Bryson DeChambeau's bag at the Masters might include a secret weapon
- Bryson DeChambeau has been teasing the debut of a new club at the Masters.
- He has shied away from details but seemed confident the club would give him more distance.
- DeChambeau is the biggest hitter on tour, so adding distance would only build his advantage.
The 2020 Masters humbled Bryson DeChambeau.
Heading into last year's tournament, DeChambeau was riding high as the reigning US Open champion - he'd won the major by six strokes over the field. He was one of the favorites to win at Augusta National, too, but after struggling through the first two days of the November tournament, DeChambeau tied for 34th in the field.
That forced him to eat his words. Although the course plays as a par 72, DeChambeau had said before the Masters that he was "looking at it as a par 67 for me, because I can reach all the par-fives in two, no problem."
Instead, DeChambeau finished one over par, and a whopping 21 strokes behind Masters champion Dustin Johnson.
This year, DeChambeau is a bit more careful about his pre-Masters talk. Still, he's hinted at a plan to overpower Georgia's Augusta National course. At his press conference on Tuesday, DeChambeau suggested that a new club from Cobra Golf might make its debut in his bag.
"[I've been] working with Cobra on some new, unique future designs. Obviously there's something in the bag this week that's very helpful. I won't go into the specifics of it. Just know this has been a few years in the making, and I'm very excited for it," DeChambeau told reporters. "Whether it helps me perform at a higher level, I'm not sure. It's golf. You never know what happens. But definitely from what I've seen on the driving range and what I've seen last week in practice, there's some tremendous benefits to it."
Despite this secrecy, it seems most likely that the new club in DeChambeau's bag will be a prototype of the Cobra RadSpeed driver, which recently appeared on the USGA list of conforming driver heads, according to Golf Digest. The club has a 5.5-degree face, but it will be adjusted to 4.5-degrees for Bryson, according to Cobra Tour rep Ben Schomin.
DeChambeau is already the biggest hitter on the Tour, but with the new driver, he hopes to push the ball even further.
"Whether it helps me win the tournament or not, it's still a massive improvement off of everything that's been going on," DeChambeau said. "It's been all-hands-on-deck at Cobra, and they worked super hard to get this ready for Augusta."
DeChambeau tees off in the first round of the 2021 Masters at 1:36 p.m. on Thursday.