Bryson DeChambeau is searching for the perfect driver at Augusta National

USA Today

08-04-2025

Bryson DeChambeau is searching for the perfect driver at Augusta National The two-time U.S. Open champion is on the hunt for a driver that can handle his speed, and he's excited about the process.
Bryson DeChambeau's press conference on Tuesday at Augusta National Golf Club touched on topics ranging from the emotional challenges that the course presents to which hole bothers him the most ('all of them!') to the idea of creating YouTube content at the home of the Masters.
Then Bryson was asked about writing something on the faces of drivers he was testing with a red pen Tuesday morning in the practice area.
'It's just trying to get that dialed-in head, that perfect head,' DeChambeau explained. '(I've) been working a lot on some equipment stuff, and it's super close. Super close with some of the driver stuff we've been working on, but for my speeds, it's just so tedious, and they have to be so precisely measured and defined. It's tough; the manufacturing process is not easy. It's one of those where, for speeds of my caliber, it has to be super precise.'
What DeChambeau, 31, is referring to is manufacturing tolerances and precision, and how, for someone who swings his driver between 125 and 130 mph as he does, DeChambeau needs clubs that are made to an especially tight tolerance.
'I'm testing different heads to see how it reacts, how I feel, how it feels in my hands. I'm swinging it really good right now, so I'm just trying to get the most precise thing in my hand for this week,' he said.
The red marks that the two-time U.S. Open champion made on Tuesday during his practice session describe what the club does and how it feels.
'I'm just trying to find that driver that acted like the one when I shot 58 at Greenbrier. If that driver, that would be great. But I don't want to use it because I don't want to change the face curvature and change the dynamics of it. I want to have that head just as it is.'
Last week at the LIV Golf event in Miami, DeChambeau used a 5.5-degree Krank Formula Fire LD driver, and that's the club he used to shoot 58 at the LIV Golf event at The Greenbrier. DeChambeau also practiced with a Krank driver on Tuesday at Augusta National, but he has recently been testing prototype LA Golf drivers that have varying amounts of bulge and roll based on their loft and what players are being targeted.
Krank has designed drivers for long drive competitions, so it makes sense that the company designers and engineers have a solid understanding of what happens when a player swings like DeChambeau. But it sounds like DeChambeau, who tied for sixth at the 2024 Masters, wants more data and a better understanding about how he can reduce the effects of mis-hit shots when ball speeds approach 190, 195 and even 200 mph.
'We don't truly know what happens at super-fast speeds, and that's something I'm keen on figuring out this next year,' DeChambeau said on Tuesday. 'It's going to be a yearlong testing protocol for something that I'm working on.'
However, Bryson does not intend to be the guinea pig for all the experiments.
'I'm not going to be testing it. I want someone that's even more precise than me,' he said. 'It'll be fun to see what that information presents us and how we can improve in all facets of the game, whether it's the driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, the irons, wedges, putter, we're going to test everything, you name it, shafts, golf balls, everything. I'm really excited for that testing protocol come later this year.'