Rich Beem was left scratching his head after spotting something unusual in a photo of Bryson DeChambeau's five iron—and it's just the latest chapter in the golfer's ongoing equipment saga.
DeChambeau's struggles at the PGA Championship were hard to miss. He looked completely out of sorts at Aronimink, spraying the ball all over the course during his two rounds. His ball-striking was a disaster, and his iron play and chipping were equally poor—a troubling trend that carried over from his missed cut at The Masters.
At the heart of the issue? Those same-length irons. DeChambeau famously uses clubs where his wedge is the same length as his six-iron, designed to create a repeatable swing. But when you're facing uneven lies—like the ones that pop up at Aronimink and Augusta—that one-size-fits-all approach can backfire in a big way.
Enter Rich Beem, the 2002 PGA Championship winner, who noticed something "perplexing" while scrolling through social media. Speaking on Sky Sports commentary, Beem pointed out that a picture of DeChambeau's five iron showed all the wear marks concentrated on the toe of the club.
"Just the way he swings it and brings it from the inside, you have to clean that up," Beem said.
That toe-heavy wear pattern explains a lot. When DeChambeau isn't striking his irons cleanly, he tends to miss left with a hook. If he's constantly hitting off the toe, that ugly left miss suddenly makes perfect sense.
So, is it time for DeChambeau to finally abandon the same-length experiment? This marks back-to-back awful performances at major championships, with his wedge play around the greens letting him down every time. The best minds in golf spend countless hours designing precision clubs, and if this truly was the future of the sport, wouldn't other manufacturers—and other players—have followed suit by now?
No one else has moved in this direction. At some point, you have to wonder: does DeChambeau really believe he's just smarter than everyone else, or has his ego simply gotten too big to admit the experiment isn't working?