19th Hole
Bryson says ‘technology is not up to par’ with modern day ball speeds

In September of 2020, Bryson DeChambeau was fresh off of a dominating U.S. Open victory and went on to win the prestigious Arnold Palmer Invitational later that season. The mercurial budding superstar was seemingly changing the game right in front of our eyes.
Until he wasn’t.
It’s been almost two years since DeChambeau’s win at the API, and the 29-year-old is yet to win an event on any tour since. From a feud with Brooks Koepka, continuous nagging injuries and a borderline obsession with becoming a long drive champion, Bryson has done just about everything besides win golf tournaments.
In an interview with Mike McAllister of LIV Golf, DeChambeau revealed a handful of health issues that have plagued him over the past four years. After undergoing a full body scan conducted by Prenuvo, he found out that he had a retention cyst in his left sinus, among other problems.
“In the first minute of looking at it, he goes, ‘Yeah, you’ve got like four or five problems. You should’ve been in surgery yesterday,’ ” DeChambeau said. “It wasn’t an emergency … but he’s like, that’s a big problem.”
After getting the issues fixed, Bryson says he feels back to how he felt when he was playing his best.
“To get that fixed, it’s been the greatest decision of my life,” DeChambeau said. “My energy level is so much better. My clarity of thought is way better. I don’t know if you can tell, but my speech is a lot more fluent and I’m not stopping as much or pitching as much like I used to last year and before.
“I feel like I’m back to 2018 me.”
Bryson also took some time away from golf, which is something he feels he needed to do with how hard he’d been training over the last few years.
“It’s been six years of nonstop, go-go-go, all golf,” DeChambeau said. “I just needed a bit of a break …
“Last year, I feel like was a reset year. This year is a building year. I feel like it’s an opportunity to show off what I know how to do best, which is play golf at the highest level. I know some people will not believe that playing golf at the highest level is with LIV, but for me it is.
“I still have a passion to be the best player in the world. And however, that ranking metric goes is how it goes. That’s for another discussion. But this offseason has been great preparation mentally for me.”
Another interesting take from Bryson was regarding club technology. According to the 29-year-old, technology is not currently up to scratch when it comes to modern day ball speeds, and the Californian believes that when that ever happens, it’s going to “change the game forever.”
“Technology is not up to par with the way golfers can perform at high speeds. Anything over 185 mph – good luck trying to control it right now.
We’re still on a pursuit to who can make a driver that can work it at 200 anywhere and everywhere on the face and still goes in the fairway. When that day comes, that’s going to be eye-opening for a lot of individuals because they will be optimizing ball speeds at 195, which can fly 360 yards. And that’s going to change the game forever. But we’re not there yet.”
DeChambeau will look to start 2023 off on the right foot as he’s set to tee it up at this week’s Saudi International at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club.
More from the 19th Hole
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.