NEW YORK • Asked about his childhood as he stood on the practice range at a golf tournament in Connecticut this summer, Bryson DeChambeau said his overriding memory was a conviction that a non-conformist would eventually get more done.
“Even as a little boy, I always questioned everything,” said a smiling DeChambeau, whose eccentric, hard-swinging tactics and overpowering performances have roiled the golf world this year. “It’s how new things happen.”
Ahead of the pandemic-delayed Masters on Thursday, a bulked-up DeChambeau, who bludgeoned the US Open field and an esteemed golf course en route to a maiden Major win two months ago, plans to unleash his most outrageous assault on golf’s traditions yet.
If successful at the revered Masters, which draws voluminous worldwide TV ratings, the 27-year-old’s gargantuan drives and muscular wedge shots could change the paradigm of how the game is played for the next decade, or more.
At least that will be his ambition when he sets foot on the first tee on Thursday as the unquestioned tournament favourite at the venerable Augusta National Golf Club.
He should be able to reach the Augusta greens in two shots at the par-fives, often with a very short iron, effectively turning the par-72 layout into a par-68, no matter what the card officially says.
Rumours are swirling that DeChambeau is even planning to smash his drive at the 13th hole into the distant 14th fairway, in order to have a better angle of attack for his second shot to the green.
Such an unprecedented and radical scenario would have Augusta co-founder Bobby Jones turning in his grave.
“My goal is to inspire a new generation of golfers to think differently and just go out there and bomb it,” DeChambeau, who believes 400-yard drives will become the norm during his career, said. “Augusta would be the right stage for that.”
His plan is to reinvent golf much the same way that a 21-year-old Tiger Woods did during his seminal victory at the 1997 Masters, with booming drives that led to an 18-under 270 tournament record for the lowest four-round score – and 26 other tournament records tied or broken.
“I want to see if this tsunami that is Bryson DeChambeau will completely alter the landscape of golf,” said NBC Golf analyst Brandel Chamblee.
DeChambeau has a surprisingly average record at the Masters, a tie for 21st in his final appearance as an amateur in 2016 his best result in three starts. But those performances were before he gained more than 18kg in the past year and as much as 30 yards on his tee shots because of an innovative, borderline maniacal workout and nutritional regimen.
He swings with a ferocity – and velocity – heretofore unseen on the PGA Tour, where players for decades have been schooled to temper their all-out swings in order to enhance assets like tempo and rhythm.
He repeatedly talks about reshaping golf ideology and smashing drives “as far as I possibly can”.
It is a quest that consumes him. DeChambeau, who rarely drinks alcohol, stayed up fairly late after his Open win at Winged Foot Golf Club outside New York City in September. But early the next day, he was on a jet to Denver, where that afternoon he went through an intensive workout with Greg Roskopf, whom he calls his “muscle specialist”.
“He brought his trophy, which was fun, but we also had another two-hour session the next day,” Roskopf said.
“Bryson was already saying, ‘I want to get everything I can out of my body for the Masters’.”
A 57-year-old former strength and conditioning coach at Fresno State University, near where DeChambeau was raised, Roskopf worked for many years as a performance and injury-prevention expert on the rosters of the Denver Broncos and the Utah Jazz.
Seven years ago, Mike Schy, who coached the teenage DeChambeau, sent his charge to Roskopf because DeChambeau was experiencing lower back pain. It was in Roskopf’s gym-like laboratory in Englewood, Colorado that DeChambeau began to transform himself last year into the longest, most effective driver on Tour.
Roskopf put DeChambeau through what he calls a neuromuscular overhaul, a programme he describes as muscle activation techniques intended to correct body imbalances that inhibit, among other things, range of motion.
The system is also meant to build higher tolerance levels for exercises that can increase strength.
When not visiting his specialist every three weeks, DeChambeau works out daily at his home in Dallas, where he has installed each piece of Roskopf’s specialised equipment in his garage.
He eschews many traditional weightlifting exercises like squats or dead lifts to focus instead on isolated muscle groups that govern side bend, back extension and trunk and leg flex.
He also started consuming 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day. How much strength has DeChambeau gained? On some exercises, Roskopf said, his pupil more than doubled his weight load.
“I’ve been in pro sports for 30 years, and some of his gains are kind of astounding, just dramatic,” he said. “With some of these movements, we’ve run out of more weights to add.”
Talk like that will naturally lead to suspicion of steroid use, and earlier this year, a small number of DeChambeau’s colleagues were privately leery of his weight gain.
The doubts require some context because many of the PGA Tour’s top players are on the smaller side. Rory McIlroy weighs 72kg and Justin Thomas 65kg, so at 108kg, DeChambeau’s physique stood out more than it might in the overall cohort of pro athletes.
Roskopf conceded that whispers about performance-enhancing drugs were expected.
“But I can guarantee you he’s not taking steroids,” he said. “I know it raises eyebrows, but we actually take it as a compliment, because it’s proof that the process works. And Bryson is like, ‘They can test me any time’.”
NYTIMES, REUTERS