"Swap weights for wedges and Bryson DeChambeau will win The Masters"

The time has come for Bryson DeChambeau to shift his focus to the short game with the majors on the horizon...

Bryson DeChambeau can drink as many protein shakes as he wants in 2020, but he will not be sipping the sweet taste of success in the majors until he finds a solution for his wedge game. 

"My wedging wasn't great," said DeChambeau, with quite possibly the biggest understatement of the year at last week's Memorial Tournament where he went on to miss his first cut on the PGA Tour since the Greenbrier last September. 

As it stands, DeChambeau ranks 139th on the PGA Tour in proximity to the pin. That equates to him sending his ball into 37 feet from the flag on average. 

When you see the 'Mad Scientist' bashing 350-yard bombs off the tee for fun (two of which even travelled more than 400 yards at Muirfield Village), DeChambeau is leaving himself nothing more than a flick with a short iron or wedge into the majority of par-4 holes he tees up on these days. 

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Not only does DeChambeau rank way down the board for proximity to the pin, but he ranks a lowly 170th on approaches from between 50 and 75 yards when on the fairway, averaging shots that end up 19 feet away from the hole. Even when he is in the rough from this distance, he ranks a dismal 115th with shots ending up 24 feet away on average. 

Looking a little further out on his wedge play between 100 and 125 yards when on the fairway, he ranks 112th and leaves his ball 20 feet away on average. From the same distance out of the rough, he ranks 103rd with an average of 30 feet. 

There are many more stats to hammer home this specific weakness in his game, which you can see for yourself here, but you get my drift. He is particularly poor with his wedges, certainly for someone ranked in the world's top 10 with six PGA Tour titles to his name. 

Don't get me wrong, I would love to be able to send my approach shots into 37 feet on average, but I am not a PGA Tour pro who clearly has sights set on multiple major victories and reaching the summit of the sport in the near future. 

DeChambeau is a unique character, and does things his own way. That has been reflected none better than his entire single-length concept when it comes to his irons and wedges, a philosophy he has adopted ever since his college days. 

Having tested out single-length irons and wedges for myself, I completely get it from a long-iron and mid-iron standpoint, but I really don't understand it from a short-game perspective.

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I like to feel much lower to the ground on shots with my wedges, and when you are standing there over a shot from around 100 yards feeling like you have a 7-iron in your hand, it just feels a little alien. Those delicate shots around the green and out of the greenside bunkers also feel difficult to gauge correct distance control. I'm sure with more practice it gets easier, but it's not for me at all. 

So should DeChambeau transition into standard wedges? Perhaps, but I don't reckon he will as it goes against how he has played the game most of his life. I do think he would benefit by moving into standard variable-length wedges though, and let's be honest, he can't really get much worse when it comes to his current stats.

It's not just me that feels his particular single-length wedge concept could be holding him back with his Artisan prototype wedges, as there are plenty of leading golf instructors and commentators out there who question his motives in that area of the game. Often their main critique is that longer wedges are harder to control and gauge distance than standard wedges. 

DeChambeau has quickly transitioned into the PGA Tour's biggest hitter in the space of 12 months, and I cannot applaud him enough for doing just that with a stringest routine that involves lengthy sessions in the gym, hours on the range with his driver and launch monitor, on top of drinking seven protein shakes a day... something I still don't quite believe he does! 

It's very much a new style of play off the tee with a clubhead speed in the region of 140 mph and a ball speed clocking 190 mph, but I can certainly see the benefits especially on courses where the rough is down. Even Tony Finau tried to emulate what DeChambeau has been doing, and very nearly won the Memorial last week before slipping back into eighth place in the final round. 

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But it's not just DeChambeau's driving that has quickly turned him into one of the game's best players with just shy of $5 million in the bank on the PGA Tour so far this season. 

While DeChambeau's putting has often been criticised in the past, his improvements on the greens have been clear for all to see, especially since golf's return during the coronavirus lockdown, now ranking 15th in strokes-gained putting (0.655). 

That's another reason why it's important for him to start getting the ball closer to the pin with his scoring clubs so he can take advantage of a putter that is starting to warm up. DeChambeau already finds plenty of birdies ranking fifth in birdie average (4.61 per round) on the PGA Tour this season. 

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DeChambeau is a joy to watch off the tee in 2020. He gets you on the edge of your seat every time he lets loose with his Cobra King Speedzone driver. The majority of his rockets are sent down the middle of the fairway, and even when he misses the short grass it's not by a great deal.

It is fair to say he has quickly become the best all-round driver on the planet, something which no doubt irks Rory McIlroy. 

Yes, he had a mare when making a 10 on the 15th hole last week, which let's face it, isn't the widest hole at Muirfield Village. I think we can put that incredible score down to him trying to force the issue and make the halfway cut more than anything. I'm not sure you would have seen some of those erratic plays had he been on the leaderboard at the time. 

 

 

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If Bryson can brush up his short game over the coming months, then I can honestly see him winning a first major at The Masters this November. I've tipped him up as my early pick for Augusta National in three months time, as I think it gives him enough time to really hone a sharper short game to take onto golf's hallowed turf. 

The course should prove a little softer than previous years and I can see Augusta National playing into his hands. 

The short game has to be the final piece of DeChambeau's major puzzle. I mean what is the point of sending it out there 350 yards all the time when you can't take advantage of those drives with your wedges.

Even if DeChambeau becomes just a half decent wedge player over the next few months, with the way he is blasting that driver and growing in confidence with his putter, then you have to feel he will have at least one major or a FedEx Cup in his locker come the end of the year. 

If he swaps some weights for some wedges, you could be looking at the next Masters champion.

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