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NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Bryson DeChambeau has been the talk of the PGA Tour’s return after bulking up and taking a more aggressive approach off the tee. That new method has necessitated a fairly substantial equipment change to keep up, particularly with his driver.
When golf came to a halt, the 2015 U.S. Amateur champ had been going back and forth between an older model Cobra King Ltd Black driver and a newer Cobra King Speedzone with a 9-degree head set down to 7.5 degrees. That effective loft is relatively low by tour standards, but DeChambeau’s wild lashes at the ball have added so much spin that he needed to lower it even further — he currently is using a 5.5-degree King Speedzone, a loft nearly comparable to the average putter.
DeChambeau also has lowered the lofts on all of his irons and said he is looking to add a 10-degree 3-wood, which is roughly 5 degrees lower than what a standard PGA Tour player would use.
"I'm producing so much spin I have to change the clubs (themselves)," he said. "It's crazy."
It also should be noted that DeChambeau’s mammoth drives aren’t solely the result of adding weight and sticking to a strict gym routine during quarantine. For his driver, he replaced the red 14-gram weight in the sole with a different 2-gram weight, which lowered the head weight of his driver from 196 grams to 184 grams. It may seem like a minuscule difference, but a slightly lighter club can have a large impact on how much speed a player can generate.
The driver shaft DeChambeau employs is one of the most unique in the game for another reason. LA Golf made 26 prototypes for him to test late last year, all designed with the purpose of being able to accommodate his swing speed at the time and the planned increase in swing speed.
This is highly unusual, as conventional thinking for golf shafts is that they are built explicitly to fit your swing as it is. For example, for one driver shaft to perfectly suit a 115-mph clubhead speed versus a 130-mph clubhead speed would be like wearing a size 9 shoe and a size 12 shoe that both snugly contour to your feet.
What allows that to happen is this: LA Golf has put special inserts into the middle of DeChambeau’s shaft to make it 40-50 percent stiffer than other Tour-level shafts – but only in that one area. On either end of that stiff section are “softer” areas, adding flex toward the clubhead and grip.
DeChambeau has made it known he hopes to achieve ball speeds well beyond 200 mph, so LA Golf tested their shaft against what professional long drivers use to see how it would play. According to LA Golf chief operating officer Chris Nolan, DeChambeau won’t encounter any problems adding speed.
“The harder he swings it, the straighter it will go,” Nolan told Golf.com.
Sean Fairholm