Bryson DeChambeau fires back at R&A chief’s warning

Bryson DeChambeau has responded to a warning from R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers that he’ll rein-in equipment if the American and his cohorts continue to overpower golf courses with brute force.

Speaking to the Daily Mail earlier this week, Slumbers admitted to being fascinated by DeChambeau, who has transformed his physical shape to become one of the biggest-hitters in the game.

However, he reiterated his long-held belief that golf should be a game of skill and that he will use all means available to him to ensure that it remains that way.

According to DeChambeau, that’s just fine.

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Ahead of this week’s Memorial Tournament, where he will try to win back-to-back events and extend his streak of consecutive top-10s on the PGA Tour to eight starts, the 26-year-old insisted he would have no issue with an equipment rollback.

“No matter what rules they give me, I’m going to try and do my best to maximise my athletic ability,” said DeChambeau. “They can’t take working out away from me. I know that. At least as of right now.

“Look, in 1998, the COR test was put in stone where you couldn’t have a certain number off the face, and they’ve used that ever since. It’s now a CT test. The ball speeds coming off the face are what they are, and they really haven’t changed that much. If anything, the clubs have gotten longer, the shafts have gotten stiffer, and we can swing it faster with more control. 

“Back in the day, the shafts were a little more flexible, and LA Golf Shafts has provided me with a shaft that’s super stiff, super stable and allowed me to swing at the speeds while retaining the same control with the face.”

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DeChambeau added that the exponential distance gains he has made are not purely as a result of the equipment he wields.

“It’s a lot of work on my end, too, to gain strength and to swing it hard, to train,” he said.

“It’s a lot of hard work. People don’t realise how hard I’ve worked to get here. It’s been working out for at least an hour every single day for the past five, six months, fixing my body when it breaks down.

“I have to go, okay, I’ve got to go fix my body and work out and train in the right way to be able to tolerate all these forces going through my body and out of my body.

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“So, in regards to whoever is saying we’re going to have to look at equipment, I’ve got no problem. I’m, again, just going to look at my game and how I can improve it in the best way possible. No matter if they roll the ball back there’s still going to be a percentage difference. 

“Even if it gets rolled back, there’s still going to be a gap. Whether it’s closer now, it is what it is. I’m not really worried about it. I’m just going to keep trying to make those athletic gains so that I can be the best golfer that I can possibly be.”