In the world of golf right now, everything “Bryson DeChambeau” has become a big topic of conversation—pun fully intended. From his remarkable body transformation to his new diet, to his personality, and now his driving distance—which has helped turn him into the hottest golfer on the planet—he is single-handedly changing the game.

Bryson has established himself as one of the most thorough tinkerers golf has ever seen, and with these newfound changes to his game, we wanted to reach out to Bridgestone Golf to find out about the Golf Scientist’s ball testing process and what type of changes they have seen with his game over the last nine months.

I had the chance to speak with Elliot Mellow, Bridgestone Golf’s Marketing Manager, about Bryson’s process and how the Tour BX ball has been able to help him along the way.

RB: How has working with Bryson changed since when he originally joined team Bridgestone, and specifically over the last 9 months as his game has changed so quickly?

EM: Ever since we started working with Bryson, he has always wanted to be at the forefront of optimization throughout his golf bag, and that has meant making sure the golf ball he is using offers him the most control from his driver to his wedges. When he first came to us his swing speed with a driver hovered around 124 mph and the ball he used was the B330S which offered a bit more spin through the bag and the control that he wanted.

Beyond the physical change, he has changed a lot about his golf clubs over the last year too, but the one thing that has remained constant is his use of the Tour BX since we first introduced it, and now the new Tour BX with Reactiv Cover that he started using around Thanksgiving 2019 before the Presidents Cup. The reason for the change is thanks in part to his new 134mph driver swing speed he has no problem creating spin, and with his driver dynamics, he wanted to gain extra spin reduction to help him hit it straighter. The firmers Tour BX gives him extra control with his driver while still providing maximum short game control.

RB: How does Bryson’s testing process compared to other players you work with?

EM: Bryson is very unique in that he is willing to test almost anywhere. A lot of players like to test strictly at home during breaks while not in “competition mode,” but we have worked with Bryson on tour, at his home course, and at our testing facility in Covington, Georgia.

Bryson understands that playing conditions are going to vary week to week, and he likes to know that regardless of where he is playing he can have confidence his ball will do what he wants when he wants it. Still, our most in-depth testing sessions always occur at our test facility since we have access to all of our equipment and prototypes to dial him in. He also loves to provide feedback on other products in the line that are going through various prototype stages, even if they aren’t geared towards his game just to see how they work and react—Bryson is not afraid to experiment.

RB: Who drives the testing process? Bryson asking for tweaks during a ball’s prototyping stages or engineers presenting a number of options along the way? 

EM: The fun part about testing is that it’s a two-way street. Our engineers are always working on new prototypes, and thanks to robot testing and modeling we can fine-tune the expected performance variables before putting them into a player’s hand. The other side of that is we still need and rely on player feedback because its humans that play golf, not robots.

Having golfers like Bryson, Tiger, and Lexi Thompson on our team help us get valuable feedback on how different balls feel and react to there games and now with Bryson, he is able to hit a golf ball at speeds none of our other players generate on a consistent basis. What’s been interesting for us to continue to watch is how he is controlling his irons and wedges into greens and just how high he is hitting it – speed creates higher launch and spin and being able to gain extra control with his Tour BX is certainly part of that equation.

RB: Ok, let’s switch gears here. How does someone who swings their driver at 134 mph translate to the average golfer that might only swing their driver between 95-100 mph? I mean we’d all love to drive the ball 300 yards but in reality, that’s not going to happen for most recreational golfers. 

EM: That’s a great question, and its something we think about with every ball we develop.

It’s similar to the concept car model – we experiment and develop for the extreme and then thanks to advancements on the higher level, even down to something chemical like Reactiv Urethane, that technology ends up in all of our products targeted to different golfers of varying skill and swing speed. Thanks to the properties of that cover material we have seen golfers of all swing speeds gain ball speed without sacrificing short game spin and control.

The one thing that we continue to be at the forefront of is core design and our gradational core helps create higher initial balls speeds and lower spin. It gets softer towards the middle and becomes higher compression as you get closer to the cover allowing it to react very differently depending on how it’s struck – the ball will naturally compress more for clubs with lower lofts and at higher speeds compared to slower speed shots hit with a more of a glancing blow. We change these core dynamics throughout our product line up to once again suit the target player.

RB: So just like with clubs, the same driver can work for different golfers once you dial in specs, except for with a ball it’s about finding the right model to offer performance from the top to the bottom of your set since you have to use it for every shot?

EM: Exactly!

RB: As always Elliot, I really appreciate your time.

EM: Thanks, Ryan.