DOUG MILNE: We will go ahead and get started, Bryson DeChambeau, thank you for joining us for a few minutes prior to the start of the 2020 FedExCup playoff season here at THE NORTHERN TRUST.
Obviously you're in a pretty unique situation coming back here having won the NORTHERN TRUST at another course, yet a week later, come here and win on this course. That's got to be pretty special for you coming into the week this week.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: No doubt. TPC Boston is an amazing place. I have a lot of great memories from there, playing with Tiger, playing well with him, and just honestly winning back-to-back was something I never dreamed I'd do, and very fortunate to be able to do that, complete that, and come back here on good terms.
DOUG MILNE: And you're coming into the week with an incredible season, nine Top-10s and 14 starts, your sixth most recent win at Rocket Mortgage. Size up your game as you're heading into the week with us here.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I worked on my game for about nine hours the past Sunday and Saturday, so worked really hard, very rigorous training sessions and work out a lot this past week.
For me personally, I feel like I'm ready to go this week. We'll see, obviously, the week -- you never know what happens during the week. Always something could potentially happen, but at the same point in time, I feel really good. I've played really well this season. My body feels really good. My game feels really good. I think I figured something out; we'll see.
Obviously you never know, weeks play differently, but I think I figured something out in the golf swing that will hopefully help me hit it a little straighter. That would be nice.
Q. I have a question about the back nine, the four most difficult holes on this course are pretty much consecutive numbers, 11 through 14 and they are followed by a finishing stretch that yields scoring opportunities including the gettable 18th hole. So overall how do you manage your strategy for the back nine?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, I haven't played with my new game this year yet. Tim, my caddie, was out there scouting the course yesterday, and said that these holes are going to play a lot different for me this week. We were even talking about I think on 12, hitting it down the slope potentially past that drop-off.
So there's just going to be some interesting things on those difficult holes personally for me to try and accomplish. I think if I can figure those holes out and get to that easy stretch, I'll do what I did a couple years ago. I felt like I played really well on the back nine, especially the difficult holes, I was able to accomplish a couple birdies and keep my momentum going that week.
Q. Some of the changes that you've made and adjustments in your game over the last six or eight months required a full commitment on your part. Can you explain about the thought process that went in before you basically pushed all your chips on to the table on this philosophy and do you think that kind of commitment is something that has led other players to think this way and not follow through on it and maybe not decide that they are that committed to use the philosophy that you have undertaken?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's a great question. I think that part of the trepidation comes from people feeling like they are about to get injured or something is going to happen in the gym and they are like, whoa, I've got to relax, or they will go work out and they are super tired, and like working out the next day can't be helpful.
For me, I've taken the opposite approach. There was a period of time where I rested my body for almost a week when I had some bad back injuries and I did a little trial run of rest, right, and for me, I realized, I felt the exact same way after resting for a whole week on my body that when I came into that, and so it was like, there's no way this is the answer. I should be feeling better within a few days, if, you know, resting was the answer.
So I said to myself, let's try the opposite and let's try the opposite and go forward with it and see how that would play out. I went forward with working out every single day and this was a few years back and I realized that working out had some positive impacts when done in the right way.
But I didn't understand how to do that just yet. Has not been a year-long process. It's been a three-year process learning how my brain and body works and how everything functions well together, and it's been a lot of failure. I've failed a lot and that's okay. Failure is when I personally learn a lot more about my body, myself and what I'm trying to accomplish for the future.
So I think that part of the problem comes about when people feel like they are going to get injured or they have gotten injured and they think that rest is the answer. Well, we're resting when we sleep and sleeping is when we get some of our best recovery, and if you're not recovering when you're sleeping, there's something you're not inputting in your system during the day that's not allowing you to get your proper recovery.
As I've gone through this process, I've learned a lot of ways how not to do it. I definitely have taken a toll on my body in certain areas but I've been able to now fix it because of what Greg has taught me, what I've experimented with in the gym and I've allowed myself to say, hey, I'm throwing everything into this because I believe this is the way to be the most healthy you could possibly be, at least from my perspective, from all the trials that I've done back in November. That's when I threw in all the cards, the chips, and I said, this is the best way for me.
