LA Golf Tells Bryson To Shove It

Last night the news dropped that Bryson DeChambeau and LA Golf are parting ways.

As someone that lives in Orange County, I have had nothing but respect for what that company has built. Besides some of the price tags, I love companies that innovate and push boundaries. Bryson is clearly one of these people as well and it seemed like a perfect marriage.

Just a reminder that Bryson has all his major wins with LA Golf shafts. Jeff Meyer, the lead engineer at LA, supposedly has had lengthy conversations about building the clubs to exactly what Bryson needs. It's not like LA Golf's business model is one length hyper strong graphite iron shafts. There's only one guy that swings like Bryson, so the set up he is playing is something none of us could get unless we went the fully custom route right to them. These wins included both Majors he has as well as hanging with Rory up until the end in the Masters.

Now LA Golf has recently been trying to appeal to more people, coming out with a driver of their own. Most people are speculating that Bryson had his fingerprints in this, but I disagree. They are not a mass marketing company, but that info would have been mentioned to help sales. The other interesting part of this is that last year Bryson also played LA Golf's new Iron Heads.

So what happened to cause a company and player that fit together like butter to split? As always, money/equity talks, and everything else takes the bus. Reed Dickens, who owns LA Golf, in an interview said that Bryson has a new consultant. I have no idea how this is different than his agent or where Brett Falkoff was if they were talking money, but this seems overall weird to me. Hopefully we gain more clarity at some point.

Apparently, in a meeting, this consultant of Bryson demanded that he own 51% of the company or they are going to walk. This seems absolutely ridiculous today, considering right now he owns 2%. Well if you know anything about Dickens, he did not take kindly to that. He told them to kick rocks.

A quote that I love from Reed: "Bryson needs someone serving him 24 hours a day, he needs somebody to build him his own clubs, and that's not scalable for us". Bryson has plenty of money no matter what LIV does or if he heads back to the tour, so this makes me think there is another offer in the background. Just as a reminder Bryson currently plays LA Golf Shafts with Avoda heads. Jason Day has been a huge spokesperson for Avoda, and everything is extremely custom over at their organization (down to Bryson actually being on the grinding wheel for the heads he plays).

My prediction: Bryson will be an Avoda staffer and probably take a stake in that company. It's not going to 51%, but I bet it's 20ish range. Why? For these smaller club manufacturing companies that make super high quality and expensive gear, it's really hard to scale. No 15 handicap is walking into Roger Dunn wanting LA Golf or Avoda. It may actually be a smart move if they give Day and DeChambeau ownership, so the two superstars will put full care into the company becoming a powerhouse. If you want some more info on Avoda, THIS is a great article by WRX. Leave your predictions about Bryson in the comments.