Bryson Wins. Is That Bad?

[klineka]

16 minutes ago, billchao said:

Wolff has more in the tank. Finau has more in the tank. Champ has more in the tank. When you watch DeChambeau swing, you can tell he’s pretty much giving it all he’s got.

There's a big difference between having more in the tank and actually using that extra on the course during a tournament. Bryson has done it and shown that he can still hit it accurate enough to win, nobody else really has. At least not on a regular basis. 

I know he is still young, but I would be shocked if Wolff gets to the point where he adds 10+ mph to his top end ball speed in a tournament. That would just match him with Bryson too, who has already stated that he is going to explore using up to a 48" driver, which has the potential to give Bryson even more ball speed and I think it's only a matter of time before we see Bryson break the 200mph mark.

[ncates00]

35 minutes ago, billchao said:

Wolff has more in the tank.

Maybe, but the stats say he's hit 187 max.

 

35 minutes ago, billchao said:

Finau has more in the tank.

Agreed, but on tour his fastest is 190 mph.

 

35 minutes ago, billchao said:

Champ has more in the tank.

Maybe, but the stats says his max is 2 or 3 mph slower than BDC's max.

[PeaceFrogg]

I don't think it's bad unless you are Rory McIlroy: "Bitter, Party of One". 

[StuM]

I do not see DCB as being "Bad for the Game".  Guys for years have been looking for distance and he is not the lone long-baller on tour.  He made a dramatic change over the past year and is having success with that change, that is why he is being talked about.

[RFKFREAK]

3 hours ago, boogielicious said:

My issue is the announcers more than BD. They were talking Nobel prize for a guy with 3 years of college physics at an average school for the sciences. Does he like to tinker? Absolutely. Should he be asked to replace Hawking as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge? No.

They talk about his power with the driver, but he wasn’t even the longest hitter this week. So they are building a myth about him that I feel is unwarranted to this point. His final round opponent was hitting it farther. Wolff was really impressive because he is just 21. 

This 100.

The announcers were one of the biggest reasons that I was turned off to Spieth.  They were so falling over themselves complimenting him before he had actually achieved anything that it really turned me off to him which is no fault of his but that over the top fawning just makes me aghast and that's how I react.

I applaud Bryson for what he accomplished this weak but the announcers were talking about him as if he were superman and as though it was mystifying how he accomplished what he did.  I already wasn't partial to him so they pretty much turned me off even more to him.

[HoganApexFan]

Love his commitment, self-confidence, and most aspects of his game once he finally commits to the shot, steps in, and pulls the trigger.  OTOH, the excessive discussions, calculations, over-analysis, second guessing of yardages and percentages, recalculating, etc. on almost every shot have huge potential to negatively impact the game at all levels.  It's not so much his method, but the constant TV coverage of it!  Really wish they would only cover him when he's actually ready to step in and hit the shot...the same goes for everyone on the green who takes forever to line up a putt!  

[Vinsk]

3 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Welcome to The Sand Trap.

I don’t think it’s bad. I thinks it helps the game get publicity, but I don’t think everyone will be running out to get same length clubs and bulk up to play. He finally won a major at 27. Morikawa won the PGA on his first try this year and is a different kind of golfer.

My issue is the announcers more than BD. They were talking Nobel prize for a guy with 3 years of college physics at an average school for the sciences. Does he like to tinker? Absolutely. Should he be asked to replace Hawking as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge? No.

They talk about his power with the driver, but he wasn’t even the longest hitter this week. So they are building a myth about him that I feel is unwarranted to this point. His final round opponent was hitting it farther. Wolff was really impressive because he is just 21. 
 

I hope BD settles down and becomes an ambassador for the game. But with his temperament, he may go the García route.

That’s a solid post right there Scott. Totally agree.

[nevets88]

 

We saw Wolff outdrive BAD because more boring trajectory. I'm guessing there's a reason BAD elects to hit it higher with less run than lower and more run. Accuracy?

Maybe the question shouldn't be is BAD bad for the game, we already have a bunch of long hitters out there. Maybe the question more should be, is this going to cause the current and future players to bulk up and change their methods? But it's already the case that swing speed is paramount. Can it be even more so?

[Archie Bunker]

During the last broadcast hour, the announcers kept repeating how Bryson "answered his critics" over and over again. Painful. I guess they had nothing else to talk about. A really long course, and the rough looked deep, but it didn't seem to matter to Bryson and Wolff. It was very interesting that Harris English accomplished an amazing feat - actually losing a ball on this course. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the only lost ball in the entire tournament. No water except for a couple of dry drainage ditches, and very little deep woods to lose your ball in. Perhaps the outcome would have been different if these things existed at Winged Foot. Still, a tough course and a good day for Bryson's new game approach. I'm sure he will try to do the same thing at Augusta.

[iacas]

Spieth lost a ball. They found it but after three minutes.

[imsys0042]

I didn’t read what Rory said as being against BDC at all.  He was wondering how someone could overpower the golf course the way that he did,  I think the headline was misleading.   Bryson, whether people agree or not, is trying new things and afaik doing it completely legally.  People have a right to challenge whether that is good for the game or not, but I didn’t think Rory was criticizing him personally.   Just saying he’s taken advantage of things that others haven’t.

