Will club golfers now turn to protein shakes to lower their scores?

Major winners have a habit of revolutionising the game of golf once their particular method of success is proven to be able to win golf’s biggest prize. Indeed, go back to the 1960s and it was Gary Player’s tireless work in the gym that showed the world how beneficial weight training could be to winning.

If it’s good enough for you

Then came the early 90s and John Daly who showed that a rockstar lifestyle, without having to go into the gym, could work just as well. The larger than life Californian instructed the world to ‘grip it and rip it,’ from there, golfers around the world bought the biggest drivers they could find and didn’t die wondering on the tee box.

The start of the new millennium would bring a touch more finesse back into the game as Tiger Woods showed that clutch putting under pressure was the key to dominating the majors. It was Woods’ putt on the 72nd hole at the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines that inspired the golfing world to get out and invest in their putters. Needing a birdie to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate, Woods, standing on a broken leg, managed to sink a 15 footer on a bumpy green and would go on to beat Mediate in the play-off the following day.

He needed to make it.

He did.

Expect anything different from @TigerWoods? pic.twitter.com/sRkyRFC5yD

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 17, 2020

As mentioned, if it works for the world’s best, it is surely good enough for the club golfer. That is at least the mindset that runs through most of the clubhouses up and down the land which is why the next fad will be particularly interesting to watch, the protein shake revolution.

The incredible bulk

2020 US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau destroyed Winged Foot Golf Club to win by six shots and claim his first major title. Interestingly, the New York golf course normally provides a staunch test of a golfer’s ability to hit the fairways and stay out of the rough in order to score well. Historically, golfers who strayed into the rough would be eaten alive and certainly weren’t around on the weekend to compete for the title.

This all makes DeChambeau’s US Open win rather curious as the 27-year-old only ended up hitting 23 fairways over the four days. Still, a 41% success rate off the tee didn’t stop him from romping away with the contest thanks to how far he hits the ball. Once the American eventually got to his tee shot, he would have a short iron into the green from the rough. This would ordinarily still trouble most players but because of DeChambeau’s new physique, built over the last six months, he was able to cleanly get the ball out of the rough and close to the flag.

Bryson DeChambeau

None of this would have been possible were it not for DeChambeau’s seven protein shakes a day. That’s right, the 2020 US Open champion’s calorific intake is around 3,500 a day. The eye-watering numbers do make for unbelievable reading but it is this strategy, that has helped the American add 40lbs of muscle over the last 12 months. The results, we can say without fear of being corrected, speak loudly for themselves.

A truly dominant Sunday at Winged Foot.

Congratulations to our 2020 #USOpen champion, @b_dechambeau! pic.twitter.com/4VAFJmseST

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) September 20, 2020

So much so that Rory Mcllroy has suggested that DeChambeau will overpower Augusta National as well and run away with the Masters in November. It’s an interesting suggestion by the Northern Irishman but not everyone sees it that way.  However, Dustin Johnson is the favourite to win the green jacket at odds of 10/1 among the best UK bookmakers, which have a variety of sign-up offers for new customers to choose from.

With this all in mind, perhaps, bringing Augusta National to its knees off the tee box won’t be possible, but if he does, expect most of the members at golf clubs around the world, especially the younger ones, to begin to include a healthy amount of protein in their diets.  The same may go for pros as well, the way they prepare for the top tournaments could all be about to change.

Looking back, you could tell that Bryson DeChambeau was always going to shake things up in the golfing world. Little did we know, however, that it would be both figuratively and literally. The protein revolution has begun.