Bryson DeChambeau is one of the most recognisable names in golf right now and a lot of that is down to simply how far he hits the ball.
The American is one of the true ‘bombers’ in the modern game and he’s made a habit of regularly hitting 400+ yard drives off the tee.
Of course, DeChambeau also brings a huge element of skill in other areas to his golf game as well.
He proved that at the US Open this year, when he won famously at Pinehurst after Rory McIlroy fluffed his lines.
Bryson DeChambeau is actually ‘growing the game’
DeChambeau has been one of the pioneers on the LIV Tour and DeChambeau admitted recently he’d been impressed by the speed of progress on the tour.
Of course, Bryson is also one of the players on tour other players look up to both in terms of his golf game and his off-course antics.
As we know, Rory McIlroy is one of those players who has looked at Bryson for inspiration in the past.
The Northern Irishman has famously tried to chase DeChambeau’s distance, sometimes unsuccessfully.
And addressing how McIlroy has chased him, DeChambeau has admitted he actually loves the idea of other players trying to do what he can.
Bryson DeChambeau shares why he loves what Rory McIlroy did in trying to chase him down
DeChambeau was speaking to the press after LIV announced a season finale team championship in Dallas in September.
And when quizzed on the speed in his game and how Rory McIlroy admitted to trying to mimic it, DeChambeau said he took it as a sign of respect above all else.
“Yeah, definitely. I think there’s a ton of respect in that. I don’t think it’s anything more than him seeing a potential and going, okay, am I missing something. As competitive as he is, as competitive as we all are, I think they were looking at it from a perspective of, man, I don’t want to get left behind. That’s in a positive way. That’s not in a negative way at all,” DeChambeau said.
“It was like, wow, I want to see if I can do that, too. Consequently, the equipment, I will be blunt about that, is not fully there for guys that have speed. It definitely doesn’t — that’s, again, why I’m doing some of the stuff that I’m doing behind the scenes is going to be building equipment for those individuals as well as everybody else.
- READ MORE: Bryson DeChambeau shares what his relationship with Rory McIlroy is now like after US Open drama
“I think from a Rory perspective, there’s a bunch of respect that I viewed as respect, somebody trying to gain the distances that I gained as quickly as they did. It’s not easy, and I put 100 percent effort into it.
“There’s other people — Jake Knapp has a crazy amount of speed. I sometimes wish I had his speed just naturally. I had to force my speed and my body, my lever lengths and everything. Obviously I broke my hand. I just don’t have that natural fast speed. I had to work for it and get faster through brute force, so that took a toll on my body.
“But it is great what — it’s a level of respect I feel like that they were trying to get more speed from what I was doing. It’s fantastic. I think it’s awesome.”
DeChambeau, then, seems happy to keep doing what he’s doing and blazing a trail through the game.
And if that means bringing a few players along for the ride, then so be it.
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