by Ever since Bryson DeChambeau made the decision to play for LIV Golf, he’s largely been able to avoid any negative spotlight. There is very little press with LIV, and what is done has to be approved by the league. That has helped the formerly thick one largely avoid any unwanted attention and, more importantly for those of us in the content business, removed his highly entertaining brain from the greater golf consciousness.
That run has ended.
On Thursday, Bryson released a video on his YouTube channel in which he plays nine holes with what could be an example of the technology we’ll see in a rolled back golf ball. He uses the Nike One Tour, a golf ball originally released in 2009, and one that everyone would agree is inferior to the technology of today’s golf ball.
The video is filmed on the front nine at Dallas National Golf Club, which measures in at 3,635 yards from the “Texas” tees. As a player outspoken against the rollback, Bryson is clearly hoping this video will demonstrate why the rollback should not happen. Instead, over the course of nine holes, Bryson unwittingly but thoroughly shows exactly why the rollback is a good idea. It’s also filled with incessant complaints about the golf ball and non-stop bitching about its performance. And he makes it clear that he may not always know what he’s talking about when it comes to equipment and performance.
A running diary of his round:
On the second hole, Bryson seems to advocate for lesser technology after hitting a pull that still winds up in the fairway. “Normally hit on the heel with my other golf ball would not miss that far left,” he says. “Wth my other golf ball that would have flown dead straight. That ball started left and went left. There is definitely something to say with the golf ball compression.” Again, I’m not sure he understands what compression means.
Playing the downhill, 172-yard par-3 third hole, he says “I’m going to play a 160-yard shot here. This thing is probably only going to go like 150 so I’m playing this thing 20 yards downwind.” The ball flies 152 yards according to his launch monitor and he says “Oh that ball is flying so weird.”
Dumbfounded at the fact that a mishit might not go straight (from Bryson DeChambeau's YouTube channel)
After hitting driver-wedge into the first hole, going long of the par-5 second hole in two shots, and making a bad bogey on No. 3 because of a poor chip, Bryson is even par on the par-5 fourth hole. “I know I can shoot under par today, that shouldn’t be too difficult,” he says. This may come as a shock to some of you, but professional golfers did indeed make birdies with old equipment and technology. I mean, Tiger Woods won six times in 2009 with the Nike One Tour. But let’s get back to Bryson.
Still on No. 4, DeChambeau delivers a monologue on compression: “Because the ball is going shorter, and it’s softer, it’s not compressing or it’s compressing too much, the ball is not curving as much consequently as well,” he starts. “So I’m used to the ball flying a certain distance with a certain amount of curve to it. When it’s going shorter, it’s just not curving as much. [Points to drive] So normally that ball would be going farther and curving more which would bring it back to the center so I’m having to adjust to this golf ball from a curvature perspective as well. This is wild.” Two things from this quote. One, a ball that spins more will curve more. That’s just basic physics. Two, he highlights a huge selling point of the rollback: a ball that goes shorter distances will stay closer to the center, which could help high-handicappers mitigate distance losses. Eureka! He ends the fourth hole by saying “I’m hitting it not that bad but the ball is going way off my line compared to what normal curvature should be with the ball I’m currently playing with.” Again, contradictory, but let him cook.
On the sixth tee, a 452-yard par 4, he says “I can make birdie on this hole if I hit a good drive. I’ll have a wedge into this hole.” Indeed he does. He hits the Nike with 182 mph ball speed that carries 320 yards in the air, leaving him 133 yards into the green. Again, this hole is 452 yards. When his wedge rolls off the back, he offers for my money the quote of the day: “This thing rolled 30 yards. It’s 15-mph downwind with a wedge shot out of the first cut. That’s completely uncontrollable.” Reminder: Tiger Woods won six times in one season with this golf ball.
Bryson hits two drives off the seventh tee, one with the Nike One Tour and one with the Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash, the ball most agree is the lowest spinning ball in 2024. He hits the Nike perfectly and the Titleist low off the face.
The numbers:
Nike One Tour
187 mph ball speed
315 yard carry
Titleist ProV1x Left Dash
192 mph ball speed
331 yard carry
“I hit that first ball perfectly, right on the screws. The left dash, I actually thinned it pretty poorly. It had 5 mph more ball speed and less spin and flew that much farther.” The USGA should clip this portion of the video and plaster it everywhere they can. This is all the evidence you need to support a rollback.
Bryson's numbers with the Nike One Tour and Titleist ProV1x Left Dash (from Bryson DeChambeau's YouTube channel)
On his final hole of the day, Bryson does a similar experiment with the two balls. He actually hits a second Nike because he didn’t hit the first one very well.
Those results:
Titleist ProV1x Left Dash
185 ball speed
329 yard carry
Nike One Tour
179 ball speed
309 carry
After seeing the numbers, he laughs. “179 [mph ball speed], six miles an hour slower. That’s wild. Yeah, I don’t want a rolled back golf ball. That’s ridiculous.”
To round out the day, Bryson hits another wedge into the 448-yard par-4 ninth, posting a pretty routine 35 (-1). He turns to the camera and says, “after seeing everything you’ve seen today, do you think we should roll the golf ball back? I’m going to leave it up to you. But everything I saw today from my perspective, I personally wouldn’t want it.”
I don’t mean this to be a Bryson pile-on. It is important that athletes speak their minds, and we are all better off when they truly say what they mean. But this is not an instance when Bryson was caught on a hot mic or filmed without his permission. This was a well-produced video meant to show why a rollback should not occur. It does the exact opposite. My only hope is that Bryson never realizes that.
For more on the rollback proposal…
Podcast: A Rollback Extravaganza – Following the USGA and R&A’s reveal of the Model Local Rule proposal, various members of our team discuss the implications on professional and amateur golf. Guests Tom Doak and Roberto Castro also join to talk about the rollback from an architecture and PGA Tour point of view.
Frequently Asked Rollback Questions – Garrett Morrison dives into some frequently discussed and often misunderstood discussions surrounding the rollback.
