Bryson DeChambeau Golf Swing / Changing Golf Forever Commentary? (2022)

“I’m not the Incredible Hulk,” he says. “Not yet.” He laughs. The muscle—combined with an emphasis on gaining as much swing speed as he possibly could—turned him into the biggest hitter in Tour history, with drives averaging 344.4 yards, up 22.3 yards from last year, when he also ranked first. It has also turned him into a bit of a circus attraction. His wristwatch is a bit too tight now. Sometimes strangers punch him in the biceps, just to see how solid they are.

Most pros worry that adding so much muscle or tinkering too much with equipment will make them lose feel. But feel—that mystical sensation that has propelled so many great players—does not interest DeChambeau. He does not enjoy picking up a club and waggling it just for fun. “To say, ‘It just feels softer,’ it doesn’t go anywhere with him,” says his father, Jon. Adds Schy, who now assists DeChambeau’s full-time coach, Chris Como, “Numbers make him feel really good. The more numbers you throw at him, the better.”

On the course, DeChambeau makes the same calculations as everybody else—distance, wind, firmness of the greens, etc.—but he assigns a number to each calculation, and he tries to be as precise as possible. There are lively debates in golf about how much some of Bryson’s numbers really matter, but those miss the point: They matter to him. He does not just need to know everything. He needs to believe he knows everything. He helped design his arm-lock putter and he owns a piece of the company that makes the shaft for his driver. The investment is not just financial—he gains comfort from thinking he helped get his equipment exactly right.