68 GOLF.COM / S e p t ember 2019
GOLF/Technology 2019
around with DeChambeau has led JumboMax to create a new mass-
market grip-fitting system, which will allow everyday players to find
the optimum grip weight for their idiosyncratic swings. (“This is
going to be as big a deal as when woods went from persimmon to
metal,” says John Mazzanoble, the excitable company president.)
The much lighter grips affected the way DeChambeau’s shaft kicked,
necessitating intervention from Schomin’s team: They swapped out
his True Temper x7s, which are about as stiff as a telephone pole, for
softer S400s. Searching for the perfect feel with his new sticks, Bryson
began tweaking the pronation in his wrist, which would require input
from his swing coach Chris Como. During all of the related testing,
every swing was recorded by Flightscope, which, at DeChambeau’s
urging, has incorporated hourly weather data so it can be quantified
how changes in humidity and barometric pressure, among other
things, affect the flight of the ball.
Wasn’t this a lot to take on just a few weeks before the biggest
tournament of the year?
“I’m not worried about the Masters,” DeChambeau said with
some heat. “I never worry about this tournament or that tournament.
I don’t care if I have to take a whole year to get this right. What matters
to me is the process, not the results.”
Underpinning all of this experimentation is DeChambeau’s
obsession with improving his wedge play, the only bugaboo in a
game that carried him to four PGA Tour victories in 2018. “If I can
figure out this wedge stuff and become a really good wedger, I’ll be
the number-one player in the world,” DeChambeau says. This kind
of brash pronouncement has led to blowback in the past. Bryson
remains as cocksure as ever, but at least now he is more self-aware:
No sooner had these words been uttered than he punched a reporter
on the arm and said, “That’s some good material for you, huh?”
DeChambeau’s quest can be easy to spoof until
you’re confronted with how much sense it all makes. At last year’s
Shark Shootout, Kevin Na paired with Bryson and was mystified by
some of the practice-round preparation. Then he witnessed how
adroitly his partner putted from off the green. “I’m giving away one
of Bryson’s secrets, but he Stimps the fairway cut near the green
and also the fringe,” says Na in a conspiratorial whisper. “You know
how when you have that putt from off the green, it’s always a guess
as to how the ball will roll out through the different grasses? Well,
it’s not a guess for him, because he knows it down to the foot.”
There has been much clucking about paparazzi-style videos of
DeChambeau spritzing water onto practice balls. What’s the point—
everyone knows that water on the clubface will reduce the amount
of spin, right? Actually, through extensive testing DeChambeau
has found that to be true for lofted clubs, but with his long irons
he actually generates more spin—up to 1,000 RPM. In July of this
year, when the Tour visited Minneapolis, DeChambeau sought
out 3M scientists who postulated that with less-lofted clubs the
water molecules get trapped on the face at the moment of impact
and create extra friction, which imparts more spin. This seems like
esoterica until you face a do-or-die 4-iron on a foggy day at Pebble
Beach or a drizzly day at Royal Portrush.
DeChambeau has such certainty in the metronomic consistency
- Flightscope X3 Launch
Monitor “It’s ridiculous
that people think I don’t
have feel,” DeChambeau
says. “Of course I do. It’s
more about relying on
the numbers to validate
my feel. And I trust these
numbers 100 percent.” Of
course, he does have an
equity ownership stake in
the Flightscope company. - Samsung Galaxy S10
Smartphone The S10’s
slo-mo setting captures
720 frames per second.
“The video quality is so
good that it’s allowed me
to see my swing like never
before,” DeChambeau says. - Xbox Last summer,
DeChambeau began travel-
ing with the gaming console
to give himself something
to take his mind off golf.
Like dudes everywhere, he
has become addicted to
Fortnite, a shooter-survivor
game. DeChambeau plays
up to three hours at a time,
often jacking in against
fellow Tour players Harold
Varner, Jon Rahm, Wesley
Bryan and Joaquín Nie-
mann. “Bryson only cares
about three things: golf,
Fortnite and girls,” says
Kevin Na. “In that order.”
This was recently relayed
to Tiger Woods, who said,
“He’s got his priorities
wrong.” So Fortnite should
be number one?
3 Pieces
of Tech
Bryson Can’t Live Without132Left:
C
ourtesy
(^1 )Flightscope;^
(^2 )Sam
su
ng;^ (^3)^ Microsof
t