Bryson DeChambeau had a real chance of winning The Masters in 2025, but he came up short in the end, as Rory McIlroy triumphed at Augusta National.
McIlroy got his own back on DeChambeau at The Masters after the American pipped the Northern Irishman to the U.S. Open title in 2024.
The LIV Golf star was in great form at Augusta National last year, and was paired with McIlroy in the final group on Sunday.
However, DeChambeau labored to a really poor round of 75 during the final round at The Masters, while McIlroy’s 73 was enough to force a play-off with Justin Rose.
The 32-year-old American’s iron play was really poor in the final round at Augusta National, as he desperately struggled with his distance control.
DeChambeau could be set to unveil some ‘special’ new golf equipment at The Masters, as he looks to succeed where he failed last year at Augusta.
How Bryson DeChambeau feels about his chances of winning The Masters
DeChambeau won LIV Singapore last week, so his game must be in pretty good shape.
However, we all know that the two-time U.S. Open champion is nothing if he’s not a perfectionist.
And with The Masters now just three weeks away, DeChambeau will be focusing most of his practice and preparation around what he needs to sharpen up for Augusta National.
During his press conference in South Africa on Tuesday, DeChambeau was asked how he is feeling with The Masters just around the corner.
“Yeah, I know I have to dial in my wedges. That’s going to be a big thing for me,“ the LIV Golf star said.
“I’m starting to drive it well, starting to iron play it well, putting it really well.
“The last key for me is wedges and I’ve got a full bag of wedges I’ve been trying this week, different grinds, different weights, different shafts, different lengths, everything, kind of doing what I did back in ’23 when I was just testing a bunch of drivers at the end of that year and then I found the driver that I’m still using today.
“Hopefully I find what works and it continues to stick. It helped last week, but this week is a little different conditions, as well. It’s soft like last week but just different. Augusta is going to be different.
“I’m really focused on my equipment getting dialed in.“
If DeChambeau does manage to dial in his wedges in time for The Masters, he may well be a very hard man to beat at Augusta National.
What Bryson DeChambeau is working on with his equipment ahead of The Masters
DeChambeau was asked by reporters to explain specifically what he’s working on with his equipment with The Masters just a few weeks away now.
“It’s a great question. It’s a lot about strike point and how much turf is getting in between the face and the grass and mitigating that, managing that strike, and how you manage that strike is dependent upon how soft the turf is. If it presses into the ground a lot, if it doesn’t, if it bounces off the ground like in Australia, it was really firm ground so it bounced off quickly. So I could throw it behind the ball quite a bit and then hit low on the face. If it’s soft here, you hit just the same spot and it goes right under; you hit high on the face and it comes out with more spin and shorter and deader.
“So trying to find a bounce that works for me, number one, that plays like firm conditions because I’ve always played pretty well in firm conditions. I’m learning from these guys. I see how they strike it. I see what they do, and I’m learning a lot from my team, even though I’m not necessarily asking because they’re tired of me asking about wedges. They’re just like, go to shorter wedges and normal clubs, which I’ve tried, and I still suck with that.
“But I’ll tell you that it’s nice seeing how they strike the ball, the forward shaft lean, and where they’re striking on the face is important. So I think leading edge height to bounce is very, very important depending on how soft the turf is.
“I think the surface friction on the face is really important, how rough it can get. Funny enough, when the face gets rougher, it actually starts to spin less at a certain point, to the legal limit. Then once you go past the legal limit then it starts spinning more and more. There’s like a bell curve with it. It’s kind of wild.
“Then you can get scenarios where it’s super slick face and then it’s wet and slides and doesn’t spin at all, and it has to spin.
“I unfortunately mis-hit my wedges quite a bit just because maybe I don’t have the right bounce configuration. Maybe the shape of the grind is a little different.
“I’m trying some new wedges. They’ve got almost a bubble on the bottom and it’s been helping quite a bit. It helped last week. Got a little more head weight on the wedges. We’re cutting away things that have not worked for me, whether it be a softer shaft, shorter wedges, different type of torque in the head for contact, different types of grinds, lighter heads, no grooves to grooves to friction on the grooves. We’re just going through everything as much as possible and trying to isolate the biggest problems in my wedge game and cutting those out as much as possible so I can be — shoot, if I’m 5 more percent consistent, I have a better chance than what I did last year at the Masters.
“I took that last Masters as an opportunity to learn how to become a better iron play and a better wedger. I feel like most of it was there. Just a couple fine-tuning moments and continue to ball strike it the way I have and hopefully I give myself a good chance.“
