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THE NORTHERN TRUST

August 6, 2019

Bryson DeChambeau

Jersey City, New Jersey

THE MODERATOR: Like to welcome Bryson DeChambeau, defending champion here at The Northern Trust. Different golf course, but talk about what it's like to be here at Liberty National defending your title starting the FedExCup Playoffs.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's great to be back at a tournament I've won before. The colors are the same, and that's nice, but that's about it. The golf course is different. The atmosphere is kind of the same. I like the people around here. They have always been nice to me whenever I've been up in this area, and so I would hope and expect the same this week.

As the golf course goes, I've only seen it on the Presidents Cup when I was in high school. So don't know it yet. Haven't actually been out there yet. Going to go play nine this afternoon when the rain clears, and looking forward to a good week. I've got some great stuff that we worked on last week. I needed to take a week off last week to figure out some stuff. Went down to Carlsbad and did some awesome work that will pay dividends this week and for future weeks.

THE MODERATOR: You won last year, the first two playoff events, in New York and Boston, and this event will now rotate between those two cities. What's that going to be like to have that rotation going to start the FedExCup Playoffs?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, it will be interesting. Playing a golf course, a different golf course for the first start of the FedExCup Playoffs is obviously, I would think, for me, a little unique, but I'm sure most of the guys are used to that because they have experienced that. I haven't experienced it fully yet.

But you know, I think between the rotation, it's a great thing that they have it only being three weeks rather than four. It's a long stretch. I mean, I did win two of them and still didn't win the FedExCup Playoffs, and that still chaps me but it is what it is.

It's going to create a lot of excitement coming into East Lake. With the new system this year, it's definitely going to be a test to see what happens because you can literally be leading and go out on the first hole and double it or trip it will, and you're right back in the ballgame pretty easily. So it's a little different.

It's a little weird, and we'll see how it plays out. Statistically, it should play out the same, but sometimes statistics don't go under the normal standard deviation. You never know.

Q. Going back to the toggling back and forth between Boston and New York -- a couple of questions. If Boston had not survived, would you have been disappointed by that?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, 100 percent. The golf course, the community up in there, is fantastic. They were super supportive of the TOUR and it deserves a place in the FedExCup pops. I think what they did, making it three weeks instead of four weeks, is a good decision. I think it was perfect the way they did it. Needed to give us a little bit of a break, although they didn't this year, but another story.

But to have us on the rotation for years to come is something that was necessary. That golf course is amazing. Obviously I'm biased because I won it, but I do enjoy it. I played well there the first time I went there.

Q. Following up on that, they are such rival cities, Boston, New York, the Yankees, Red Sox. Did you grow up with any allegiance?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I'm from California, partner.

Q. But you never know.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, that's why I won both of them because I wanted them to feel the same (laughing) no, I'm just kidding.

Q. With the way that the new schedule is condensed, the major championships, and really, every month, you've got something big coming on. Does it make it more challenging and harder to carve out time to do some of the work like you did in Carlsbad to work on your game and get away from competition and sort of get into skill acquisition?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think it's very difficult. Now I have to plan my off-season according to that. Everything you said is 100 percent. It is more difficult, the season being condensed and the majors closer together. I can't really find time to work on the things that I would like to test and work on.

You know, I'm always trying new things, but last week was cool. I just said, you know what, I'm going to kind of do a little bit of a hard reset. I felt like I wasn't able to progress any further than what I was able to. I felt like I was working on my golf swing hard enough and I just wasn't seeing results. And so at that point in time, when you see that, out of your game, it's like, okay, let's go and see how we can make some clubs that can be more beneficial to me and so that's what we did last week. We found some very interesting results that will be of future help to amateur golfers across the world.

Q. Can you expand on that?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: A little bit more of the driver and irons. Some really, really unique things that are coming about, cool stuff that I don't want to talk too much about.

But just on a really positive note, it's going to help my game out. We don't have the full solution of it yet. We can't just make a head right on the spot. It's going to be a month before we can do the things we need to do. There was a minor improvement with the tools we had at that point -- not just minor, pretty drastic, but it can even get better as time goes on. That time is necessary for me to keep learning and getting better.

It's tough when you keep playing week-in, week-out, and not really having anything improve. It's the worst feeling in the world, when you feel like you're working hard, you feel like you're practicing and doing your due diligence and nothing is getting better.

I was able to go to callous bad last week and do some incredible stuff with the R&D team, with Tom Olsavsky and Tim and Mike Yagley, those three guys, we really worked hard to figure some great stuff out.

Q. So what's new about what's in your bag this week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I have the F9 driver back in my bag. We have lower-lofted tool. So 7.5 degrees minus 1.5, so 6-degree lofted F9, and the weight is more to the heal on that driver, and on the irons, I put X7s back in my bag. I just felt like the X7s had a much tighter dispersion from right-to-left.

But when I initially tested them with the forged one-length heads, not the Musclebacks -- this might get a little confusing.