So that's a little bit of a long answer, but one that I really truly believe in, and some people may not agree with that and I understand, but everybody, to each their own, right, and I'm not going to say that this works for everyone or that another way works for someone else. I'm just going to say what works for me and the experience that I've gone through.
Q. Did you realize it might take two, three, four years for you to see the fruits of the benefit you're seeing at this point?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Great question, yes, absolutely. Three years ago I talked to Greg and I said what is the end game in all of this, in all this neuromuscular training and working out, and he said, "Bryson, I don't know, I've never had an athlete that's gone this distance."
I said "I'm willing to go the distance," and we went the distance. We built an amazing foundation to where I can go in and work out and tolerate all these forces, and I found tools, unique tools that allowed me to repair my body to where I can train every single day and recover each and every day.
So I work out at night, every day, and that's what makes me feel really good in the morning. I wake up feeling like I can just get right out of bed and move and have no issues. The days I don't work out, where I don't work out at night, I feel like there's stuff I just didn't take care of. When I go through the process and do my routine and work out properly, there's some amazing benefits that come about in the morning.
Q. When you just said, when do you feel you became an athletes?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's a great question. When I truly felt like I started to become an athlete was probably around December of this past year. I started moving weights up quite a bit and when I was with Greg in Denver, we just kept upping the weight and I'm like, man, I did not think I would be able to tolerate all these forcing going through my body, and I kept recovering well after that.
I was like, geez, that is a whole other level I have not experienced before, and it was around that time period that I felt like, you know, could I do springs with all this weight and I could do jumps, I could do everything at this new weight and that's when I felt like I became an athlete with all this size, I guess you could say. Now I've always been an athlete. I did track growing up, volleyball, basketball, baseball, multi-sport athlete in high school, actually. Played volleyball my senior year. So I've always known that I've kind of been an athlete, but never thought that I would get this strong or this mobile in my entire life, especially at the age that I'm at right now.
Q. And secondly, the Tour now has been doing events for a couple months with no fans, no Pro-Ams, no nothing. At some point, there has to be a breaking point that you guys have to eventually bring people back in?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yes.
Q. Are you comfortable, or when will you be comfortable to have Pro-Ams and fans back here?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Whenever the PGA TOUR thinks it's proper, it's the right time. I will defer to the PGA TOUR and their, I guess you could say their diagnosis of when it would be the best time for fans to come back and Pro-Ams to come back.
Personally, I would love to have them today. I love interacting with the fans in the Pro-Ams. You meet a lot of great people in the Pro-Ams. People don't realize that, I think. Some people don't like them. I like them personally because you get to meet some amazing individuals that you would not get to meet otherwise. So for me, I personally would love to have them now but whenever the PGA TOUR thinks it's the right time, is when I would be okay with it.
Q. What was your takeaway from the way you played at the PGA and the first major with your new body?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, I was excited it could hold up under major championship conditions, obviously major championship, there's a lot more pressure and more things going on, and for my body to respond in an even better fashion than I had previously done in my past experiences was amazing and it was very validating that I could perform at this level with my new body.
Very, very validating and something that I'll take for the future and hope that will suit me well for these majors coming up.
Q. What were you working on so intensely for nine hours last Saturday and Sunday?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: So I was working on learning how to hit it a little bit straighter. So there were times at the PGA where for example, on 14, it was a hard left-to-right wind and I just didn't feel comfortable and I missed a couple right. I was kind of bummed about that but still shook it off and was able to make birdie on one of them.
But I will say that that was one thing that stuck in my mind, and if a situation like that comes about this week, I want to be able to conquer. That's what I was working on, how to control the shot a little bit better, control a draw a little bit better. Sometimes in the left-to-right wind I can miss it right, so just making sure I can draw it properly.
Q. Did you happen to see any of the U.S. Amateur coverage, and your name popped up with your picture, did you recognize the guy?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I do remember a faint Bryson, a small, faint image of Bryson back in the day.
It's funny, I was looking at an Instagram post of mine I think three years -- five years ago now, yeah, it's 2015, 2016 when I just turned professional. I went to the Bahamas and had my shirt off and I can't believe how skinny I was back then. I thought I was like pretty ripped and jacked back then. No, definitely not.
It just shows personally that a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication can get you to this whole new place in life, and that's what I'm trying to hopefully do for a lot of people out there is to inspire people to work hard every day and do their absolute best to be the best they can possibly be.
And yeah, the U.S. Amateur, I saw a few pictures and it shocked me how different it is. That's just a lot of dedication and a lot of resolve to try and work on things and figure things out to make myself a little bit better each and every day.
On the U.S. Amateur, that was pretty special seeing Strafaci and Osborne up there and them fighting it out. I watched it. It was a lot of fun.
Q. On no Pro-Ams, no fans, basically there's been no revenue coming in and a lot of people are taking a beating financially. You guys are playing for the same prize money, extraordinary purses, with a $15 million bonus to the winner. Is there any -- I don't know if guilt is the right word -- but how do you feel about being able to play for a full purse and prize money when everyone else seems to be sacrificing?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, that's a great question and it's a very difficult question to answer. One that I would refer back to the PGA TOUR on.
Personally to me, I'm doing my best to give back next week -- well, I don't know if I should be talking about that --
Q. Go ahead.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: We're doing a lot for charity with these Pro-Ams. We are trying to give back as much as possible. For me I totally understand that question. Personally, I don't know necessarily how to answer that because that's a TOUR question. I'm just coming out and playing the best golf I can possibly play.
For me, I'm doing my best to give back. I've been giving back a lot to my foundation personally. I don't really talk too much about it because that's just not what I like to, I don't like to say, hey, I'm doing this or that or this or that. But there are things in the background I know the PGA TOUR and I am doing to help out communities that are struggling for sure.
Q. Going back to the success that you had at the PGA and other events since you've added this bulk, I think it's 40 pounds or. So where is the limit for you? Do you keep adding bulk, trying to chase more speed? What's the future look like in that respect?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, every day I'm taking it as a new day, looking at it from a fresh perspective saying, can I keep going and every day so far it's been good. I wake up every day and feel like I can go faster, I can swing it faster. Just last week I got my 6-iron up to 112 miles an hour swing speed. My ball speed was 160, and that was me going after it.
But I don't know where the limit is on this, and I'm excited about that because I keep looking forward to each and every day to go down this rabbit hole to see how far I can go. I'm sure there will be a time where I can't gain the size and strength that I have in this past year so there is going to be a depreciating value to it over time, I know that but every day I'm going to keep doing my best to keep hitting it farther.
And like I said this past week, I recognized that I wasn't hitting it as straight as I possibly could from the PGA Championship and I went and work on hitting it a little straighter with the driver and irons and the wedges. So I'm always looking to improve on every facet but definitely from a distance perspective, I don't know the limits to it yet.
Q. So you said you've been working on hitting it straighter over the past week. We know what your speed sessions look like, but what does a practice session look like when you're trying to straighten it out?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, it's a great question. What I try and do is practice every single club in the bag. Now, what I mean by that is, I'll practice my wedges. I'll practice short iron -- or I guess you could say pitching wedge to 4-iron, and I'll make sure every single one correlates to the previous club relative to the same motion that I'm trying to make.
So like for example, if I have a thought on like how I should have spinal extension or right side or something, whatever it is, I try and make sure it works throughout the whole entire bag. If it doesn't work with one club or a couple clubs, it usually won't work with the rest of them.
So like once I get down to 4-iron from the driver, if it doesn't work with 4-iron, I know it's not going to work with the rest of the irons, or if I get out a 6-iron, it's not going to work with the rest, for whatever reason, I don't know why.
That's how I do it. I don't know what else to say other than that. Once I get to a spot where I feel like it's not working, I completely stop it and I try something new. I must have tried 50 different things, I guess, over those nine hours of practice, just and they are little things, right, like it could be left shoulder up or left shoulder out or left shoulder -- just whatever it is, whatever I'm trying to accomplish, I try a little variation and then I compound it a little bit so I'll add this or that and see if this works and that works. It's just a process of elimination going, no, that didn't help; that didn't help and then finding a little nugget every once in a while going oh my gosh it works with everything and that's what I felt this past week.
Then I'll go down the bag, 3-wood, 4-iron, 7-iron, pitching wedge on the wedges, sometimes switch right to a wedge or 4-iron, just depends, whatever I'm feeling.
DOUG MILNE: With that, Bryson, we always appreciate hearing from you and best of luck this week. We appreciate your time.
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