Bryson Dechambeau Plays Same-Length Irons

[mvmac]

We asked the PING engineers about single length irons.

[nevets88]

I missed this August tweet:

 

[tdiii]

Stupid question -- why do longer shafts make one hit the ball higher? 

[natureboy]

On 9/2/2015, 11:47:01, Abu3baid said:

Seems to go against pretty much everything I have learned on this site about pitching.. No cock of the wrist (absolutely beautiful?). Why? I'm assuming this is one of the quirky things he does and is able to do well, and will probably not change if he keeps winning, but would you teach a young kid to pitch that way? Is there a benefit in doing so?

His action is actually a lot like Stricker / Zach Johnson.

[natureboy]

On 9/18/2015, 8:55:37, Delirious said:

Thanks for your comments on the Jumbomax Grips which are an integral component of his equipment and swing. So many golfers are afraid to try something "outside the box". We've all been taught that in order to release the club, it needs to be held in the fingers. There are many differing opinions on the subject, but we have found that when the club is held in the fingers, the face angle at impact becomes much more timing sensitive. That's why you see some pros winning for a time, then they disappear from sight. When they're on, they're on, but when their timing is off, they are spraying the ball all over.

 

When the grip is held more in the palms, as with our oversized grips, the face is square for a much longer time. It's simple physics. Think of driving a go-cart with a very small steering wheel. A small movement in the wheel causes a big movement in the vehicle, whereas a school bus or truck steering wheel is larger and you have to turn it more to affect the vehicle. If you watch videos of Moe, he said that golfers struggle because they are trying to rotate the club at impact and time it. He always took the club back square and simply hinged his wrists at the top, then delivered the club back along the same path without any manipulation of the wrists. That's why he hit the ball so straight.

The benefit of palms vs. fingers and timing demand is an interesting idea. Not sure I agree with your steering wheel analogy, though. I think go-cart and bus / truck wheels have more to do with relative wheelbase length and steering gearing difference. But I would agree that like bicycle sprockets a larger 'wheel' / gear attached to an axle requires more linear displacement along its perimeter to rotate the axle through the same radians as a smaller 'wheel' around that same diameter axle. Like bicycle sprockets, the force required to move the axle would change too. But the moment of inertia around the club shaft axis is probably negligible to begin with so that increased mechanical advantage comes out less significant than a decreased responsiveness to small relative hand motion errors around the shaft axis. That said, in a typical swing forearm pronation / supination has a much greater effect on squaring the clubhead relative to the swing arc and point of impact than rotation of the clubshaft around its vertical axis. Even Bryson and Stricker pronate and supinate their forearms. They do lack radial and ulnar deviation (classic 'wrist cock') early in the backswing, but may acquire a bit of 'set' nearer the top of full swings.

[nevets88]

I have no idea what he's talking about but if it works, then don't fix it.

 

 

[vangator]

Bryson leading after Day 1 at Abu Dhabi.

[nevets88]

I tweeted to the European Tour twitter account to post more DeChambeau full swing videos and they've posted two since. 

 

 

[nevets88]

Bryson DeChambeau Might Be the Start of a Golfing Revolution [Golf.com]

Again with the hyperbolic headline as I thump my closed white knuckled fist against my chest and throw out my arm to hail Golf Magazine. Viva la revolucion!

Very informative read. Interesting bits about Edel and quotes from DeChambeau. 

Edel

Quote

 Edel soldiered on, sustained by the bedrock belief that he was doing things a better way. Yet for 18 straight years Edel Golf failed to turn a profit, staying afloat only because the founder sold two family hotels in his native Oregon and then a chunk of the company to a hedge fund.

"I always wanted to be ­important to the game," Edel says. "I couldn't do it as a player. I came to believe I could do it in other ways." All that was missing was a way to introduce his know-how, and unique toys, to the larger golf world.

Ben Doyle

Quote

Schy was entranced by Doyle and his prized pupil, Bobby Clampett, then a teenage amateur but already a deity in certain circles for the purity of his ball striking. "Ben had the first video camera I'd ever seen," says Schy. "He had a Polaroid camera, with which he'd take pictures, then scratch them up with illustrations, using the one fingernail he kept long just for that purpose. He had all these amazing homemade training aids

DeChambeau

Quote

Having been raised as a golfer to think untraditionally, DeChambeau came up with a solution that seemed blindingly obvious to him: Make every iron the same length with the same weight, the same shaft flex and the same lie angle (72°), allowing the same swing plane to be repeated over and over. 

...

DeChambeau put the sticks in play for his senior year, complicating the college recruiting process. "A lot of coaches were scared away," says Jon. "Cal and Stanford had been very interested, and they just disappeared." 

Quote

"Ah, talent," he says, placing a finger on his temple and pretending to blow his brains out. "I hate that word. No one is born with any intrinsic talent for anything. What people call talent is just a skill that has been mastered through hard work. My goal is to be the best ball striker in the world. That's not a talent I was born with. That's achieved through work."

Reminds me a little of Steve Prefontaine.

http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/bryson-dechambeau-custom-clubmaker-and-teaching-pro-might-be-start-golfing-revolution

[Mr. Desmond]

I disagree as to their use of talent. If all it took was hard work, many amateurs would be on the PGA tour. Heck, "I could'a been a contenda'!" (many years ago).

We each have an innate gift that blossoms with hard work -- it's finding our innate gift that is a challenge, and then developing it with hard work.

As to Edel, they are coming out with this concept in 3 different lie angle sets? If my skimming of the article is correct. Maybe with a choice of grind?

 

Edited January 28, 2016 by Mr. Desmond

[newtogolf]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Desmond said:

I disagree as to their use of talent. If all it took was hard work, many amateurs would be on the PGA tour. Heck, "I could'a been a contenda'!" (many years ago).

We each have an innate gift that blossoms with hard work -- it's finding our innate gift that is a challenge, and then developing it with hard work.

As to Edel, they are coming out with this concept in 3 different lie angle sets? If my skimming of the article is correct. Maybe with a choice of grind?

 

I agree, he's undervaluing talent but I think all golf manufacturers do it because it doesn't help them to sell more clubs.  If you realize your talent is limited you may be less likely to keep buying the latest and greatest to become a pro.

[saevel25]

An updated WITB,

http://www.golfwrx.com/364122/bryson-dechambeau-witb-2016/

Look at the image of those Edel irons. They look like golf meets steampunk in a way. Did he do his own hack job on those? 

[Mike Boatright]

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2015/8/24/same-length-irons-will-dechambeau-start-a-trend.html

 

Interesting topic to say the least i'm not exactly for it or against just seems odd right?

[boogielicious]

 

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2015/8/24/same-length-irons-will-dechambeau-start-a-trend.html

 

Interesting topic to say the least i'm not exactly for it or against just seems odd right?

We already have a thread on this.

 

[Mike Boatright]

 

We already have a thread on this.

 

Oh cool had no idea.

[iacas]

Merged.

[vangator]

Those are some butt ugly irons...

[nevets88]

Interesting interview at The Masters. Go to the middle where he talks about same length clubs alleviating back problems. And a portion of his golf life around 2014 he never wants to talk about again which he is mum about. He names each of his clubs and goes through some of them. He saw Bobby Jones' set and saw the shafts were close together in length and found that encouraging. This is more than your cliched answers, take it one day at a time interview.