EIt’s been eleven years since Usain Bolt made history. On August 16, 2009 he ran the 100 meters in Berlin and turned the world of sports on its head within 9.58 seconds. Bolt undercut his own world record by more than a tenth of a second and was able to maintain his status as a superstar beyond the end of his career.
The fastest person in the world is currently omnipresent thanks to a commercial. In the end, the Jamaican putt the golf ball into a hole whose circumference resembles a crater. The message about the product: safe, risk-free, no challenge.
A distorted picture, but one that fits the situation in the Gulf. The standards around the greens and squares are crazy. Innovations in racket construction and the increasing athleticism of the professionals ensure that the courses no longer correspond to the actual stroke lengths.
The pitches have become relatively smaller over the years, making the holes larger and more vulnerable earlier in the game. The consequences of the development can be seen: On the professional tour there are more and more players with results of 20 to 25 strokes under par.
In this respect, it was particularly charming that the US Open was held at the Winged Foot Golf Club last weekend. The course, located 30 minutes by car from the gates of New York, is considered to be the hardest that precision sport has to offer. There are only a few places where the par mark is actually still suitable as a target for the professionals. On the West Course in Mamaroneck, however, it is considered an almost unattainable goal. The club was like the last bastion – it fell on Sunday.
DeChambeau takes the course Magic and Myth
Bryson DeChambeau not only won the US Open in an impressive manner, he also solved the “ultimate test of golf”, as the course is reverently called. The 27-year-old took the Magic and Myth course. When the American signed his scorecard, the total of six strokes under par was official. The final boss was defeated. A milestone.
The course in Winged Foot Golf was considered one of the most difficult. But then came Bryson DeChambeau
Source: AP / Charles Krupa
The course had driven thousands of players insane over the past few decades. The first US Open held there in 1974 went down in golf history as the “Winged Foot Massacre”. The world’s best professionals failed so badly that the American association president felt compelled to comment: “We don’t want to humiliate the best players,” said Sandy Tatum: “We want to identify them.”
In the five US Open so far, only two players managed to end their four rounds with a negative total score.
Many players had scheduled special training sessions in advance to give their tees more accuracy. With its narrow fairways, the West Course covers even the smallest of impurities. The punishment follows immediately. The grass in the rough is unusually dense, boggy and ankle-high. Joker Ian Poulter recommended taking hedge trimmers with you to find balls. A fight awaited the players. And for this you need strength, perseverance and wisdom. Qualities that nobody on the tour combines better than DeChambeau.
DeChambeau strives for the perfect game
With scientific precision he is in the process of opening up his sport down to the last corner. While Usain Bolt spent many years wondering how fast a person can run, DeChambeau is in the process of identifying all parameters of the game and then optimizing them. DeChambeau strives for the perfect game and an answer to the question: How far can a person hit? “For me, it’s about the journey, whether I can repeat each stroke better than anyone else,” he said on Sunday.
The trip started at the age of 15 when DeChambeau read “The Golfing Machine” by Homer Kelley and HA Templeton’s “Vector Putting”. Then he had a set of clubs built in which all irons were exactly the same length, weighed 278 grams and only varied in the incline of the clubface.
With the knowledge of materials research and performance diagnostics, he developed his own momentum, which, thanks to its straight lines, enabled him to achieve better automation. Last year he began to devote himself to his body, systematically stuffing proteins and carbohydrates into himself and refining them on the weight bench. He returned from the corona lockdown with a bull neck, huge thighs and 20 pounds more muscle mass.
DeChambeau, who has a master’s degree in physics, had previously been ridiculed by fans and colleagues as a quirky scientist and mad professor. Known on the field for taking advantage of the gray areas of the rules in tiring discussions with referees. But now he was also a Hulk, a monster who steeled his wrists on long power walks with 30-kilogram weights in each hand and now regularly thrashes the little white ball over the 350-meter mark: Golf turbodiesel.
The dream of eternal life. Bryson DeChambeau doesn’t think that’s realistic. According to his own statement, 140 years should be in there for him
Source: AFP / EZRA SHAW
The young Texan is revolutionizing the sport and undermining laws. His ball often only experiences the tricky passages of a track from a bird’s eye view. What use is the narrowest fairway when DeChambeau hits the green? Water hazards and sand bunkers are reduced to their decorative aspect in one fell swoop. “I think this guy is brilliant,” said Rory McIlroy after the four days at Mamaroneck: “He found a way to solve the problems here. Not the path I saw for this course or the tournament, and I can’t really get that into my head. But it worked. “
Unlike usual and expected by everyone, it wasn’t the most precise player who won, but the strongest. With his huge tee-offs, DeChambeau hit only 23 of 56 and thus less than half of the fairways. The length, however, enabled him to attack the greens from wedge distance even in tall grass. There, too, his strength gives him the necessary control. Monster tees alone do not lead to birdie, but they do increase the chances of a successful short game. For DeChambeau, everything is a matter of probability.
Traditionalists rail against the US Open winner
“He just consistently takes his advantages from the current state of golf,” said McIlroy and added an addendum: “Whether that is good or bad is an open question.” In the USA, the debate about DeChambeau and the consequences for golf started long ago. For him, the superior victory over space and opponents is proof that his approach is effective. That he has taken the right direction on his journey.
For purists and traditionalists, triumph is like a wrecking ball that destroys sport. The demand for rule changes is growing loud. Golf should remain complex and different situations should be solved with different techniques. DeChambeau has taken the sport to a fork in the road.
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