A closer look at Bryson DeChambeau’s low-lofted fairway wood
2 Min Read
This week’s Wells Fargo Championship is Bryson DeChambeau’s first start since the Masters. DeChambeau, who’s won twice this season, is always experimenting, so it should be no surprise that he was seen on the range this week with a unique club built specifically to handle the tremendous swing speed he creates.
The new club is a custom Cobra RadSpeed Big Tour Proto B fairway wood. The ‘B’ stands for Bryson. It only has 10.5 degrees of loft – the same amount as some players’ drivers -- with a fixed long hosel. The standard RadSpeed features an adjustable hosel to change the lie and loft.
The original Cobra Baffler was built in the 1980s as one of golf’s first utility clubs. The rails were designed to help the head glide through the turf.
On Dechambeau’s club, the signature Cobra Baffler railed sole has been modified to have the rails towards the front of the head, closer to the face. The club also has an adjustable weight in the sole.
"We started with a custom head and I added small rails via welding after the fact,” said Cobra tour manager Ben Schomin. "(The club) worked OK before rails and much better after thanks to improved strike consistency with the rails.”
DeChambeau’s extremely high clubhead speed creates a lot of height and spin on his shots. The clubhead’s design helps combat excessive loft and spin. By having more mass close to the face and away from the rear of the head, the club’s center of gravity also is moved forward. This leads to less shaft deflection, which adds loft to the club, at impact.
Limiting the deflection on the shaft helps keep launch and spin lower to improve distance and trajectory control.
During impact, DeChambeau’s high clubhead speed also causes a reaction that makes the club want to move down into the turf. The rails help keep the clubface moving forward and out of the ground, thus improving strike consistency.
We’ll see how the new tool works out at Quail Hollow and whether takes up permanent residency in the always-tinkering DeChambeau’s toolbox.
Below are the specs of DeChambeau’s new fairway wood:
- Head size: 173 cc. (same as the retail RadSpeed Big Tour)
- Loft: 10.5 degrees
- Shaft: LA Golf Partners "BAD" Prototype 70 X flex
- Length: 43 inches