European Ryder Cup captain, Padraig Harrington insists there should be no ‘Bryson Proofing’ of golf courses in wake of Bryson DeChambeau’s overpowering of last week’s U.S. Open host venue at Winged Foot.
DeChambeau’s maiden major championship triumph came on the back of three months of clearing breaking ‘new barriers’ in his return to golf post the COVID-19 lockdown.
However, his six-shot Long Island success also has the golf world divided and with the rescheduled Masters now just seven weeks away, the question is should Augusta National as host of the Masters react, and as they did in 2011 in ‘Tiger-Proofing’ the Georgia golfing gem?
Padraig Harrington insists it ‘would be going down to wrong road’ to Bryson proof golf courses
“I don’t see anything different to what we’ve seen guys do for years,” said Harrington ahead of this week’s Irish Open at Galgorm Castle, Ballymena in Northern Ireland.
“Tiger (Woods) was doing it, Rory (McIlroy) did it, the leading players, the guys winning Majors almost always have an advantage off the tee. It’s not new.
“You would have seen with Bryson last week, he was long but he was seventh in ‘Driving Distance’. There are guys that play their golf like that all the time. I’m sure Rory hit as many drivers off the tee as Bryson did last week. It’s a big change in the mind of people but it’s been there. If you haven’t seen this coming, you’ve been blind.
“So, it’s what Rory and DJ (Dustin Johnson) did, it’s what Tiger did, it’s what Greg Norman did, it’s what Jack Nicklaus did. To play this game, you’ve got to be great off the tee and it’s always been that way.
“Also, in building a golf course so these guys can compete is definitely going down the wrong road. If you want to build a golf course that suits straight hitters, you’ve got to build a golf course that they can hit 54 fairways out of 54 during the week, but last week the straight hitters couldn’t hit the fairways either.
“The game has become more physical and I can go back to my amateur days where they used to criticise guys that were long, as a fault. I saw the change 20 years ago. I saw it straight away. I saw a big change with Tiger but I saw a huge step up when Rory came out and started dominating straight away.
“Every year on the PGA Tour, if you look at the ball speeds, you’re actually finding that the likes of Bubba (Watson) and JB Holmes are dropping out of the top 20.
“There are so many new guys coming in with speed. It’s just the way the world is, you’ve got to keep up there. The big change will come when there’s a commercially viable way of measuring force on the club, on the grip.
“With the capabilities at the moment, I would say Bryson is swinging at about, if you compare it to 100 metres, he’d be running at 12 seconds. The human capability, he’s running 100 metres at about 12 seconds at the moment, so he’s still got another 20 per cent more in the tank in terms of human capabilities for other players to come along.
“I actually think the biggest change could come in women’s golf. You’re going to get a woman out there playing well into the mid-170s ball speed and would be competitive on the men’s tour.”
Harrington is returning to competition for a first occasion since last March in contesting the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida.
The now 44-year captured the 2007 Irish Open at Adare Manor and is teeing-up in a 25th Irish Open championship.
And Harrington is hopeful he can compete in another 15 to 20 national open championships.
“I have honestly not considered not playing an Irish Open,” he said.
“It hadn’t crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be playing it. I would hope that I can still be competitive for years to come. I wouldn’t be one for turning up to miss the cut or anything like that. To be competitive, maybe another 15-20 years of competition I should be okay.
