His name appears in many predictions as a strong favourite for victory. Carla Bernat, who knows a thing or two about Augusta National (everyone stand up and salute), assured this Tuesday on the Bola Provisional of Ten Golf that he was her winning horse. What others say, for better or worse, has never kept Bryson DeChambeau awake at night. It won’t do so now either. Quite the opposite, the double US Open champion humbly admits that he still hasn’t fully figured out Augusta National. If he had, he’d already have a Green Jacket in his wardrobe. That’s how scientists think. They hardly consider the luck factor. If he hasn’t won, it’s because he hasn’t done all the things needed to win the Masters. That’s his conclusion.
Perhaps for that reason, on Tuesday he was the player who hit the most balls on the practice field at Augusta National. Perhaps for that reason or simply because he’s always like that. In any case, what is clear is that Bryson is still searching for something. The Masters launched an interesting novelty on its official website this year. It’s accessible to everyone. You can see all the shots of all the players on the practice field. That’s why we know that DeChambeau hit more balls than anyone else. By far. Specifically, there were 393, of which forty per cent were drives. Only two other players hit more than two buckets on the practice field. One is Max Homa, who hit 247, and the other is, of course, no surprise here, José María Olazábal Manterola. The man from Hondarribia hit 236. A simple calculation: if each bucket of balls at his club contains about 25 balls, it turns out Olazábal hit almost ten buckets yesterday, just yesterday. He’s 59 years old.
Let’s get back to DeChambeau before we get lost. He always hits a lot of balls, but he also confirmed that this time it wasn’t just for fun, but because he’s searching for something. Dr. Bryson’s lab is buzzing. The process was always the same. He hits a driver, takes out a red marker and marks something on the clubhead. Over and over again. “I was looking for the perfect head. I’ve been working a lot on that. At my speeds, everything has to be measured very precisely. I make them very specifically and that’s why I try different ones to see which gives me the best feel. I mark if they have a lot of spin, if they go left, right…”, he explains.
So, DeChambeau is looking for the driver head that suits him best to play at Augusta this week. Something as specific as that. Something, by the way, that he also did at Pinehurst before winning the US Open. When we say the lab is buzzing, it’s because he’s not only looking for that ideal driver head, but he’s in the trial and error phase with many things. “We’re investigating how to make the equipment even more precise. We don’t know exactly what happens at extremely high speeds and I want to discover it this year. We’re testing everything: driver, woods, irons, balls, shafts… I’m excited about that,” he states. Not only is he the hardest worker, he’s probably also the player most passionate about this part of golf. That’s where his success lies.
DeChambeau’s nature is to test things, although over time he has refined his approach. He admits it himself. “I used to test extremes. Now I’m focused on what works for me and optimising it. I’ve experimented with gaining a lot of muscle mass, being very thin, various swings… Now I focus on small adjustments. I seek precision down to the micron. And then just go out and play and enjoy,” he notes.
DeChambeau always works by elimination. He did and does it with golf balls and also with clubs. He starts with the extremes to rule things out until he gets to what really works for him. It’s pure empiricism. That’s why, although he doesn’t want it, he’s not worried about the possibility of limiting ball distance. “I hope it doesn’t happen. But if it does, we’ll test it for six months and see how to optimise it. A variable will change and we’ll see how it affects. Then we’ll adjust everything based on that,” he explains. And yes, he does it all himself. He’s the chief scientist.
By the way, do you know who hit the fewest balls on Tuesday?
Josele Ballester. He hit 14 balls. Which is essentially a quick warm-up to go out and play 18 holes.
