Bryson DeChambeau has lashed out at the R&A and USGA after the organisations proposed a Model Local Rule (MLR) that “gives competition organises the option to require use of golf balls that are tested under modified launch conditions to address the impacts of hitting distances in golf.”
The proposed rule, which won’t effect the amateur game, is expected to reduce hitting distance by 14-15 yards on average for the longest hitters with the highest clubhead speeds.
“If you could say I’m the complete opposite times 1,000, that’s what I would be,” said DeChambeau, who is set for his second LIV Golf start of the season this week in Tuscon.
Since turning professional in 2017, few players have moved the needle more than the Californian as he ripped up the rule book in transforming his body to smash the ball further than anyone else on Tour off the tee.
His increase in clubhead speed, along with other aspects of the golf swing, wowed crowds across the world, with arguably his greatest display of his power off the tee coming at the 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational, an event he won.
The 2020 U.S. Open champion took a near-direct line at the 531-yard par-5 sixth at Bay Hill during the third round, bombing his ball about 70 yards short of the hole before it bounced into the right rough, 370 yards from the tee.
The American repeated the feat in the final round as he smashed driver 377 yards. His ball cleared the water at the double-dogleg easily and bounced through the fairway into a fairway bunker. He had 88 yards left to the hole.
That was 50 yards longer than the previous longest drive on Sunday.
“It’s a great handicap for us guys that have worked really hard to learn how to hit it farther,” he said.
“Look, if they do it in a way where it only affects the top end, I see the rationale. But I think it’s the most atrocious thing that you could possibly do to the game of golf. It’s not about rolling golf balls back; it’s about making golf courses more difficult.”
He added: “I think it’s the most unimaginative, uninspiring, game-cutting thing you could do. Everybody wants to see people hit it farther. That’s part of the reason why a lot of people like what I do. It’s part of the reason a lot of people don’t like what I do.
“But again, it creates more conversation in a positive way than cutting it back and trying to make everybody equal. I’m all about equality. I’m not about equity on this front.”
