Golf

Rory McIlroy says authorities have bigger issues than limiting distance

Four-time Major winner also provided clarity on embedded ball drop he took at Torrey Pines

Rory McIlroy hits from the rough on the 13th hole during the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Photo : Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images

Ewan Murray
Wed Feb 3 2021 - 20:30

Rory McIlroy has delivered a withering critique of efforts by golfing officialdom to limit how far drives can be hit, with the four-times major champion branding the campaign “a huge waste of time and money”.

McIlroy’s comments will be highly embarrassing to the R&A and USGA, who issued “topics of interest” to manufacturers this week as part of a lengthy process.

“I think the authorities, the R&A and USGA, are looking at the game through such a tiny little lens,” McIlroy said. “What they’re trying to do is change something that pertains to 0.1 per cent of the golfing community: 99.9 per cent of the people this play this game play for enjoyment, for entertainment. They don’t need to be told what ball or clubs to use.

“We have to make the game as easy and approachable as possible for the majority of golfers. Honestly, I think this distance insight report has been a huge waste of time and money, because that money that it’s cost to do this report could have been way better distributed to getting people into the game, introducing young kids to the game, introducing minorities to the game.

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“I heard [USGA executive director] Mike Davis say something about trying to protect the game for the next hundred years. This isn’t how you do it. This is so small and inconsequential compared to the other things happening in the game. It’s the grassroots. It’s getting more people engaged in golf. That’s where they should be spending their money, not spending it on the distance insight report.”

McIlroy did concede a difference in regulations between professionals and amateurs might be sensible. “I would be all for that,” he added. “If they want to try to make the game more difficult for us or try to incorporate more skill to the game, I would be all for that because I think it only benefits the better player, which I feel like I am.

“I think maybe they said that in terms of local rules and maybe some sort of bifurcation but we we are such a tiny portion of golf. Golf is way bigger than the professional game. We’re such a tiny part of it. It’s the other stuff that really matters and that’s the stuff they need to concentrate on.”

In a lively pre-tournament press conference at the Phoenix Open, McIlroy also shed further light on the rules affair that dominated discussion last weekend at Torrey Pines. After Patrick Reed took a drop from an embedded lie in rough despite video footage showing his ball had bounced, the PGA Tour – somewhat curiously – issued film which showed McIlroy in an apparently identical scenario. Reed’s Twitter account drew the same comparison.

“It wasn’t apparent at the time, but an email was sent to the Tour on Monday saying my ball was stepped on to be found,” McIlroy explained. “But the volunteer didn’t tell me that on Saturday.

“So that’s why I took embedded ball relief, because it was an embedded ball but I didn’t know it had been stepped on at the time. So obviously the video came out on Sunday with my ball bouncing and then going in, and at that point I’m like: ‘Well, it must have went into its own pitch mark or something, because the ball was obviously plugged.

“Then it came to light on Monday that a volunteer had stepped on it and hadn’t told me and that’s why the ball was embedded. I went to bed Sunday night sort of questioning whether I had done the right thing after seeing the video.

“I at least felt better about my actions knowing I did the right thing, that I did take relief for a ball that was embedded or stepped on. So it sort was nice that that came to light, because I was questioning myself on Sunday a little bit. It’s funny how these things all work out at the end.” – Guardian