No one runs speed like Bryson DeChambeau. It’s a borderline obsession. Maybe there is no end.
Although he has never reached a ball speed of 200 miles per hour on a competitive tour on a PGA Tour, he has exceeded that threshold several times in practice. He said he hit 211 mph on the field earlier in the week at the Champions Sentry Championship.
DeChambeau has recently teamed up with World Long Drive champion Kyle Berkshire in an effort to improve his ball speed. Berkshire set a world record (228 mph) on the way to winning the WLD final in 2019.
DeChambeau on Thursday managed to hit one driver 405 yards – the second longest of the opening round (Cam Champ, 421 yards) – on his way to 4-under 69 on the Plantation Course. It’s four beats from the opening lead, held by Harris English and Justin Thomas.
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After his tour, DeChambeau was asked what he learned from Berkshire. DeChambeau said that he did not want to say too much, but said that he worked so hard that he almost went out at times: “There were times when I saw a tunnel and I had to stop. . “
DeChambeau added:
“[Berkshire] he gave me nice little secrets that allowed him to get from, in college he was 118, 119 [mph swing speed], to where it is today, about 150. So I applied some of his techniques. It has a lot to do with pushing the limits of your body and going for long hours of turning your golf club into a golf ball and trying to help the ball speed.
How Berkshire helped DeChambeau improve swing speed
“There are points where no, I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced a super runner or anything like that, where you get those extra endorphins and that’s the kind of thing that breaks your neurological CNS (Central Nervous System), I believe, what breaks down your nervous system, which is great, and over time as long as you keep picking it up and keep pushing and pushing it, just keeping up and up.
“So that’s a fundamental principle of what he’s done. He’s just been working over his CNS as a madman and he’s shown me interesting techniques that have allowed me to keep pace with the golf course. So I feel like I was a little faster out there today, which was awful to have, and I got into it. “
DeChambeau hit eight of 15 equal trails, averaging nearly 300 yards on the two drive holes measured. His 405-yard driver came at the 12th par-4, when he drove near the front of the lawn on the 423-yard hole. That was one of his six birdies on the day.
Where is all this going? DeChambeau said that in the next year, a year and a half, he hopes to reach a ball speed of 205-210 mph consistently.
“As soon as I achieve those distances and I’m comfortable with that,” he said, “without trying to turn my butt off, it just happens naturally, and then I stop and go down the chipping rabbit hole and try to understand. my chipping and wedging is much better. “