He has won the U.S. Open and is on track to have a career matching that of Tiger Woods. Bryson DeChambeau is known for using tons of hacks and devices to improve his golf game.
Bryson DeChambeau does not wear a hearing aid. However, he is very well-known for using different devices, such as hole locators, making his own clubs, and different scientific and mathematical approaches to assist him in achieving his wins while on tour. These different devices and strategies have earned him the nickname “the mad scientist of golf.”
Scroll down to read more about Bryson DeChambeau’s college degree, his use of a hole locator, and how his unique way of watching movies.
Bryson DeChambeau’s College Degree
DeChambeau attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) after he graduated from high school. He was the very first one of the SMU Mustangs to ever win an NCAA individual title.
While he was at college, he managed to become one of only five professional golfers to ever win an NCAA title, as well as the U.S. Amateur title in one year. That’s fairly impressive, but with the nickname “mad scientist,” you have to wonder what he majored in.
It should come as no surprise that DeChambeau graduated from SMU with a bachelor’s degree in Physics. Not only is he a pro golfer, but he is extremely intelligent, although he won’t admit that.
He has actually stated in interviews before that he isn’t that intelligent and it’s just his dedication that has gotten him to where he is today. Considering he rewrote his entire high school physics book, autographs backward with his left hand, and even developed his own set of clubs, there is no doubt he is dedicated to anything he does.
Using a Hole Locator and Other Unique Techniques
In the 2018 PGA season, Bryson DeChambeau was using a device called a hole locator to help him in calculating the ball’s trajectory on course. This hole location device is simply a protractor.
DeChambeau’s reasoning behind the use of the protractor was that the pin locations are sometimes incorrect in the greens book that the golfers are provided with. So, the physics major was using his vocation to check to make sure the locations were correct.
This led to the US Golf Association investigating whether or not DeChambeau was breaking the rules. Initially, they came to the conclusion that DeChambeau was not breaking any rules with his use of the protractor.
But, the association was then pressured by the PGA into doing a second review of the use of the device and they determined that he would be breaching rule 14-3 if he continued using it. So his hole location strategy was chucked to the curb.
The hole locator wasn’t the only strategy that Bryson DeChambeau has though. When he was 17, Bryson and his golf coach developed a set of single-length golf clubs.
If you have ever golfed before, you may have noticed that the irons in the set vary by different lengths. The heads of each iron is a different weight too.
By filing down the handles on his set of irons, DeChambeau was able to have a set that was all one length. His reasoning behind this idea was that it would create consistency in his golfing and lead to more wins.
You can watch the below video where DeChambeau explains where he got the single-length golf club idea.
DeChambeau was signed onto Cobra in 2016 for an endorsement deal and they worked with him to develop a one-length set of clubs where all of the clubs also had the same weight. In 2020, these clubs were made available for public purchase.
Considering he won the U.S. Open in 2020, Bryson DeChambeau is clearly onto something with these single-length golf clubs.
DeChambeau’s Movie Night
It’s about once a week that Bryson DeChambeau will watch a movie, but his movie night is anything from what you would expect. Instead of relaxing on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, he is hooked up to an EEG sensor.
He has been working with a company called Neuropeak Pro to train his brain. They provide Bryson with the EEG and a special DVD player to watch movies with.
DeChambeau will put on an action or adventure film and the EEG measures his brain’s electrical response and spike during the film. If it goes too high, then the movie is paused.
As this PGA Tour article puts it “ DeChambeau’s goal is to avoid the spikes that occur at the most stressful, intense parts; he wants to keep his high beta and theta ratios inside a pre-determined range.”