Rory McIlroy accuses golf's governing bodies of 'self-importance' over proposals

Rory McIlroy has accused the R&A and USGA of “self-importance” over proposals aimed at curbing driving distance in the game.

Rory McIlroy in action during last week's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Picture: Donald Miralle/Getty Images.

The governing bodies announced a series of planned changes to equipment rules and testing standards earlier in the week as part of a Distance Insights Project.

McIlroy has branded that a “huge waste of time and money” and didn’t hold back in expressing his views about the R&A and USGA ahead of his appearance in this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour.

“It certainly doesn’ need to happen,” the four-time major winner told the Golf Channel. “Yes, of course, the ball goes a long way with top-level professionals and top-level amateurs and the guys who make their living playing this game.

“But 99 per cent of golfers don’t do that. They don’t want the ball to go shorter. They need help getting the ball in the air for it go further.”

McIlroy went on: “Golf has had an unbelievable boom in 2020. I mean, this pandemic has been so good for golf and the fact is they are looking at the wrong thing.

“They spent millions of dollars doing this Distance Insights Report, which I think is not going to change the game at all.

“They might be new regulations on manufacturers but manufacturers are going to find a way round them, that’s how good they are,

“So those millions of dollars spent on the Distance Insights Report should have been put back into the grass-roots of the game because golf is experiencing a boom.

“So we need more younger people in the game. We need more minorities in the game. That’s how we keep the game going for the next 100 years, not by looking at the ball or the driving. And that’s my whole thing with it.

"I’m probably going to get in trouble saying this, but it reeks of self-importance.

“Yes,they are the gatekeepers of the game but their job is, yes, to make sure the game thrives in 100 years’ time and this is not the way to do it.

“The way to do it is by getting more people into the game by making golf more approachable and if you are just piling rules on people all the time, that doesn't make it appropriate.”

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