Everyone has their own philosophy for improving their golf game. Some prefer beating balls for hours on end, ironing out their swings on the range. Others like to get on the course and play as much as possible. There is no right or wrong answer — it all depends on what works best for you.
For Bryson DeChambeau, the journey to improvement has never been conventional. He’s experimented with everything from side-saddle putting to packing on as many pounds as possible, all in the name of shooting lower scores. As you can likely guess, his philosophy on improvement is far from conventional as well.
In the latest episode of Warming Up, he shared with GOLF.com’s Dylan Dethier that he almost never plays golf on his own time.
“I’ll go out and play three holes every once in a while to make sure that nothing has gone crazy awry, but I focus on being able to repeat motion,” DeChambeau said. “If I can do it again and again and again and have the same shot shape, that’s literally all that matters to me.”
The “to me” qualifier is important in this answer. While this all-practice, no-play philosophy works for DeChambeau, that’s largely because of the amount of on-course experience he already has accrued. For the average joe looking to improve, it’s important to get reps on the course in a variety of situations.
“You need to play enough rounds of golf where you can go to the reds, go to the blues — any tee [box], and shoot damn well under par,” DeChambeau says. “If you can do that, you know how to strategize on the golf course with any situation that occurs.”
In the past, DeChambeau said that he taught himself how to go low by playing from the forward tees as a teenager. This helped him get comfortable with shooting low scores and taught him how to think his way around the course.
“I learned how to score from a young age. I shot 58 once, I shot 59. And so I got to a place where I was like, ‘Man, I know how to score. I know how to get a golf ball to a place where I’m comfortable. I know how to strategize on this type of hole,” he said. “Once I got comfortable with strategy on the golf course and was able to learn how to score with wedging and was pretty consistent with everything around the greens, it all became how repeatable can I be.”
Check out the entire episode of Warming Up below.
