"Bryson DeChambeau’s outsized impact in 2020 extended far beyond just his own game"

While he’ll probably lose out in the writers’ season-ending Player of the Year voting, 2020 in golf will forever be remembered as the year Bryson DeChambeau played a very different game en route to winning the U.S. Open.

Alan Shipnuck offered this in his year-end review of DeChambeau transformation and launch angle golf approach.

It’s hard to overstate the impressiveness of DeChambeau’s transformation; it was as if Tom Brady gained 40 pounds, made himself a fullback and then rushed for seven touchdowns to lead his team to victory. But could DeChambeau’s bruising new style prevail at any of golf’s Super Bowls, with their more penal setups? A strong run at the PGA Championship offered a clue, and then at the U.S. Open, in September, he overwhelmed one of the game’s brawniest courses, Winged Foot. The revolution was complete.

“It’s honestly hard to process what Bryson accomplished,” says Andy North, who won two U.S. Opens the old-fashioned way. “In so many ways it’s like he’s playing an entirely different game.”

Check out the rest of the piece here.

DeChambeau’s ultimate legacy may be the corner he put governing bodies in with 2020’s transformation. Any equipment rule changes potentially formulated pre-pandemic could look like they were targeting him if they attempt to impact launch conditions.

This is an optimistic take clearly since we’re more than 18 years since the Joint Statement of Principles and nothing has been done to protect the concerns spelled out back then during Bomb and Gouge, the prequel.