ORLANDO, Fla. — He is the Christopher Columbus of professional golf – a pathfinder, a pilgrim, an explorer who is in search of a brave, new world.
He is willing to put his very livelihood on the line to prove that the golf world is not flat and finite; it is infinitely round, meaning you can sail the golf ball forever if you have the guts and gumption.
Whether he ultimately succeeds or fails in his scientific expedition, Bryson DeChambeau is what golf and all sports and businesses need: An adventurer who is willing to take risks and push the limits of product development.
His quest is simple: To go where no man has ever gone; to land a golf ball where it’s never been landed; to swing so hard and so fast that the ball comes off the head of his driver at 210, 220 mph, who knows, maybe 230 mph. He is golf’s version of Dale Earnhardt Sr., the Intimidator, attempting to drive harder and faster than anybody ever has.
At the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday, with seemingly the entire pandemic-limited crowd of 5,000 fans crowded around the gallery ropes to watch, DeChambeau did what he has been itching to do all week. On the winding par-5, 555-yard 6th hole with a severe dogleg left that wraps around a big lake, he simply eliminated the dogleg altogether and blasted the ball over the lake. No, he didn’t drive the green like he’s been wanting to do, but he could have had he chosen that path.
After his ball cleared the water, he thrust his arms in the air like Rocky Balboa climbing to the top of the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
“I felt like a kid again,” said a smiling DeChambeau, who is 10-under and one shot behind leader Lee Westwood after Saturday’s third round of The Arnie. “It was a Happy Gilmore kind of thing. It was almost like winning the tournament.”
And the fans went absolutely bonkers, yelling, screaming, hooting, hollering and high-fiving.
“Ohmygawd, did you see that?!”
“Man, did he activate his glutes or what?!”
“He destroyed it!”
“I’m surprised the golf ball didn’t explode!”
“What a freaking beast!”
“He’s a monster!”
In the grand scheme of things, the massive show of strength, power, torque and distance didn’t really gain DeChambeau much on the scorecard. He ended with a birdie on the hole as did 33 of the 72 golfers in the field, but the drive gained him an entire golf course-full of fans.
Asked if he drove the ball 350 yards over the water for the sake of the fans or because it was the best strategy, he admitted: “I would have done it even if there were no fans, but the fans definitely urged me on. It was fun to give them what they wanted.”
In a sport that has been trying to move past the massive void left by Tiger Wood’s limited presence over the last few years, DeChambeau is must-see TV. He’s big, strong, good-looking and has a movie star smile.
And let’s face it, as the old Nike commercial stated, it’s not just “chicks who dig the long ball” — it’s everybody who digs the long ball. It was part of the allure of Tiger when he emerged on the scene at the 1997 Masters, won by a record 12 strokes and transformed the hallowed grounds of Augusta National into a pitch-and-putt course. It’s why “Long” John Daly became a cult hero with his “Grip and Rip It” mantra 30 years ago when he came from nowhere to win the 1991 PGA Championship.
Except DeChambeau is John Daly without the baggage and beer bottles. He is, as Doug Ferguson, the great golf writer from Associated Press, wrote after he slayed famed Wingfoot at last year’s U.S. Open: “A mad scientist in a tam o’shanter cap.”
He played Winged Foot in a way that bumfuzzled other golfers. He shunned the safe, traditional, keep-the-ball-in-the-fairway approach at U.S. Opens and just blasted away with his driver, leaving himself short irons, many times from the deep rough. He hit only nine fairways on Saturday and Sunday at the U.S. Open, but still smashed his way to a 6-shot victory and was the only player under par.
“I don’t really know what to say because that’s just the complete opposite of what you think a U.S. Open champion does” Rory McIlroy said then. “Look, he’s found a way to do it. Whether that’s good or bad for the game, I don’t know, but it’s just not the way I saw this golf course being played or this tournament being played.”
How do you not admire this kid’s guts — and his brains. He was already a budding star before he embarked on this risky experiment, but now he has become one of the sport’s biggest attractions. During a three-month layoff following the outbreak of the coronavirus, he reconstructed his body, putting on 40 pounds of mass and muscle.
At 6-foot-1, 245 pounds, the 27-year-old DeChambeau says he wants to revolutionize the game and will “push the limits” to see how fast he can get his club-head speed and how far and straight he can hit the ball. Right now, he is hitting the ball further than anybody on the PGA Tour ever has and he’s only just begun his experiment.
There’s no question, he’s a different breed of golfer — both mentally and physically — and always has been. Before he won the U.S. Amateur in 2015, when most of the other young players attended a barbecue early in the week, DeChambeau stayed home and floated his golf balls in Epsom salt in the bathtub.
“I find the center of gravity of the golf ball, and find where it’s imbalanced, or how much it’s off,” he explained to Golfweek’s Jeff Babineau at the time. “Essentially, you float a golf ball in Epsom salt and water, and the heavy side will actually go to the bottom because of torque and how gravity affects it. Through center of mass, it actually creates a low side to the ball and the heavy side goes to the bottom.”
I’m just guessing, but I don’t think John Daly ever did that.
Likewise, there aren’t many golfers who, after getting dizzy spells at the Masters last year, would explain it by saying, “The frontal lobe of my brain was working too hard.”
Go ahead, roll your eyes and laugh.
They laughed at Christopher Columbus, too.
And don’t forget, it was Columbus who once said, “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Bryson DeChambeau was probably thinking the same thing on No. 6 Saturday.
