the national championship at Torrey Pines in San Diego, DeChambeau is ranked No. 5 in the world.
“He’s gone from being an oddity to being the most interesting man in golf,” Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said. “He’ll keep doing things that will make us scratch our heads. Keep doing things that will make us ask why would you do that? But if you look, he won the NCAA, he won the U.S. Amateur, he won the U.S. Open. It’s not as much of an oddity as we make it out to be.
“He’s always been a great player.”
An acquired taste?
While he’s captivated the golf world, DeChambeau’s ways are not everyone’s cup of tea. He’s a lightning rod whose competitive side can be sharp every so often. He can come off as annoying and irritable. Clearly, Brooks Koepka isn’t the only one who has rolled his eyes in the direction of DeChambeau.
Others are rubbed the wrong way thinking he goes out of his way to prove he’s the smartest guy in the room. Some are put off by his numerous Instagram videos, many that go viral. He’s socially awkward at times, like after winning the U.S. Open and his first response in his first interview was to thank all his sponsors.
Bryson DeChambeau speaks to the media during a press conference alongside the championship trophy after winning the 120th U.S. Open Championship at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
He’s had his moments with slow play, his bouts with cameramen, thrown a few temper tantrums.
But DeChambeau is a rebel with a cause who will remain true to himself and won’t go changing his persona to please others. He’s dedicated to his work and loyal to his team, family and friends, and loves roaming about rabbit holes.
“Everything he does in life is a 24/7 effort,” said Dottie Pepper, a former two-time major winner on the LPGA Tour who is one of the best on-course analysts in the game. “The time he sleeps, the time he’s in recovery, the time he warms up, the time he works, the time he plays, everything is about getting faster, bigger and being totally committed to his craft.
“It’s amazingly impressive to me what he has done, but it’s not surprising. This is how he is wired. He is wired to keep getting better, keep asking questions and keep coming up with answers.”
Still, most everyone in golf thought DeChambeau fell off his rocker when, standing in the shadow of the Las Vegas Strip in the fall of 2019 at TPC Summerlin, he said he was going to take a big risk and transform into an Autobot.
In his chase for power, speed and distance, DeChambeau said he was going to pack on pounds and fast-track his swing. He started to have at it on the kitchen table to the tune of 5,000 calories per day (he ultimately gained 50 pounds), began working out multiple times daily in the gym and during speed training sessions to the point of collapse, experimented with numerous shafts and clubheads.
When he returned for play in 2020, he was noticeably bigger. But after the PGA Tour’s 13-week break due to the global pandemic, he came back looking like an NFL linebacker and instantly was the longest player in the game.
Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy fist bump on the 18th green during the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club. (Photo by Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports)
“I go back to when he said he was going to get bigger than ever, a changed man, and I thought this could be the end of Bryson DeChambeau,” Chamblee said. “He’s had a nice run, was on a nice trajectory. I thought he was just going to try and swing as fast as he could. But I didn’t know Bryson was going to incorporate the moves of a (long drive champion) Kyle Berkshire and go down that path. So by the time he came out, even before the quarantine, there were already the swing changes in place. He had already increased his clubhead speed.
“We saw his clubhead speed go from 117 to 124 and then it went up into the 130s after the pandemic. I thought it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in golf.
“Certainly risky, but interesting as well.”
A new perspective
Helping DeChambeau on his way to becoming Bison Bryson was Berkshire, whose clubhead speed has been clocked north of 160 mph and his ball speed timed above 230 mph.
“When he told me what he wanted to do, that’s why I thought he was an elite player,” Berkshire said. “He reminds me a lot of Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods always made these swing changes, always tweaked this and that, and people would ask why are you doing that? You’re one of the best already playing if not one of the best. But that’s what makes players like Tiger and players like Bryson special – the mentality where they have to keep trying to get better.
“So my thought was this is the absolute best thing he could possibly try to do if he wants to get better. Because on the PGA Tour, 120 club speed is considered fast. But honestly, I think we’re going to see a time in the future where 130 is the new 120. Bryson sees all this research. He understands the metrics of strokes gained.
