Bryson DeChambeau spoke to the media ahead of the Open Championship at Royal Portrush, where he was asked:
– What have you learned through your experience playing links golf?
– How do you have to adapt your game to improve at links golf?
– How do you quantify the type of wind we have over here?
– What kind of testing would you like to do with wind?
Yeah, you have to adapt very well. And you know, when I played the Walker Cup in 2016, um, no, 2015, was it 2015? I think 2015. Um, I don’t remember. It’s like 10 years ago. But when I played the Yeah, I think it was 2015. Walker Cup at Royal Lithm St. Ends. I played really well. I shot 66 in the singles matches and um, I played great golf, so I felt comfortable coming over here in 2017. And then uh I just wasn’t prepared for the elements. Um the times I’ve been over here, for some reason my golf swing hasn’t been where it needs to be. And um right now it feels as good as it’s ever been. And um hitting it far, um hitting it as straight as I can and uh learning how to putt better on these greens in windy conditions and rain and all that. It’s just it’s just figuring it out. Um and it’s just going to take time and something that I’ve never really experienced growing up in California. Yeah, I think building up, hitting it, and using the wind, uh, playing into the wind a lot more, not trying to ride the wind is something that is pretty simple to to talk about, but sometimes difficult to execute when it’s a unique scenario depending on where the hazards are and the bunkers are and trying to hit a certain shot to a certain place. Uh, just being a little more strategic. And that’s that’s what we’re going to look at doing this week is just trying to be as strategic as possible and putting the ball in places where, you know, I can give myself good chances for birdie, but also not give myself too many difficult places to to play from is the goal. Uh we’re doing some testing right now and uh going to continue working on how heavy how different types of wind affect the golf balls. um something I’m working on on a personal project and it’s going to take time to understand it from a terminology. Yeah, heavy one’s a great way to describe it. It just it’s thick like it it just if Okay, I’m not going to Okay. Uh you know, it’s one of those situations where uh you’re you’re in the environment and you go, “All right, this feels like a 15 mph wind.” And all of a sudden it plays like a 30 mph wind and you’re like, “What the heck?” So I think that’s the trick of it. If you grow up here, you play a lot of golf over here. Uh you get quite comfortable and and knowledgeable about that. I just need more more reps in a sense. And hopefully I’ve had enough reps uh to be able to do that. Played well in some windy conditions. And on Lucia was a good test last week in the first few days. Played well. Uh but again, the wind is different from there to here. So we’ll see how it goes this week and hopefully stays warm and my body stays warm and um but yeah, it is it is a thick wind, man. Imagine, okay, this is going to be wild, but imagine a scenario where you’ve got like a 400 yard tent, right? And you can just hit any type of shot with any wind with all the fans. Like that’s that’s what I imagine like like in a hanger or something like that in a big stadium. Uh that’d be cool to test. One, uh but two, all I’ve really done is hit more half shots and tried to play into the wind a lot more. So if it’s a left to right wind, I’ll draw it. If it’s a left right to left wind, I’ll try to cut it more often than not. If I try to play with the wind, sometimes I just I lose control of that golf ball. And that’s that’s what I did. Whenever I had a right to left wind and I was trying to hit draws, man, that thing would go forever offline. Um, so those are the few things that that I’ve been working on. And wouldn’t it be cool to test in like a massive wind wind tunnel? Yes, I’ I’d love to. I’d for sure do that.
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Good luck, Bryson.^^^