 

I don’t think bad of him for doing his science stuff,   I just don’t like his attitude sometimes.   That headline article looks like it’s trying cause a controversy that really isn’t there

[Pretzel]

I do hope it changes golf for the better, in terms of helping put to bed many of golf's little idioms that turned out to be lies once we had access to the relevant data. I really appreciate how Bryson has fully embraced the statistics to optimize his golf game.

So many players, including a lot of tour professionals, ignore the basic facts that show you're better off hitting an approach from closer to the hole even if it means using a partial swing or hitting from the rough. Conditions at courses like Winged Foot with monstrous rough are outliers, because most of the time the rough isn't that big of a problem and even at Winged Foot it still wasn't always or even often worth the difference in approach shot distance. If you're strong enough to hit the ball 320+ off the tee, you're strong enough to also hit the ball out of the rough without an issue other than reduced backspin.

Tiger Woods was the catalyst that pushed professional golfers to truly be strong and fit athletes, because he showed what kind of difference it can make. I'm hoping that DeChambeau can be the catalyst that pushes professional golfers to utilize data to optimize their strategy, rather than relying as heavily on gut feelings and tradition. The only disappointing thing is that I saw him removing flagsticks for his putts all week, but I don't know if the US Open used flagsticks with a high enough COR to make flagstick in or out a better play with regards to the statistics.

All of this critical thinking is good for the game of golf though, rather than bad. People asked the same thing about Tiger, if it was bad that golfers would now need to hit the gym and bomb their drives to keep up, and I think the changes Tiger inspired has given us some great players and tournaments in the years since his debut. I believe the same will be said about Bryson if he managed to spark a trend of golfers analyzing their game to play optimally.

[billchao]

5 hours ago, klineka said:

There's a big difference between having more in the tank and actually using that extra on the course during a tournament. Bryson has done it and shown that he can still hit it accurate enough to win, nobody else really has. At least not on a regular basis. 

I know he is still young, but I would be shocked if Wolff gets to the point where he adds 10+ mph to his top end ball speed in a tournament. That would just match him with Bryson too, who has already stated that he is going to explore using up to a 48" driver, which has the potential to give Bryson even more ball speed and I think it's only a matter of time before we see Bryson break the 200mph mark.

I think you misunderstand me. I’m not knocking Bryson because he’s swinging all out. Quite the opposite, actually. It’s impressive that he’s able to swing like that and hit it so straight.

All I’m saying is in terms of “untapped” power potential, I think other people players already on tour would be capable of more than him if they chose to go down the same path. I doubt they will, but if they did I wouldn’t be surprised if they surpassed him.

[turtleback]

How quickly people forget - golf is not a game of how, it is a game of how many.  The scorecard doesn't lie.  I don't care for Bryon, myself, but I think Rory's comments are both unfortunate and disappointing.

The only potential bad is the collateral damage that may occur among other golfers trying to keep up on the distance.  But that's not Bryson's problem.  

[ChetlovesMer]

11 hours ago, Skydiver Scott said:

Bryson wins the US open and most commentary I see along the lines of “How did this happen”,” He did it in a way that doesn’t make sense “, “ Does the game need change”.  I don’t understand how anyone can do anything but say congratulations.  He approached the game in a different way. He doesn’t win all the time. Why All the knee jerk reactions?  

Firstly, NO THE GAME DOESN'T NEED TO CHANGE.

Having said that, I think the rough should be more challenging for the run of the mill tournaments. I also think they could stop rolling the fairways for tournaments, but even if they don't I think the game is perfectly fine. I hear people say "Roll back the ball". I think that's silly. I'd rather see them penalizing misses more. 

As far as Bryson being some kind of genius... eh, that's quite a bit overblown. I do think the lack of a crowd actually may help him more than other players. He seems like he likes to get into "his own world". You know a world in which you can take 2 minutes or more before stroking your putt.. (Okay, cheap shot.) 

I think the dude is good for the game. Has he acted like a jerk a few times? ...YES!.... I don't really think he's a bad guy. Just says some pretty stupid things sometimes. As have I, though. 

As far as people copying his style of play... other than the speed at which he plays, I'm all for it. I'd still like to try some one length clubs one day. I don't think his putting style is for me. But hey, to each his own. 

[TourSpoon]

8 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Welcome to The Sand Trap.

I don’t think it’s bad. I thinks it helps the game get publicity, but I don’t think everyone will be running out to get same length clubs and bulk up to play.

This ^^^^   

When Daly drove all night to be the last alternate and win his first PGA with "Grip it and Rip it", I did not see any golfers running to the barbershop to get a mullet or over swinging to the point of being able to see the toe of their wedge during their backswing. Its very similar and people discounted him until he won at St. Andrews.

[ChetlovesMer]

6 hours ago, DeadMan said:

The only thing it's bad for is media having more shitty takes about how the ball goes too far.

THIS

Seriously, if I have to hear one more golf commentator bitch about the modern golf ball.... Quit your f-ing whining. 

[nevets88]

Remember when everyone was giving grief to McIlroy for working out so much?