NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Bryson DeChambeau is always tinkering with his equipment. On the practice range at Augusta National last week, he was scribbling on the bottom of his drivers with a red sharpie.
“It’s just trying to get that dialed-in head, that perfect head,” DeChambeau explained. “Been working a lot on some equipment stuff, and super close. Super close with some of the driver stuff we’ve been working on.”
The reigning U.S. Open champion – who seems poised to eventually move on from his Krank Formula Fire woods to team with LA Golf when he gets the specs ironed out – is meticulous about trying to get his tools just right, and he offered a glimpse of his process at Augusta.
“For my speeds, it’s just so tedious, and they have to be so precisely measured and defined,” he said. “It’s tough. The manufacturing process is not easy. It’s one of those where for speeds of my caliber, it has to be super precise. So I’m testing different heads to see how it reacts, how I feel, how it feels in my hands. I’m swinging it really good right now, so I’m just trying to get the most precise thing in my hand for this week.”
So what exactly was DeChambeau marking on his prototype clubheads?
“I’m just defining, OK, that spins too much or it misses left or it’s hanging out to the right,” he said. “So I can kind of identify, OK, this one probably has too much CG here or whatnot.
“Just trying to find that driver that acted like when I shot 58 at Greenbrier. If that driver, that would be great, but I don’t want to use it because I don’t want to change the face curvature and change the dynamics. I want to have that head just as it is. I don’t want it to change.”
The LIV golfer is looking forward to new testing protocols with his club makers later this year, but he was vague about details for what he’s searching for.
“We’re figuring out new methods to make equipment a little more precise than even what’s out there right now, and I think that’s personally what’s inspiring to me is that there is more room to grow and more room to learn,” he said.
“We don’t truly know what happens at super-fast speeds, and that’s something I’m keen on figuring out this next year. It’s going to be a year-long testing protocol for something that I’m working on.
“I’m not going to be testing it. I want someone that’s even more precise than me. It’ll be fun to see what that information presents us and how we can improve in all facets of the game, whether it’s the driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, the irons, wedges, putter … we’re going to test everything, you name it, shafts, golf balls, everything.”
DeChambeau weighed in on the scheduled golf ball rollback by the USGA and R&A and it’s no surprise that he’s not a big fan.
“I hope they don’t roll it back,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. If they do it, obviously it’s going to be what it’s going to be, and we’ll be testing for probably another six months with the new golf ball with that variable introduced. We’re just leaving sort of things constant, introducing new variables to see what effects it has, and then just optimizing off of that. Once that golf ball gets presented, we’ll test and see how to optimize it even more efficiently.”
Viktor Hovland won last month at the Valspar Championship using his Ping G425 LST driver. Right before the Masters, however, Hovland switched to Ping’s new G440 LST driver.
“Yeah, last couple days back in Orlando, I’d say my iron game has been really, really nice, but still was just having a hard time with the driver to get it exactly how I wanted to,” Hovland said. “So I asked Kenton [Oates] from Ping to see if he could send some of the new drivers that I tested in the past, but when I wasn’t swinging it well, those misses were just accentuated. I hit those – those high right shots that I had before were even higher and further to the right. I didn’t really feel like testing it. But now that my swing got in a better spot, I wanted to give it another go.”
Part of the impetus to Hovland’s 11th-hour switch is the performance benefit from the new big stick combined with a Fujikura Ventus Black VoleCore+ 6TX shaft.
“I guess that new shaft is a little bit stiffer at the bottom, and with the G440, it’s way more forgiving,” Hovland said. “So the heel strikes and the toe strikes I’m able to keep the ball speed up compared to the other mis-hits. And the spin is just way tighter. … Really just excited about how much tighter the dispersion was and even getting a little bit more ball speed out with the new driver. Yeah, it’ll be exciting to see how it goes out there.”
Scottie Scheffler’s unique footwork is called the “Scottie Shuffle,” and the two-time Masters champion has new dancing shoes designed to handle the demands he generates on the ground.
Scheffler’s feedback guided the design process for the Nike Victory Pro 4 golf shoe built to his specifications and needs. Matt Plumb, the men’s sport and training footwear director at Nike, said it took two years of consultation, innovation and testing to create the finished product that includes a fly wing near the base of the toes and data-driven placement of the spikes.
“One of the key insights Scottie gave us is he really wanted a spike right in the middle of the toes,” Plumb told PGATour.com. “And if you think about the ‘Scottie Shuffle,’ that’s the spike he relies on as he moves through that transition.”
Scott Michaux