“Ludicrous” – Bryson DeChambeau’s coach blasts rollback proposals

Bryson DeChambeau’s swing coach has branded proposals by golf’s governing bodies to limit the distance players can hit the ball as “ludicrous”.

Mike Schy has worked with DeChambeau since he was 12-years-old and has been a cornerstone of the US Open champ’s rise from wiry amateur to big-hitting major champion.

Like many others, Schy was interested by the R&A and USGA’s proposals to limit distance – and, having digested all the suggestions, he’s far from impressed.

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“I think the golf ball rollback ship has sailed,” he told bunkered.co.uk. “I think it would be ludicrous to do that or limit the equipment.”

Schy, who founded the The Mike Schy Golf Performance Institute, instead has a simple alternative that he believes would quell the need for equipment changes.

“There’s a way to change this quite rapidly,” he added. “The problem is, at the minute, courses are set up with rough vertically. They do it from the edge of the fairway and they gradually make it taller towards the treeline.

“What they should be doing now, to make a person think on the tee, is bring the rough into play horizontally. Start with rough that is seven inches deep at the edges of the greens, let’s say, and then scale it as you go back. Someone can drive the green but, if he misses the target, he’s in stuff that he is just not getting it up and down. He might even make bogey from that position.”

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“Compare that to the guy that laid back 150 yards, even if he missed the fairway, the rough was shorter, so it wasn’t so difficult to hit out of. It brings strategy back into the game. Nobody is even talking about this and it’s stupid because it’s so simple. All you need to do is scale the rough.”

DeChambeau himself has admitted that he doesn’t fear the authorities stepping in to limit distance.

“I welcome it as long as they don’t change the human element,” said the driving distance leader on the PGA Tour in 2020. “I’m going to play with whatever they give me. I’m not worried about it. I’m going to do what that they say is legal and I’ll just go from there and find the best way to play for me under the rules of golf.”