Bryson DeChambeau. It couldn’t have been anyone else. Who else but him. The most scientific, meticulous and unique player in modern golf found an unexpected solution for his swing in Korea: talking to Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence tool. Not with a conventional coach. Not just with video, the TrackMan or the feel of the practice range. With an AI. Very Bryson. Not only to do it, but of course afterwards to tell people about it.
The scene took place after the third round of LIV Golf Korea, played at the Asiad Country Club in Busan. DeChambeau had started the tournament firing, with a first round of 65, six under par in his first ten holes, but the spark faded. On Saturday he carded a 71, one over par, and left the course frustrated. Very frustrated. So much so that he later admitted he stayed late on the practice range, already at night, hitting his club on the ground out of pure frustration as he tried to understand what was happening.
The problem, explained simply, was that he couldn’t get the clubface to close properly at impact. In golf, and especially for a right‑handed player like DeChambeau, if the clubface stays too open when it reaches the ball, the shot tends to go to the right or to lack the desired rotation. In other words, the body can be doing many things right, the speed can be there, the plane can look correct, but if the face doesn’t arrive in the right position, the shot fails.
DeChambeau explained it in his own way, of course. He spoke of “alpha torque” and “gamma torque”, of physical principles, of what makes the club “turn over”, that is, rotate, release and close at the correct moment. But the translation for a general audience would be this: Bryson was trying to find out why his hands were getting ahead too much and why the club wasn’t naturally releasing the head.
The key eventually appeared in a late‑night conversation with Gemini. According to DeChambeau himself, he began asking the artificial intelligence what might be causing that stall. The conversation turned to grip pressure and tension in the hands. Put more simply: if you grip the club too tightly, if there’s too much tension, the club doesn’t release properly. The hands dominate too much, the clubhead lags and the face doesn’t rotate as it should.
The answer he found was simpler than it seemed: loosen the grip pressure, let the hands be a little freer and allow the club to close naturally. Less force. Less locking. More freedom. More release.
And it worked. At least, it worked on Sunday.
DeChambeau went out on the final day and posted a final round of 65, five under par. He finished third outright on -11, one shot behind the playoff that would be won by Joaquín Niemann over Talor Gooch. The Chilean and the American finished on -12 and Niemann took the victory on the first playoff hole.
Bryson didn’t win, but he left Korea with a much better feeling than he had twenty‑four hours earlier. “I feel like I’m on the right path”, he said after the round. He had started the tournament well, got lost in the middle of the week and had found an explanation before the final day. Or, at least, a clue.
There was also a team prize. Crushers GC, the team captained by DeChambeau, topped the team standings at -23 and claimed their tenth regular‑season title in LIV Golf, more than any other team. The win also had a special element due to the presence of Travis Smyth as a substitute for Paul Casey, injured in the wrist. Smyth responded with a great week and was a key part of the victory alongside DeChambeau, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri.
The story, in any case, leaves a very recognisable image of Bryson. A player capable of winning two U.S. Opens, hitting it longer than almost anyone and, at the same time, spending the night asking an artificial intelligence about the biomechanics of his hands, grip tension and how the clubface behaves at impact. It may sound strange, but in his world it makes perfect sense.
His next stop will be Spain. Bryson DeChambeau will play this week at LIV Golf Andalucía at the Real Club Valderrama, from 4 to 7 June, at one of the most demanding courses on the schedule. A setting where precision matters far more than power and where hitting it very hard is not enough.
We’ll see if Gemini also has an answer for that.
