PGA Tour Golfer Announces Radical Decision To Leave the Flagstick in for All Putts
The United States Golf Association is implementing a new rule that will go into effect in 2019, and PGA star Bryson DeChambeau plans on taking advantage of it.
Starting next year, players will be allowed to leave the pin in the hole for any shot, including while on the green.
Previously, the flagstick had to be removed from the hole when the ball was on the green as it was thought to cause a potential advantage to the player of having it stop a ball from rolling over the cup.
DeChambeau likes the new rule and his preference has always been to leave the flag in the cup, even when he’s close to the green or putting from the fringe.
“It depends on the COR — the coefficient of restitution — of the flagstick,” he told Golf.com. “In U.S. Opens, I’ll take it out, and every other Tour event, when it’s fiberglass, I’ll leave it in and bounce that ball against the flagstick if I need to.”
The evidence backs up the notion that having the pin in helps golfers, according to a 2007 study by Dave Pelz.
Pelz discovered that when the flagstick leans slightly toward or slightly away from the golfer, the odds of making a shot increase in both instances.
If the pin is leaning toward the golfer, the ball rebounds downward, which increases the chances of it going into the hole. When the flag leans away from the golfer, the hole essentially becomes larger and can stop bouncing or rolling shots, thus dropping them into the hole.
The only disadvantage Pelz found when the pin leans toward the golfer is if it’s leaning so far forward there isn’t room for the ball to fit in the cup. But caddies can center the flagstick on a putt to prevent the golfer from having a disadvantage.
DeChambeau, who has four PGA Tour wins to his name and was a member of this year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team, said he will keep the pin in even when he putts.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that DeChambeau is one of the first golfers to react to this new rule, because he certainly appreciates the science behind the change.
He was a physics major at SMU and has often used his knowledge of physics to implement some unconventional strategies while on the golf course.
For instance, he prefers all of his irons to be the same length (37.5 inches) and set at 72-degree lie angles, with all club heads weighing exactly 278 grams.
Not all of those methods have gotten the approval of the USGA. For instance, the organization prohibited him from using a side-saddle putter earlier this year, which angered DeChambeau.
Earlier this year at the Travelers Championship, DeChambeau was caught using a drawing compass in his yardage book during the third round at TPC River Highlands.
He said that he used the tool to double-check hole locations because some are a little bit off every once in a while.
After initially giving DeChambeau the go-ahead to use the compass, the USGA and PGA Tour reversed their decision the following week. They cited Rule 14-3a of The Rules of Golf which doesn’t allow for the use of unusual equipment to assist golfers.
So DeChambeau plans on using the new pin rule to his advantage, while hoping to frustrate the USGA at the same time.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said, grinning. “The USGA’s gonna have to go back on that one. Like, ‘No! We made the hole bigger!'”
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