48 Inches: Woohoo, That's The Big Masters Storyline!

Phil Mickelson practices off the 10th tee with his personal launch monitor

And that’s not the predicted rainfall total by week’s end. Though you never know.

I can’t imagine a more nightmarish Tradition-Unlike-Any-Other storyline than talk of golfers and their driver shafts. And because, well you know why, we arrive at the 2020 rescheduled Masters without fans, without a Par 3 contest and without the usual spring delights, 48 inches is the talk of the town.

It didn’t have to be this way. Of course, Fred Ridley is the Masters chairman and he had his shot to ensure a focus on skill during his USGA Presidency, as have many other leaders.

Without further ado, I give you the 48-inch roundup.

Doug Ferguson’s AP story focuses on Bryson DeChambeau still pondering a move to a 48-inch driver shaft to get his swing speed up and ensure that he can hit the shortest club possible into Augusta National’s greens.

“I got my swing speed up to 143, 144 (mph),” he said.

The average swing speed for a power player on the PGA Tour is around 120 mph.

Numbers define DeChambeau these days, starting with the more than 40 pounds of muscle and mass he has added in the last year, remarkable gains from an estimated 5,000 calories a day in his diet and relentless work in the gym. More recently, it was the excitement at home in Dallas when one of his drives carried just over 400 yards.

Phil Mickelson is using a 47.5-incher this week—goose bumps!—and predicts that the 48-inch max will be standard Tour issue in our future pervaded by launch angle golf, In Proud Partnership With The Regulatory Recluses.

Mickelson, courtesy of Ryan Lavner at GolfChannel.com:

The first: “Ultimately, it might be five years, 10 years, 15 years, but every driver will be standard at 48 inches, and then you’ll have a weak driver – kind of a 2-wood, which is what I’ve gone to now. For me, it’s actually really good in that I’ve always used length of swing and leverage to create speed, rather than a violent, physical, rotational force. I’ve actually quieted my body down a little bit as I try to create more speed with a bigger, longer arc. So transitioning to a longer driver is not that much more difficult because it’s just a timing issue.”

And transitioning appears necessary this week with the course already soft and not likely to dry out.

The second part of the equation is that Mickelson believes distance and an aggressive style of play will pay off this week at Augusta National. Already softened by agronomic conditions in the fall, the course should play even softer with rain (occasionally heavy) expected each of the next five days. Without patrons, there’ll be more space for Mickelson to explore if he hits it off-line. Slower, softer fairways and a thicker second cut should also keep some balls from trundling into the trees and pine straw.

Huh, go figure, rough keeps balls in play and does not deter players. The things we learn. Over and over again.

Meanwhile, off the Augusta National grounds, Jonathan Wall and Andrew Tursky of Golf.com tested the new max length drivers as average dudes and shared their insights.

On a lighter note, GolfWRX filed this for PGATour.com on players testing longer drivers and their shaft selections. The end of the list:

Vijay Singh: Testing (no further details)

Dustin Johnson: Testing (no further details)