Ever since the PGA restarted, one of the highlights has been how far Bryson DeChambeau is hitting the ball off the tee. The transformation to his body has given him much more power with the driver.
Since the restart, he has hit 29 drives over 350 yards. This is by far the most out of any player in the PGA. The second closest is Matthew Wolf with 15.
To put it in perspective of how much he has gained in power, he only hit 30 drives farther than 350 yards all of last season. On Thursday at the Memorial Tournament, he bombed a 423-yard drive that had people talking. He is on his way to accomplishing something Tiger never did – lead the PGA Tour in driving distance.
Tiger on DeChambeau
The most popular golfer in the world, Tiger Woods, has taken notice of DeChambeau’s new power and improved game.
“He’s gotten stronger, faster, bigger and has created more speed. He’s hitting it further, but let’s look at the fact that he’s hitting it as straight as he is,” said Woods. “That’s the part that’s the most difficult thing to do. The farther you hit it, the more the tangent goes more crooked. So the fact that he’s figured that out and has been able to rein in the foul balls, to me, has been equally as impressive as his gains off the tee distance-wise.”
He hasn’t just been bombing drives, but he has done it with accuracy. He is crushing the ball and also hitting a good amount of fairways, between 58 and 67 percent. That puts him in the middle of the pack of the PGA in hitting fairways.
“He’s figured out a way to increase distance and maximize his efficiency,” Woods said. “If I look back at when I first started playing the Tour, we didn’t have TrackMans; we didn’t have launch monitors. Guys were learning how to bend clubs on their knee to try and take loft off of it. That’s now changed.”
The Memorial
DeChambeau is still making headlines while Tiger is playing for the first time since his charity matchup with Phil Mickelson. After winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic, DeChambeau has been the guy to watch on the Tour.
“You have all these different launch-monitor technologies and you can set up a whole bunch of balls, figure out the shafts and the conditions that you want to maximize carry. What Bryson has done is no easy task. He’s got to put in the time and has put in the reps, and he’s figured it out,” Woods said.
While hitting the ball so far, he doesn’t have much distance left for his second shot. On Thursday after his 423-yard drive, he only had 45 yards left to the hole.
He was able to hit an approach shot within 6 feet and birdie the hole. He still only finished the day at +1, so he will have to improve his play on Friday to be in contention.
