If you watched Bryson DeChambeau at the 2024 US Open, you may have noticed that his driver is airborne – before he even hits the ball.
Why is that?
Bryson’s not the first golfer to hover his driver like this: Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo were hoverers, too, and there are various reasons why golfers do it.
The most common reason golfers chose to hover their driver is because they were worried about the ball falling off the tee, and being penalised. Hovering the driver means that golfers never technically grounded their club, which meant if the ball did move, they wouldn’t be penalised (though this rule has since changed anyway).
Bryson “chipping a few” drives after his round.
187 mph ball speed here.
He’s working on preventing his hips from sliding too much towards the target. Says pushing his body up towards the sky allows him to release his arms more, and square the face easier for his power draw. pic.twitter.com/vFNikBGsRI
— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) June 14, 2024
For Bryson, his reasoning is slightly different. He hovered the club because that’s the height he wants his driver to be at impact.
“I’ve done it forever,” he says. “I’m just positioning my club and body at the level I want it to be at impact.”
Even though the club takes a long route to get back to impact, starting the club where he wants it to finish just made more sense to Bryson than the other way, so that’s why he does it.