How it went down is that I had X7s in forged one lengths and I went Musclebacks at Memorial, but I had the same S400s and the same shafts but I never tested the X7s in the Muscleback heads and that's what I did last week, and we noticed a substantial improvement upon what we already had.

Just trying to get it tighter on both end of the spectrum and that's what we were able to do, tighten up the dispersion with the X7 irons and we tightened up the length discrepancy with the Musclebacks.

Q. You were talking about the way the schedule is condensed. Now that we're sort of at the end of this first year of the new schedule and the way things have gone, can you reflect on what has changed for you, if at all, this year?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I'm tired.

It's part of the job, I guess. We get to play for -- I'm very blessed to be able to play every single week for what we play for, but again, it's just about managing time now and trying to figure out what's going to work best because I would love to play in -- a lot of the tournaments I'd love to play in I couldn't play in this year. That's unfortunate.

But at the same point in time, I think it's the right move for the PGA TOUR in general, but for some of the top players, it makes it difficult on us to really hone in a good schedule.

Q. Do you think the players in general were -- there was obviously benefit to the TOUR, but do you think the players were consulted or asked enough about how much it might impact them before these changes were made?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: All I can say is something for myself. I was really never asked about it. So, I mean, I'm not on the PAC committee or anything, so I wouldn't expect anybody to ask me. But for me in general, it has taken a bigger toll on my body and I have had to go take some rest that I usually wouldn't take because of it, just because of the longer stretches that I have.

But for me personally, yeah, it's been difficult on me. I can't speak for the PGA TOUR as a whole, though.

Q. Can you speak about what you will be doing in the off-season? You used to play tournaments in the off-season and travel abroad. How does that impact what you will do now, and how much of your work out time or whatever you'll be doing in that, how are you structuring that in terms of, you know, precisely when you'll go down and when you'll resume and then go back into next year?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, as of right now I don't -- necessarily know exactly what's going to happen but I know I'm playing Shriners, again, defending there.

But after that, I'm going to take some time, a month, month and a half, to rest my body and go figure out some more stuff. Probably a couple weeks at home resting and relaxing and just enjoying life a little bit, and then the next two weeks of that, I'll be going to most likely Carlsbad or somewhere where we can test some of the things and ideas that I have.

Q. In regards to that, will you be doing anything different given the new schedule?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Honestly I have to actually work out more. I feel like, what's funny about me, is that when I try and relax, and my body is in a fatigued or -- you know, my muscles aren't feeling that great, I feel I only get worse. But when I go work out and do the things that are productive to helping off-set the weak muscles or hurt muscles, I feel like I can become a lot better after that.

So working out has always been kind of the cure for me in regards to aching pains and stuff. And so for me, I just feel like this year, I've had to work out but work out in a more precise manner.

So like whatever's hurting, I'll try and work on other things to make the same motion but take the force off of that muscle that's overworking, or work something out that's not working as hard as it should be relative to the motion I'm making.

I don't know if that makes any sort of sense, but to me it does.

Q. Obviously you're in very good shape to make the Presidents Cup team. You've only got two more tournaments that count. How much is that on your mind? And you were just talking to captain Tiger. Are you going to get another crack playing with him or anything like that?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, when the right time comes about, absolutely. I respect him. He's done, again, like I've said, countless times, he's done a lot for the game.

In regards to The Presidents Cup, you know, I think that he knows. I think that he knows that I'm a good enough player to be on the team. It's just about if I'm playing well at the right time. You know, that's always the question, right, how good are you playing. You could have one of the best players world and have a terrible stretch for a few weeks, and it's like, okay, is it really warranted; should he be going.

As regards to The Presidents Cup, I don't think I'm that worried about it. I just have to go play well. Just like last year, I said I was a man on a mission, and I'm still a man on a mission trying to make that team. I'm in a very good spot. And even if I don't, I'm going to have to prove my worth this fall to get a pick.

So no matter what happens, I feel like, look, I also feel like winning in Dubai, it didn't count at all. That kind of stinks. It counts in the World Rankings. So, you know, why is it not taken into account, I don't know. I think it's to protect from people playing overseas and they win a lot there; as an American, you get picked in that way, which I get. But you've got a guy that goes over and plays once and wins, it's like, that should kind of count, you would think.

So if you added that into the equation, it would be no question. But as of right now, I have to work a little harder. But it's okay. I'm used to it. I'm used to having to work harder.

Q. You're obviously one of the more cerebral players on TOUR. Has seeing Matthew wolf swing the golf club change your perception of what a golf swing is and how you can improve on your own swing?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: So I actually think his golf swing is really good. Now, what I mean by that is he does things that a lot of the best players, best ball-strikers in the world, do. It looks funky just because of the back stroke on the downstroke, there's obviously a lot of great things, but you look at a lot of guys that are the best ball-strikers in the world, they do a lot of funny motions and there may be something to that. If anything, it's just furthered my hypothesis a little bit more.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming in. Best of luck this week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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