It’s no secret that Bryson DeChambeau is looking to gain a scoring edge any way possible. Kevin Na, DeChambeau’s partner at this week’s QBE Shootout, was particularly impressed with one bit of attention to detail: DeChambeau doesn’t just measure the speed of the greens, but of the fairways, too.
After Saturday’s second round, Na spoke to Golf Channel about his appreciation for DeChambeau’s methods. “We talked about it yesterday and today. We went out to dinner at Korean barbecue and we talked about it,” Na said. “I really like how his formula is off the green when he putts. So he has a Stimpmeter…” Na began, then paused and looked at his oft-secretive partner, who gave a nod of approval.
“I don’t want to tell too much. He has a Stimpmeter on the fairway so he knows what it’s running, so he calculates that and then he calculates the slope and then the rest is it gets on the green, so I actually like that one.”
A Stimpmeter is a simple machine that measures green speed. File this alongside some of DeChambeau’s recent plans to pick up shots from just off the green. Most recently, he spoke of testing pins’ coefficients of restitution to determine whether or not he’ll leave them planted in the hole.
For those of you scoring at home, if DeChambeau is putting from just off the green, he’ll be chasing a calculation that includes the Stimpmeter reading for the fairway, the slope of the fringe and the coefficient of restitution of the pin. It has worked so far in Naples; DeChambeau and Na sit in fourth place heading to Sunday’s best ball finale.
