AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bryson DeChambeau not only finds himself in contention to win his first Masters this weekend, standing at 6-under-par and tied for the 36-hole lead, he’s doing it with a new set of irons he put into his bag this week.
A set of irons that are made by 3D printing and weren’t approved by the USGA until Tuesday.
“I designed them with someone from back home, and they have just got a different curvature on the face than other equipment,” DeChambeau said Friday after his round. “Most equipment is flat. These have a different curvature on the face that allows me to have my mis-hits to go a little straighter sometimes.”
range during a practice round for the Masters Tournament. Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
He conceded getting them approved for play by the USGA “was pretty close.’’
“Early Tuesday is when I finally got the full set approved and conforming,” he said. “And I started practicing from then on out and felt comfortable with them Tuesday and Wednesday, and had no issue.
“I had been practicing with them quite a while before that. Last week I found out that … we didn’t really think it was going to be non-conforming, but they were, just the groove edge was just too sharp. Last week, we found out literally Thursday afternoon that they were non-conforming from the USGA.
“Then we worked on them all over the weekend, and finally Tuesday morning we got them to where they were in a place where they were conforming and was ready to go.”
DeChambeau, known to be a mad scientist of sorts with the way he tinkers with equipment and his own body, said he has had the idea for these irons since 2020.
He was curiously coy about revealing details about the irons, saying, “I’m not going to speak much more on that, but I’ve had this idea for a long, long time. Especially with the driver.”
He said there is no backup set for them at the moment.
“I have got some PING i330s or something like that,” he said. “I’ve been using them since early last year. I shot 58 with them [in a LIV Golf win]. So, they do pretty well.”
DeChambeau split with Cobra-Puma last year and has been searching for the right next step. That appears to be Avoda, which is the company he has building the irons.
Interestingly, when he was asked about his new irons after his round Thursday, DeChambeau curiously didn’t mention the brand name despite praising the performance.
Usually, these are opportunities for players to pump up their product in public.
“I put new irons in this week; I think that’s a pretty big change,” he said. “And [I’ve] been using this new driver, 3-wood and 5-wood. So pretty much my whole bag is different since Greenbrier of last year, and putter is the only thing that’s remained the same.”
DeChambeau later spoke to the Golf Channel and said of the irons, “It’s a speed thing. When I miss-hit on the toe or the heel it seems to fly a lot straighter for me and that’s what has allowed me to be more comfortable over the ball.”
The concept of the irons is some curvature on the club faces, a little bit like there is on drivers.
On the Golf Channel’s “Live From,” analyst Brandel Chamblee said, “[Curvature] allows woods to have forgiveness and I thought, ‘Why have we never had that on irons?’ As the week goes on, I will certainly be watching his iron play to see if in fact it is an improvement because it really is an interesting concept.”
“The faces have some bulge to them, they are one-of-a-kind,” Mike Schy, DeChambeau’s coach told GolfWeek. “What happens if you hit it on the toe? It hooks a lot, right? What happens if you hit it on the heel? It cuts a lot. When you have bolts, that offsets that.”
Schy called the testing and use of the new irons “an adventure.”
Isn’t it always with DeChambeau?
