Ben Hogan will be spinning in his grave, I’m sure, to hear about how Bryson DeChambeau shot a final round 58 in his LIV event at Greenbriar to win out, using a massive training-wheels driver to do so.
You all know my opinion by now, I’m sure, on the ridiculous aspect of professional golfers using equipment that is so forgiving due to the fact that there is no “pro equipment,” just the same giant and forgiving driver heads and low-spin balls that any amateur can buy in the stores.
This is like allowing pro baseball players to use softballs and aluminum bats, or pro basketball players to play on 8-foot rims with children’s-sized basketballs… I could go on.
Here’s the info on the driver, from E. Michael Johnson of GolfDigest online:
In DeChambeau’s case, he’s using a Krank Formula Fire LD head with 6 degrees of loft and a Project X HZRDUS T1100 shaft (the same shaft he had in his TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus driver for most of 2023) that measures just under 46 inches. DeChambeau also put a Krank fairway wood in play as well at The Greenbrier…
… The 2020 U.S. Open champ believes the driver doesn’t curve as much because of its construction and the bulge and roll of the head.
So, let’s hear about Bryson’s incredible skill and talent as a pro golfer that he required to win the event, bolding and underline emphasis being mine:
“Ever since I put this driver into play, it’s not been really my golf swing,” DeChambeau said. “It’s just hit on the toe, hit on the heel, everything comes back down the middle of the fairway, and I’m like, all right, pick up the tee and let’s go.
The driver has been really nice. It’s allowed me to have some time to myself after rounds instead of going and working my butt off all the time.”
Because God forbid a pro golfer who makes his living playing the game have to actually work on his swing to become and stay competitive and on his game.
You know, like Ben Hogan going from being bounced off the Tour repeatedly in his first 10 years as a pro because he couldn’t earn enough money to keep traveling and playing to becoming one of the best ball-strikers in Tour history by… working his butt off all of the time… that’s for suckers, apparently.
The fact that BDC could say what he did with a straight face and no trace of embarrassment is amazing.
Yes, it takes skill to shoot 58 whatever equipment you’re using, but come on – a professional playing a club that’s deemed conforming and with which you virtually can’t miss no matter where on the face it meets the ball?
Good-bye sweet spot.
The spirit of the game has strayed so far from, “hit it well or take your medicine” that it’s not even golf anymore.
Absolute clown show.
WAX Golf 
I still say that the professional golfers of when I was growing up (1950’s – 60’s) were better golfers in my opinion. They were scoring sub-par rounds and did not have all of today’s can’t-miss equipment.
You’ll get no argument from me, Rick.
Sure, today’s players are bigger and stronger, but there’s no way most of today’s lads would be able to play with the 50s-60’s equipment. Not without a lot of time spent working their butts off. The old equipment was unforgiving, the sweet spots tiny… I don’t even watch televised golf now, it’s not enjoyable.
I keep preaching, the modern day mini driver should be the new driver. Taylormade’s Mini BRNR that they just came out with this year can be cranked down to 9.5 degrees of loft. I watched Matt from TXG test the 11.5 degree head and he was putting it out there over 300 yards. Off the deck, he was carrying 280 and off the tee with the weight forward he was carrying it a minimum 305. Matt and Ian do a driver bracket every year and that mini driver turned down to 9.5 and weight forward could’ve competed in the bracket with this year’s drivers.
The 460 cc heads are not necessary for distance at all. They are there to just cover up the weaknesses of the supposed best golfers.
I have my own belief about the bigger the surface area of the face, the further away from the sweetspot you will tend to be. If you make a fairway wood and driver the same exact length and swingweight them the same, I believe that you will still miss the 460 degree driver sweetspot more often and further away than you would a fairway wood of the same length and swingweight.
Tom Wishon said that bulge and roll is the best way to affect forgiveness. His clubs have very specific bulge and roll characteristics for this very reason. To bring the miss hit back through gear effect.
JMO
Great points, Brandon – have you met Ian from TXG? Because he was the owner of the Toronto TXG facility when I did my numbers testing back in ’18 on the FlightScope! Great guy.
I never have met Ian but I would like to. I would love to get fitted by him. I have watched so many of his videos on product testing and fittings and have picked up just little nuggets here and there watching and listening.
He didn’t do my session but he was in the next fitting room and we chatted a while after mine was finished. Really good fellow, for sure.