Claude Harmon III questions need for changes to distance in golf
Wednesday 26 February 2020 14:55, UK
Claude Harmon III has questioned the need for changes to limit hitting distance in golf and doesn't believe any alterations will make a difference in the amateur game.
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The expert coach, who has Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson among the golfers he works with, was reflecting on the recent Distance Insights Report during his guest appearance on the latest Sky Sports Golf podcast.
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The report found that distance must be stopped to avoid long-term implications for the sport, as well as calling for a "broad review" into equipment after suggesting that further hitting distance increases are "undesirable".
"I don't see equipment helping the average golfer get any better," Harmon said ahead of the Honda Classic. "I don't see clubhead speeds increasing, I don't see ball speeds increasing. I just don't think that the distance is changing at the amateur level.
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"If we get all these numbers about how far all the golf balls are going and everything going too far, then everyone across the board in professional golf would all hit the golf ball the same.
"Bernhard Langer would hit the ball as far Rory McIlroy and Inbee Park would hit as far as Dustin Johnson, because they can go and buy the same driver, the same shaft and the same ball. If it was just the driver and the ball, then everybody would hit it the same distance.
"There wouldn't be guys that were considered short-hitters of the golf ball. If it was just the equipment, the playing field would be 100 per cent level. We're looking at less than one per cent of golfers and saying to them that we need to make changes."
Last month's report also included that increases in distance and the length of courses globally could be 'detrimental' to the game's future, although Harmon doesn't feel that is necessarily the case.
"If you look at all the great golf courses on tour, they're not necessarily the longest," Harmon added. "Everyone keeps saying that the modern game is making these old great courses obsolete, but everything built in the 1920s, 30s and 40s is somewhat obsolete now.
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"The game of golf won't grow if we try and take it back the way it was 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 years ago. We're one of the few sports where we're constantly talking about the past, not talking about the future or what's happening today.
"Golf for some reason and for some segment for the population has to be this Truman Show-type thing where nothing ever changes and everything like it used to be."
Wayne "Radar" Riley also featured on the podcast - hosted by Josh Antmann - with Jordan Spieth's struggles, Reed's Mexico victory and a look ahead to the Florida Swing among the other talking points.
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