The Singaporean Rollercoaster
The fourth event of the 2026 LIV Golf season has just concluded and Bryson found himself hoisting the trophy in the least predictable way possible. After a lackluster third round where he shot 1 over par, Bryson would enter the final round one shot back of Lee Westwood and Joaquin Niemann. Shortly after starting on Sunday, he found himself three back of Niemann.
After a couple of rain delays and untimely struggles from Niemann, Bryson would play some great golf coming down the stretch, ultimately birdie the 72nd hole and find himself in a playoff with Wild Card player Richard T. Lee.
The whole final round was a rollercoaster and that didn’t change one bit in the playoff. Bryson would pull his drive into the water and Lee push his into a bunker. Lee would be forced to lay up while DeChambeau had no choice but to go for the green in two (his third after the penalty). Lee would his his approach to inside 20 feet and Bryson would hit a nice chip and have a short putt for par. Lee’s birdie look would slide just past the hole, and Bryson would make his par putt. Everyone was ready to head back to the tee box and run things back, but unfortunately, the moment would get the best of Richard T. Lee and he’d make a quick, shaky stroke and miss the short par putt and lose the playoff with a bogey.
Nobody, including the now champion Bryson DeChambeau wanted to see that happen:
“Absolutely hated it for Richard. He's been playing some unbelievable golf. He's beat me in a few of the rounds I've played with him, and he's a stellar player. I wanted to go another hole with him. As much as winning is great, I have a lot of respect for Richard and the way he golfs his ball out there.It was quite impressive; I was coming down the last three holes, like all right, I think I'm one ahead of everybody, and seeing Richard go and play the way he did finishing out, he's a real superstar, and the league should be really proud to have him on as a wild card.”
Similar to last week’s champion in Hong Kong, this victory will feel like a weight off the shoulders of Bryson, having not won individually since last May. He’s a guy whose game is always evolving and this week he gets the win with some new clubs in the bag.
A Small Change
Ahead of the first round, Matt Vincenzi, a writer with LIV Golf, reported that Bryson was making some changes to his bag setup in the form of new wedges.
Admittedly he’s a guy who tinkers with his clubs quite frequently, but the Ping wedges have been around for a while, until this week. During an interview that was played on the broadcast Bryson mentioned that he’d had a lot of different wedges sent over to him and hadn’t really had an opportunity to test them all, but he was making the change anyway. So it was out with PING and in with Bettinardi’s HLX 5.0 forged wedges. The reason for the change? More spin control on the tricky greens at Sentosa Golf Club.
A simple wedge change might not seem like much in professional golf. These guys are changing clubs all the time. But couple this with a quote of his from after the second round, where he was the solo leader:
“Yeah, golf isn't about hitting it 400 yards. I proved that a couple years ago. You've got to have a good wedge game, good putting, good iron play. So there is a balance.”
Or a Big Signal?
Something I’ve always found that’s unique about Bryson is how laser focused he can be. When he’s got a goal in mind, something he wants to accomplish, or something he wants to get better at, there’s nothing that’s going to distract him from that. Just a few years back he wanted to increase his swing speed to compete in World Long Drive. Not long after, he would make it all the way to the final round of the World Long Drive Championship, ultimately finishing second to his close friend Martin Borgmeier.
Then, he wanted to start content creation and grow his brand through YouTube, with the ultimate goal of attracting a new audience to the game of golf. Fast forward to today and he’s got over 2.6 million subscribers and is one of the most influential, if not the most influential figure in the entire game.
If this all, the new wedges and realization that he needs a more complete game, represents a shift in his focus, the entire golf world needs to be on high alert.
The Quest for a More Complete Game
Bryson is already one of the best drivers of the ball on the planet. It should come as no surprise to those that follow him that over the past 12 months not one player has averaged more strokes gained off the tee than Bryson. In fact, not one player has really even been that close:
- Bryson DeChambeau: +1.38
- Michael Brennan: +1.10
- Marco Penge: +1.08
- Jon Rahm: +0.90
- Scottie Scheffler: +0.90
- Chris Gotterup: +0.82
- Rory McIlroy: +0.82
It’s the rest of the game where he’s got room for improvement. In that same period of time he ranks 73rd in putting and around the green, and 90th in approach play. Despite those rankings he’s still 5th in strokes gained tee-to-green, and 6th in overall. His focus for so long has been both ball speed and accuracy off the tee and it shows.
If his focus is now on becoming a more complete player and improving those rankings with his irons, wedges, and putter, that’s going to be a big problem for everyone. He’s also made it clear that this won’t necessarily mean that he’s going to stop chasing speed.
“But I'm never not pursuing how to swing it faster or have it come off the face faster and then learn how to control it … I'll forever be chasing speed.”
If he improves his wedge play, iron play, and putting to a point where he’s simply top 50 in those categories, he will then only trail Scottie Scheffler in total strokes gained. But if there’s anything we know for sure about Bryson DeChambeau, it’s that when he sets his focus on something, he has no interest in being the 50th best in the world at it. He wants to be the best, and if his goals are truly to become the best iron player, the best wedge player, or the best around the greens, he’ll quickly find that he’s become the best golfer in the world.
Related Posts
The Comprehensive Case for Elevating LIV Golf Adelaide to Major Championship Status
Making the case that LIV Golf Adelaide should be golf’s 5th major championship, not the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
Review of LIV Golf Riyadh, New Broadcast, and Adelaide Preview
Elvis Smylie stuns in LIV Golf debut, winning Riyadh 2026 opener under lights with bogey-free 64 to edge Jon Rahm. Ripper GC sweeps team title—full recap, highlights & Adelaide preview!