Rozner: DeChambeau win could be golf game-changer

It was all a bit much for Bryson DeChambeau Sunday night.

After a miraculous fairway metal into the par-5 17th and a magnificent birdie on 18 to give him a 30 coming home, DeChambeau closed out his first PGA Tour victory when Patrick Rodgers could not get up and down on 18.

Like so many before him, the win at the John Deere Classic meant a change in plans.

And a life-changing moment.

The win earned him passage on a charter to the Open Championship this week and gave him the validation he has sought so long.

No wonder he cried.

Still, for a 23-year-old who has been called arrogant and stubborn and sometimes worse, no one can ever again say he's crazy for imagining a style that so many said would never work at the PGA Tour level.

"That's the true meaning behind what I try to do," DeChambeau told the media in the Quad Cities on Sunday night. "I showed everybody that there's plenty of ways to do it."

DeChambeau's way is very different.

Described as a mad scientist in a maddening game that requires so much feel and imagination, DeChambeau has used his imagination to take all feel out of his hands and wrists and staked his game and reputation on analytics and science.

Every iron and wedge in his bag is cut to the same length, 37½ inches, with the lie and bounce identical. With an upright lie, he doesn't alter his plane during his swing, and does not use his wrists.

In simpler terms, it's the same 7-iron length swing every time with the same club, only the distance changing based on loft.

And it's a swing he can repeat under pressure.

"It is vindication," DeChambeau said after winning the John Deere. "There has been a lot of talk. I had somebody say, 'Go back and get your old clubs.' Happens every week.

"I just throw it to the side and say, 'Don't even worry about it. You're going down the road you've chosen and you're comfortable with it, and you know in the end it's going to be the right thing.' "

The 2015 NCAA and U.S. Amateur champ faced much criticism last season and again earlier this year when he missed eight straight cuts.

But with Sunday's victory, he puts to rest all questions and gives hope to every weekend golfer desperate for an answer.

"I want to make it easier for the amateurs," DeChambeau said. "There's an easier way out there and people just haven't figured it out.

"People may think my golf swing is really weird and funky, but I think it's one of the most consistent swings out here. If you look in slow motion, there are not very many moving parts and it's pretty consistent.

"That is one of my bigger goals, to hopefully help out the game itself and bring more people in through these new ways of playing."

In theory, it takes all the guesswork out of hitting a shot and offers repetition, something every golfer spends a lifetime searching for on the range.

"It's a very complex game and the more you can understand the variables, the more consistent you can become just by understanding them," DeChambeau said. "The closest anybody ever came to understanding every situation was Tiger (Woods). I look at him as kind of a hero for that.

"He figured out how to hit certain wedge shots into certain flags with a certain spin, certain trajectory. He just knew it. He could do it with his hands. He trained his hands. It was unbelievable.

"I've always wanted to try and accomplish that, but I go about it in a very methodical, scientific-research kind of way. I was a physics major in college (SMU) and I just kind of understood how to do the scientific method."

And the eight straight missed cuts?

"I was going into a longer swing, trying to hit it harder and farther and maybe I could time it out, and it just didn't work for me," DeChambeau said. "Backed off that about four weeks ago and said, 'Look, just go back to what you were doing in college. You did pretty well. Let's see where it goes from there.'

"And through that little transition I gained immediate confidence back and I was able to perform nicely through the last four weeks and get the win this week."

With more success, it might just be the start of a golf revolution.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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