Is the Golf World Ready for the New, (Not) Beefy Bryson?

The U.S. Open champion says he’s done packing on the pounds; his Colorado-based trainer tells why the decision shouldn’t impact DeChambeau’s performance.

By Anthony Cotton

One could almost imagine the collective gasping of breath in the room during a news conference last week prior to the European Tour’s Saudi International tournament. Asked about his legendary protein-pushing, milkshake-guzzling, pound-packing diet, Bryson DeChambeau provided a response that was perhaps as controversial as putting a 48-inch driver in his bag.

“I’ve cut down a little bit. I’m trying to lean out and retain strength,” the 2020 U.S. Open champion said. “I’m trying to look better than look a little pudgy. I don’t want to look that way anymore.”

DeChambeau didn’t specify how many of the 45 pounds or so he’d gained in his quest to reach the limits of distance he was planning on losing—nor did he address much about the thinking that led to his decision. But the idea of a less bulky Bryson naturally leads to questions…like, will he lose strength as he loses weight, and, as a result, will he still be able to hit the ball as far as he did last season, when he basically overpowered Winged Foot in winning the Open?

During his client’s Quixotic journey, Greg Roskopf has rarely been part of the conversation regarding DeChambeau’s diet, the trainer instead focusing on maximizing the player’s movement during his regular visits to Muscle Activation Techniques in Englewood.

“I’ve always felt that as long as I wasn’t seeing negative aspects showing up in his neuromuscular system, where muscles start shutting down and his performance becomes impeded, I wouldn’t make any statements or get involved with decisions about his diet,” Roskopf said. “And by the same token, if he makes changes to his diet now, and we start to see negative results, we hav to look at that and figure out how to make changes back to the positive.”

As DeChambeau made his initial changes, gaining strength and winning tournaments, he was often likened to a mad scientist—and in some ways, the process indeed came down to one of the discipline’s strictest formulas—Newton’s second law of motion, that posits Force=Mass X Acceleration—i.e., the bigger he got and the faster he swung his driver, the more force he would deliver to the golf ball, propelling it to beyond the great beyond.

Now, DeChambeau is proposing scaling back the Mass part of the equation, but Roskopf doesn’t think a change will necessitate moving up to the forward tees.

“I have other pro golfers I work with who don’t want to drink six or seven protein shakes a day or gain the weight, but they want to see the changes in performance, increased club head speed and distance, and I’m seeing the same kind of increases in the 180- 190-pound golfers that I saw Bryson make. So I really don’t think it’s the mass that’s the key factor in Bryson’s increase in distance.

“I think he’s seeing that; I’ve told him all along that, ‘I bet if you were 225 pounds (DeChambeau reportedly had bulked up closer to 250), with less weight to carry around, you’d be even more efficient.’ I could be wrong, given that formula, but I think he’ll be an even better player weighing less.”

And it’s not like DeChambeau is completely abandoning science; while strength definitely plays a part, his work with Roskopf involves muscles sequencing and firing and moving at their peak. Anyone who goes out to the local muni or area high school and sees some 150-pound whippet send  300-year drive skyward knows there has to be something more than brute force going on. To the end, DeChambeau has hooked up on a regular basis with long-drive champion Kyle Berkshire, who, at 215 pounds, has smashed the ball 492 yards in competition.

“We’re seeing some changes in his body that we actually hadn’t even looked at before that are going to contribute to him having a greater range of motion and strength through that range of motion, and a lot of it has to do with him working with Kyle,” Roskopf said. “Bryson isn’t going to be accepting of anybody hitting the ball further than him, and Kyle wants to play someday on the PGA TOUR, so they’re helping each other out.”

According to Roskopf, the collaboration has yielded a number of interesting results, among them looking at side-by-side comparisons of the two swings, in which he says it’s clear that Berkshire is able to do things physically that DeChambeau has been unable to do. Perhaps surprisingly, that included maximizing how much force DeChambeau was generating from the ground up through his feet and lower legs.

“At one point we taken him through his stance and torsion and I couldn’t turn him any more,” Roskopf said. “But then we activated all those muscles in his lower legs and feet and we were literally able to take him 20 to 25 degrees further.”

Apart from the nerdy, science geek factor, it’s quite striking the lengths that a player will go to gain something as seemingly as minuscule as 20 percent more rotation—especially when said player is already literally one of the best in the world at not only realizing what goes into his swing but getting the absolute most out of it.

And if you think that’s weird, try being the guy casting a critical eye at that player.

“We’re watching the videos of the two of them, and I’m going to Bryson, ‘Look at how his pelvis moves—you’re not doing that,’ or ‘Look how his knee is pointing 45 degrees backwards, look at amount of rotation from the pelvis down…'” Roskopf said. “And then I realized, ‘Oh my god, I’m criticizing one of the  absolute best players on the PGA TOUR.

“But I guess another way of looking at it is that these are really just little flaws, but they show that’s there’s still more potential out there for him to reach.”

---

For more of the latest Colorado golf news, visit our NEWS & PROFILES PAGE.

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. CAG publishes eight issues annually and delivers daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram