The Guardian view of golf's wedge issue: the triumph of brain and brawn | Editorial

Art gives way to science in yet another sport. But won ’t we all lose out when the magic is gone?Bryson DeChambeau sounds like a character from a novel, one perhaps set on the C ôte d’Azur in the 1930s, a raffish figure with a taste for the high life. He is, in fact, a 27-year-old golfer from California, and the only high life that interests him is the flight of a golf ball, which when hit by Mr DeChambeau goes an outrageous distance. Nicknamed “the scientist” for hi s single-minded application of new ideas about golf club design and swing mechanics – his aim is to do for golf what his hero Einstein did for relativity. He has married theory with sheer power, adding 40lb in muscle weight in the past six months to maximise the length of his driving and overwhelm golf courses, even one as fearsome as Winged Foot in New York, where he was therunaway winner of the US Open.Every so often someone comes along who revolutionises a sport. Donald Bradman did it in cricket in the 1930s with batting so perfect the English bowlers had to resort to bodyline – bouncers directed at his head – to curb him. Mr DeChambeau may have an even bigger impact on golf than “the Don” had on cricket, with pundits saying it will never be the same again – the authorities are already discussing changing the composition of the ball to reduce the distance he can hit it. His bomb and gouge approach is rendering great old courses impotent, offending golfing purists who dislike his power game...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Sport Golf Albert Einstein Science US Open Cricket Seve Ballesteros Tennis Venus Williams Serena Williams Boxing Football Source Type: news