“That’s why he wants to gain speed.”
Chris Como’s watchful eye was at the ready, too. The swing coach who worked with Woods teamed up with DeChambeau in 2018. He was there from the outset of DeChambeau’s journey to speed and power and turned the living room of his Dallas home into a laboratory during quarantine because of numerous restrictions due to COVID-19.
A portable K-Vest captured data of DeChambeau’s upper body during a swing. A 3D motion capture system allowed analysis of all things swing. Plates to measure the force applied through each foot during a swing were useful instruments.
“For me as a coach I am always wondering how can you get better while understanding the risks that are involved with trying to get better at something,” Como said. “It was a function of how do we try to get this speed through a little bit of technique, a little bit of strength gains and a little bit of what we call neurological gains when he tries to hit it as hard as he can? How do we do all this and still be thoughtful with the inherent risk that is involved?
“He was already very good at that point, so if you get worse, it doesn’t take much before someone can lose their job on the PGA Tour. It was like leaving bread crumbs in the forest, so if things did get off, we’d have as good a record as we could keep where things were changing along the way and we’d know where to go if we had to back out of it a bit to make sure we didn’t get too lost in the forest.
“Luckily, we didn’t have too many hiccups along the way.”
When Frankenstein emerged from the lab, he frightened his peers. With violent swings, DeChambeau has led the PGA Tour in driving distance since the re-start at just over 322 yards a pop; in 2017 he averaged a hair more than 299 a pop. He also is hitting 8-irons 200 yards. Has no fear of rough.
In his first 18 starts on the PGA Tour after golf returned, DeChambeau won three times – including the 2020 U.S. Open – and had seven other top 10s – including a tie for third in the Charles Schwab Challenge and a tie for fourth in the PGA Championship.
Pepper had a ringside seat for his first eight starts after the COVID-19 break.
“I was more aware of bunkers at 315, 320 to carry. Suddenly, you had to pay attention to that on every hole with him,” she said.
Of the many bombs DeChambeau hit, one stood out. It came on the 18th hole of the Detroit Golf Club during the Rocket Mortgage Classic DeChambeau won.
“It was beastly,” Pepper said. “He turned it into a drive and a chip. It was crazy.”
The slight dogleg measured 471 yards that day. DeChambeau cut the corner with a 367-yard drive and had 98 in.
Bryson DeChambeau truly attacked the 18th hole at the Rocket Mortgage Challenge. (Photo courtesy PGA Tour)
Another look at how Bryson DeChambeau played the hole. (Photo courtesy PGA Tour)
He also tried to drive the green at the 555-yard, par-5 sixth at Bay Hill during the Arnold Palmer Invitational that he ultimately won. His drive cut across the large lake and traveled 370 yards, finishing about 45 yards short of the green.
“We always joke around that he’s trying to take Golden Tee lines,” Como said. “It’s almost like he’s trying to turn golf into like a video game.”
Which makes sense – DeChambeau is very good in golf and loves video games. Has been known to spend hours on end playing Fortnite. He’s a big kid at heart who plays big whether it’s ping pong, basketball or trying to chip a ball from a second-floor balcony into the U.S. Open trophy down in the living room while wearing full-length PJs.
“I want to make myself feel like a kid for the rest of my life. I don’t ever want to grow up,” he said. “When I was younger, I grew up very quickly, unfortunately, because I was around the golf scene and older individuals.
“I became very well-mannered and groomed at a young age playing matches against older people. I felt like I never really had much of a childhood so there are times I want to feel like I’m a kid again and rekindle that spirit I have.”
As for the adult in him, DeChambeau knows he can’t continue to pound his body as his age ticks up. He is studying how he can maintain his speed by incorporating less violent motions. He didn’t want to carry around so much weight so he’s trimmed down to about 230 pounds. And there are other avenues he’s looking into that could take him to another level in golf.
“My ultimate goal is to become the No. 1 player in the world,” he said. “I want to prove to myself that I can do it. That was a goal of mine when I was growing up. And I believe I can do it.
“I won’t stop until I get there. I will continue to go down rabbit holes and do whatever I can to get there.”