Why defending US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau has changed irons ahead of Oakmont

Mark Townsend 10 Jun 2025

It should come as no surprise when, the week before a Major defence, a player changes his irons but it’s still fairly eye-popping.

With Rory McIlroy playing around with his driver we now have Bryson DeChambeau playing a new-to-tournament set of irons.

At the LIV Golf Virginia event the US Open champion put a set of, brace yourself, LA Golf BAD V3-W irons in the bag and he almost came away with a win. DeChambeau came up two shots shy of the red-hot Joaquin Niemann, posting rounds of 66-69-65.

At the end of the week the two-time US Open champion explained that he was satisfied with the new addition as he heads to Oakmont.

“Yeah, they felt pretty good. I think there’s more optimization at play, potential optimization at play, but it’s a good start.”

He did actually add that he might have to also add in a new driver which will no doubt be another talking point this week.

“I drove it really poorly for my own standards this week, so I’m going to go work on that. I feel like the driver might have kind of given away this week. I’ve used it for over three months now and it’s time to put a freshy in. It’s something I’m going to work on for next week and get ready.”

For now though, the irons. They’re similar to the Avodas that have been in the bag for the past two seasons; the 5-iron to pitching wedge are all a single length of 37.5 inches

According to reports from the range, DeChambeau would deliberately hit shots off the toe and heel to test the side curve of the ball. Some shots off the heel supposedly flew straight and, given his ball speed, any help on any slight mishit will be huge.

This is a big part of the test as these new irons are similar to his previous irons but the heel part is slightly flatter than the toe and this is where more of DeChambeau’s mishits, the weak fade, come from. He generally swings the club from in to out and that will lend itself to more heel strikes.

Bryson DeChambeau irons

What is bulge and roll technology?

DeChambeau’s big thinking behind his irons is the faces using something called bulge and roll technology. This is something that is generally talked about in drivers and woods – bulge refers to the horizontal curvature of the clubface from heel to toe. If you look at a driver face straight on, it is not flat, it curves slightly outward toward the edges and this helps correct off-centre hits horizontally. If you hit toward the toe, the curvature helps the ball spin back toward the centre (counteracting a hook). If you hit toward the heel, it helps correct a slice.

Roll refers to the vertical curvature of the clubface from crown to sole. Similarly the face is curved from top to bottom and this helps optimise launch angle and spin on high and low strikes. Hits near the crown tend to launch lower with less spin and low hits tend to launch higher with more spin.

Without bulge and roll, off-centre strikes would result in much larger misses.

What else is there?

There is also a large tungsten weight out in the toe that is attached with two hex screws. This weighting is there to stabilise the head and slow down the toe.

DeChambeau has been testing these irons for a while but last week was the first time that he put them into play.

Inside the LA Golf BAD V3-W irons (note the lofts!)

Length to end of grip (5i-PW): 37.5 inches
Swing weight: C3.5
Lofts (5i-PW): 17.5/21.5/25.5/30/34/39
Lie angles: 67 on all
Shafts: LA Golf Bryson Series 6TX 124G