During Wednesday’s presser before LIV Golf Houston, someone mentioned to Bryson DeChambeau that with a number of solid recent finishes, he’s arguably the hottest golfer on the planet right now.
Without missing a beat, the enigmatic star shot back a witty one-liner:
“Is it the ‘stache?”
Indeed, DeChambeau, who rode a hot Sunday at Valhalla Golf Club to a runner-up finish at the 2024 PGA Championship, has been channeling his inner-Johnson Wagner in recent days, sporting a hairy upper lip in a series of photos that appeared on Twitter.
In fact, the two-time LIV Golf champion posted to social media in full argyle and hickory, a look that grabbed plenty of attention, something the former NCAA and U.S. Amateur champ has rarely shied away from.
“I had someone say you might look good in a ‘stache, and I was like, all right, I’ll try it,” he said. “I had a big scruff, and I shaved it all down. There’s a video that’s coming out on YouTube that is old-school style. I think I posted about it almost a week ago now, and it looked good, I thought, with the outfit. I don’t know if you guys saw it, but it’s the old school with the hickory clubs and got the beret on and the whole getup, the long socks and shoes, all that.
Throwing it back pic.twitter.com/kngkcL9aDm
— Bryson DeChambeau (@b_dechambeau) May 31, 2024
“It definitely fit the outfit. We’ll see how long this lasts though. If I play bad the first day, I’m probably just going to shave it.”
What’s interesting about the photo is that DeChambeau is holding hickory golf clubs, especially in light of his affection for technology.
For example, at Augusta National Golf Club DeChambeau surprised many by showing up with a custom set of single-length irons made by little-known clubmaker Avoda done by 3D printing. The clubs weren’t approved by the USGA until the Monday on which players arrived at the Masters. With no hesitation, DeChambeau inserted them into his bag and fired a 65 in the opening round, before settling for a sixth-place finish.
And while he’s been playing the clubs ever since, he’s uncertain if all golf clubs will eventually come from a 3D printer.
“I don’t know about that. I think the process as of right now is a lot easier CNC milling a lot of heads compared to 3D printing. Once it gets to a price point that makes sense, then maybe, but it is somewhat expensive. I don’t think it’s for mass consumption yet,” he said on Wednesday. “But it will get there, and I’m certainly looking forward to some improvements in the technology because man, it would be so cool.
“Imagine having a 3D printer at your house, and you just print your own iron or do whatever. You can put it together and go hit it that afternoon. That’s really cool, compared to having a six-month process of prototyping it out and measuring it up and doing a couple iterations; maybe one of them is right, one of them is wrong, but you just 3D print in an hour or so a metal head and you stick a shaft on it and you go hit it.”
While he thinks 3D clubs for a mass audience might be off in the distance, he’s relishing the thought.
“Those days are coming,” he said. “I don’t know how quickly it’s coming, but it’s certainly a really cool technology that we utilize, and hopefully it gets more widely known because that is the future. It’s just not here fully yet for mass consumption.
“I want it to be. I want it to be for sure. The price point just needs to come down quite a bit.”