Until Bryson DeChambeau came along, there wasn’t quite such a focus on ball speed. Yes, it was mentioned from time to time, but it was really only when the American started to pound the ball insane distances and take aim at the green on par 5s off the tee, as he famously did at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2021, that everyone begun to take more notice of this number.
That was a couple of years ago, when the American was on something of a crusade to make professional golf little more than a drive, pitch and putt contest.
He gave it a pretty good go, too, winning the 2020 US Open in dominant fashion, mostly by bombing drives, wedging on and cleaning up with the putter.
So far as ball speed was concerned, DeChambeau wasn’t quite in a class of his own on the PGA Tour during the 2020-2021 season; there were two players in the 190mph ball speed club, with Cameron Champ providing a bit of healthy competition.
To be more precise, DeChambeau’s average ball speed on the PGA Tour that season was 190.72mph, a fraction slower when compared to Champ’s 190.94mph, but still seriously fast, and not far off a full 6mph faster than the player ranked third, which was the sluggish Will Gordon (185.08mph).
For context, the PGA Tour average that season was 170.44mph, so DeChambeau was over 20mph quicker – which is huge.
Generally speaking, the greater the ball speed, the greater the distance. For DeChambeau, who used to speak very openly about his quest to put on more muscle mass in an attempt to hit longer drives, that was certainly the case; he averaged 323.7 yards off the tee that season, compared to a Tour average of 296.20 yards.
Most players have an extra gear to call upon it when needed. However, DeChambeau used to have an extra couple, and he once broke the 220mph ball speed barrier.
“Just did something only a dozen golfers could do. Video coming soon,” DeChambeau tweeted (now ‘X’) in December 2021.
The former US Open champion’s exact ball speed number was a fairly rapid 221.5mph. We say ‘fairly’, because when he competed in the 2021 World Long Drive Championships and registered a high ball speed mark of 219mph, he finished down in seventh.
That’s because when DeChambeau decided to take on the biggest of the big guns, he came up against the likes of Kyle Berkshire, a man who’s just send a new ball speed world record – 241.6mph. That’s quick.
DeChambeau doesn't like losing. In 2022, he almost pulled off a shock, coming second at the Long Drive World Championship.
The eight-time PGA Tour winner now plies his trade on LIV Golf. Although the circuit doesn’t report ball speeds, it’s safe to say the Crushers player isn’t hitting the same dizzying numbers that he was a few years ago.
Earlier this year, he admitted that he was no longer chasing distance. “Technology is not up to par with the way golfers can perform at high speeds,” he said. “Anything over 185 mph – good luck trying to control it right now.”
Given that DeChambeau still averaged 316.8 yards, it would not appear to have had too much of an effect on his driving.
