{"id":4256,"date":"2025-07-18T01:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T01:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/4256\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T01:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T01:41:08","slug":"other-guys-cant-do-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/4256\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Other guys can’t do that\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dean Burmester, a 36-year-old by way of South Africa, comes from a wildly athletic family. <\/p>\n

If his Wiki page<\/a> can be counted on, Dean\u2019s father, Mark, played for Zimbabwe\u2019s national cricket team; one of his cousins, Ryan, is the best spearfisherman this side of Tiger Woods; and his mother, Michelle, holds the women\u2019s course record at Royal Harare GC in northwest Zimbabwe. Or did as of 2022.<\/p>\n

Dean got his talent from his mother. If you found your way to this article, you likely already know that he, too, is a golfer, and an exceptionally talented one. Burmester has won 15 times across the DP World Tour<\/a> and Africa\u2019s Sunshine Tour; he has played in 12 major championships (13 if you count this week) and made the cut in nine of them; he presently holds down a starting-four spot on Louis Oosthuzien\u2019s LIV team, the Stingers.<\/p>\n

If none of that impresses you, this will: Burmester also can hit a 1-iron. Like, really hit one. Now, in fairness, 1-irons aren\u2019t the switch blades they used to be. They\u2019ve grown meatier and more forgiving (you can read all about their evolution in this excellent piece<\/a> from my colleague Jack Hirsh). But still. A 1-iron! With the eye-popping distances today\u2019s pros can rip their long irons, like, why even bother with one?<\/p>\n

Burmester, who is one of the longest hitters in the game, wasn\u2019t asked this question directly after his opening-round even-par 71 in the Open Championship<\/a> (three birdies, one eagle), but he was asked about the strength of his game, which spawned this answer:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s long irons. I really enjoy hitting my 1- and 2-iron off the tee. When I get to links golf, I start rubbing my hands together. I get really excited. Yeah, that\u2019s my big strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

This response caught the ear of my colleague Sean Zak (yes, another coworker shoutout, but warranted!), who asked a wonderful follow-up \u2014\u00a0\u201cWhy do you rub your hands together?\u201d \u2014\u00a0and several more 1-iron-related queries after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it plays into my hands,\u201d Burmester said. \u201cI can hit a 1-iron out here crosswind over 300 yards, and other guys can\u2019t do that. I feel like I have a big advantage here when the fairways firm up and it gets bouncy and windy. It comes out flat, pitches 260, and goes forever.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"Henrik <\/a><\/p>\n

Joining LIV altered his career arc. But the Open feels like old times<\/a>
\n By:<\/p>\n


\n Michael Bamberger <\/a><\/p>\n

Burmester estimated he hit \u201csix or seven\u201d 1-irons in the wet and windy first round, sprinkling in the occasional (also rare) 2-iron. The deuce was his club of choice on the daunting first hole, where Burmester laced his tee shot a few ticks under 250 yards up the right side of the fairway. In all, Burmester hit nine of 14 fairways in the first round \u2014\u00a0only seven players hit more \u2014\u00a0all while leading the field in driving distance at 328.2 yards. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burmester, who plays Srixon Z-Forged II irons, said about five or six years ago he lost confidence in his 3-wood, which led him to start tinkering with a 1-iron. His clubmakers built him one at the Dunhill Links event in Scotland, where, he said, he finished seventh that week. He said he also enjoyed success with the club at the 2022 Open Championship \u2014\u00a0\u201cthe fairways were so baked out, I didn\u2019t even hit driver\u201d \u2014\u00a0and he hasn\u2019t looked back since. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dean Burmester, a 36-year-old by way of South Africa, comes from a wildly athletic family. If his Wiki…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-4256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}