Notice. Before you start reading. This is only for the real geeks. Don’t come complaining afterwards. This is one of those stories about Bryson DeChambeau. It turns out he debuted new irons last week at the LIV in Virginia. Of course, designed by him and manufactured with a 3D printer. What’s special about them? Here we go. Let Bryson explain…
“We repeated the design of the clubface several times. The heel is a bit flatter in curvature. My face obviously has some curvature in the irons. So we’ve optimised it as much as possible so that the heel and toe fit perfectly according to the mass properties. Since the heel doesn’t produce as much gear effect on an iron at my speeds, when hitting it on the heel, it has to be a bit flatter, and then the toe is a bit rounder to compensate. Then, I moved the centre of gravity of the head towards the toe. My grips and golf shafts are so heavy that they move the centre of gravity of the club towards the heel, so we tried to compensate for that with a tungsten weight in the toe. That’s, very simply, what it is,” DeChambeau explains. So, for physicists or real enthusiasts.
Bryson claims that the version that has passed all quality tests and that he is now using is 3.0. He didn’t use the irons at the Masters or the PGA because they weren’t perfect. “The curvature on the face was a bit different, the weight in the toe wasn’t right, and there were some internal things that made the face more resistant than we wanted. That’s ultimately the reason: it wasn’t ready, and we had to print another version,” he notes.
That said, DeChambeau revealed that his next target is a new golf ball. “We still have work to do there. It will take some time. I’m still working on it. We believe that by the end of this year, I’ll have a golf ball that will be very interesting. It’s a test. But I’m thrilled to keep researching, testing, experimenting, and optimising. My goal now is to optimise myself to another level, and if I can’t, so be it. If I can in some areas, great.”
In line with all this work he develops on his equipment, DeChambeau was asked what he would have done if he hadn’t been a golfer. The two-time US Open champion didn’t hesitate: “I would be doing something related to biomechanics. I’m now working with Sportsbox AI, so I’d probably be doing something about biomechanics and how AI integrates into that. Researching more about the body and how it works more repetitively and consistently and how to become healthier too, something along those lines.”
DeChambeau, a scholar of the courses like few others, revealed that in his opinion, the US Open champion this week will have to be the best in the driver and putt combination. “You have to put the ball in the fairway, that’s fundamental, and you have to putt very well. It’s very important to make almost all putts from three metres down,” he emphasises.
Finally, he highlighted again that YouTube serves as an escape valve for him, helping him become a better player because he focuses on other things. And he revealed that Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson have asked him about his channel. “I see Jon less in this because he values family a lot, and I respect that, but Phil is very interested, and I’ve given him two pieces of advice: to be himself, to control his content, and to read all the comments that fans write to him.”
