DeChambeau with the strangest Ryder Cup preparations
If/when things go wrong for Bryson DeChambeau at Whistling Straits it won’t be long before these quotes resurface.
Two days after the Ryder Cup the American will head to Nevada for the Professional Long Drivers Association World Championships, becoming the first full-time PGA Tour pro to compete in the event. The event will receive more publicity than ever before and there will be lots of chat about quite how unique the proper long-drive characters are.
In the meantime DeChambeau has been preparing for his big day (not the Ryder Cup) at none other than Bobby Peterson's One Stop Power Shop in North Carolina where he has been doing two 90-minute speed training sessions every day.
“My hands are wrecked (with calluses). People don’t realise how difficult long drive really is. In golf, it’s the one thing where you can judge your accomplishments by a number. Not necessarily by going out and playing golf, because you can catch a sprinkler head or catch a bad break or bad wind. On Flightscope, you can see the ball speed number. And when you obtain a ball speed number, it’s so different and unique. It’s like a shot putter shot-putting a new record number. You’re trying to find that full potential to breakthrough.”
And, if you thought that he will be slowing down ahead of his second Ryder Cup showing, then you’ll be disappointed (or delighted if you’re European).
"I do it every week. Is it daunting? Hell yeah. At first, when I was trying to do it last year, it was very scary. But now that I've been through it and experienced the worst pains from it, and the most relaxed state of it where I'm not doing any speed training, I know how to kind of balance it for the most part. Why not go hard at life and do both? I’d consider long drive to be the home run derby for golf and I think it needs to be part of the entertainment spectrum.”