Bryson DeChambeau is bringing his personal revolution to Augusta

Bryson DeChambeau is a golf outlier in his use of science and statistics to tweak his approach. Now, he’s bringing his personal revolution to Augusta.

In 2001, baseball was on the cusp of a significant transformation. The cash-strapped Oakland Athletics lost three of their best players and needed to assemble a competitive team with a limited budget. When A’s General Manager Billy Beane met Peter Brand, baseball changed. Brand’s statistical analysis in player recruitment rejected conventional scouting methods and Brand and Beane formed a team that defied expectation, winning 20 consecutive games, providing a convenient origin story for a statistical revolution that has come to be known as “Moneyball”.

At 1:16 p.m. on Sep. 14, Bryson DeChambeau teed his ball up on the first hole at Winged Foot East in what could prove to be the beginning of Golf’s major “Moneyball” moment.

Just like Peter Brand did, Bryson focuses on the numbers. Whether it’s driver carry, angle of attack, slope percentage or the reading on his bathroom scales, DeChambeau is obsessed. Yet despite his scientific approach, DeChambeau knows his pursuit of perfection is imperfect. When speaking to the Golf Channel after his final round at Winged Foot, DeChambeau acknowledged that there were courses out there where his significant length advantage off the tee was neutralized. The example he gave was East Lake, Atlanta where a combination of Bermuda rough and well-protected greens stifled his “bomb and gouge” approach. It’s an attitude that rationalizes his golf game, allowing him to play within the bounds of his capabilities while exposing weak points in a golf course’s defense.

What makes Bryson DeChambeau’s approach so unique?

His strategy relies on the elimination of variables and the use of statistics to simplify a game that poses a new set of challenges from week to week. DeChambeau’s irons are one length that allows him to execute a “one plane” swing with almost every club in the bag, reducing the reliance on traditional notions of “feel” and “touch”. Since turning pro he has gained approximately 50 pounds in a successful search for extra distance off the tee, a strategy that has allowed him to overpower a number of courses. One of the most advantageous aspects of DeChambeau’s scientific approach is that it benefits from a greater sample size. The more golf courses he plays the easier it is to work out a strategy for the next. Make no mistake, DeChambeau’s major victory was a breakthrough that has been years in the making.

“Bomb and gouge” is the term coined to describe golf’s long hitters and is most often used to describe DeChambeau’s game. It’s a description that’s accurate when you watch but proves to be reductive when you analyze. It’s the obvious evaluation when you watch a 5.5° driver generate average ball speeds of 185 mph from an explosive swing that doesn’t always find the short stuff. The rough isn’t a part of the course that DeChambeau tends to fear and with the strength he’s acquired from a 50-pound weight gain he’s regularly able to muscle the ball out of the thickest rough. For the amateur golfer, it’s these two aspects of Bryson’s game that are the most striking given he hits it distances off the tee and crafts shots from the rough that club golfers can hardly comprehend. However, DeChambeau’s rise to the top has also relied on careful strategy, accuracy with his irons, and a finely tuned short game, three factors that don’t tend to make the headlines.

DeChambeau’s putting statistics have improved year on year since he turned professional in April 2016. In 2017, he was 145th in strokes gained putting, the following year he was 32nd, then 28th and now in 2020, he ranks 10th. Evidently, putting is an area of DeChambeau’s game that has been consistently strong and often underappreciated. However, the US Open proved that the key Bryson needed to unlock his first Major Championship lay in his approach play. During the 2020 US Open he ranked third for strokes gained from approach play compared to a 2020 average of 119th. That’s a hugely impressive improvement by anyone’s standards and it was achieved partly through a precise course management strategy. DeChambeau’s understanding of his own game helped him to miss fairways in the right spots and all week he played the percentages. When he missed the fairways, more often than not he missed on the right side of the dog leg affording himself the opportunity to get the ball on the green. It’s easy to walk off the golf course and say “I missed too many fairways today” but the best players regularly turn bad shots into good misses.

In the end, the course’s difficulty at Winged Foot played into his hands. It was a course that was set up to deter the game’s long hitters. Dustin Johnson regularly hit iron off the tee favoring accuracy over distance. However, the course was set up so narrow that even the more accurate drivers on tour were regularly missing fairways, the field average was 46.2 percent compared to a 2020 season average of 60.3 percent. By sticking to his strengths, DeChambeau gained strokes on the opposition and even though when speaking to the Golf Channel at Winged Foot he was adamant he “beat the course”, in many ways the course beat the rest of the field even though it took aim at him.

With a green jacket in the crosshairs, DeChambeau will head to Augusta a good few pounds heavier and potentially armed with a 48-inch driver. Historically, Augusta has favored long hitters and good putters and DeChambeau looks poised to challenge again. One factor to keep in mind is that the Masters this year isn’t taking place in April, weather analysis by the PGA Tour indicates that high temperatures are on average 10 degrees colder. A cooler temperature coupled with a stronger north wind will make three of the courses par 5’s more difficult to reach in two. This is where Bryson’s extra distance could not just separate him from the field but also from the other long hitters. Even in November, firm greens are probably Augusta’s best defense but they won’t punish the player with a wedge in his hand. At the least, expect DeChambeau to be in contention on Sunday.

No golfer in history has used science and statistics like DeChambeau has and with a six-major season in 2021 Bryson has the chance to turn his Moneyball moment into a movement.