AUGUSTA, Georgia – It doesn’t have a 48-inch cable, but Bryson DeChambeau has a new toy in the bag for the Masters.
After flirting with the idea of using a longer driver last November, DeChambeau finally maintained his regular model and drew 34th at Augusta National. This time, with five months to go, the world number 5 will debut a new club: a prototype Cobra pilot that he says will help improve consistency in off-center attacks at high speed.
DeChambeau told GolfChannel.com about the driver last month at the WGC-Workday Championship. “Nobody knows how to play at the speed of a 320 km / h ball and can barely hit it; sometimes it doesn’t react the way you think it should, ”he said then. Although he did not give much details about his new club, DeChambeau said on Tuesday that the numbers so far are very encouraging.
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“I just know that it took a few years to do it and I’m very excited about it,” he said. “If it helps me perform at a higher level, I’m not sure, because it’s golf and you never know what happens. Definitely, what I saw in the driving range and what I saw in practice last week, there are some tremendous benefits to that. “
His swing trainer, Chris Como, posted a photo on social media earlier this week that showed DeChambeau with a 350-yard load and 210 mph ball speed. There was also a viral video of him swinging wildly in the tournament practice area, much to the delight of former Masters champion Vijay Singh, who watched it nearby.
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With his new gear and Augusta National playing firmer and faster than during the autumn Masters, DeChambeau said he is planning to take a few lines off the tee:
• Over the trees, on the right side of No. 1
• Down the hill at 2
• Driving on the green no 3
• Pilot the bunkers, even against the wind, in 5
• Over the trees, below the left side of 9
• Loading the trees on the right side of the 11
DeChambeau already leads the PGA Tour in driving distance, with an average of 320.8 yards, and leads the strokes won: statistics off the tee (1,144). Still, he acknowledges that his success here – he never finished in the top 20 – will ultimately come down to his approach play.
“Looking at the opportunities, it’s not just the par 5s, but mainly the par 4s for me and how I can attack those par 4s to give me the best opportunity to make a lot of birdies out there,” he said.