Paul McGinley joined Off the Ball to discuss Bryson DeChambeau's victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic over the weekend.
Also under discussion was also DeChambeau's bulking-up, where he is believed to have piled on 45lbs of mostly muscle during lockdown.
The win was the sixth of DeChambeau’s PGA Tour career and his first since transforming his physique.
“I like this guy, I have to say. I think he brings so much comment into the game,” McGinley said of DeChambeau.
“He has reinvented a lot of things. Everybody said he was crazy because he used shafts that were all the same length.
“Now he has moved onto this. Putting on two and a half stone in such a short space of time in order to gain more yardage and he’s straight away hitting the ground running with success.”
The 26-year-old now has seven consecutive top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour.
McGinley explained the science behind the muscle gain, “everything is based on creating speed and the more strength you have in your body, the more of a foundation you have, the more you can rotate your body and that’s where you get the speed from.”
Bryson DeChambeau
McGinley noted though that he has spoken “to a few guys who are in the fitness game and there are a lot of questions from a sports science point of view about how sustainable this is.”
The former European Ryder Cup captain also pointed out that DeChambeau has yet to excel in the majors as his best finish is just 15th.
“There is a big one coming up at Harding Park. It's a really tough old fashioned golf course.
"That’ll be the real acid test for DeChambeau and I’m really intrigued to see how he navigates his way through that.”
DeChambeau averaged 350 yards off the tee on his way to victory at Detroit Golf Club. This big-hitting reignited a debate about whether technology has gone too far in golf.
The R&A and the USGA are evaluating options after releasing a report in February that claimed the increase in hitting distances and course yardages "is detrimental to the game's long-term future".
“They finally came out after this huge survey that they commissioned at the start of this year and said the technology has gone too far,” McGinley said.
“That’s the first time they’ve ever admitted it.
“Money comes into it though. If you’re Titleist or Taylormade or Callaway and have spent hundreds of millions on research and development of these golf clubs and golf balls, are you in a position to legally challenge if rules are changed?”
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