Golf is an ever-evolving game and over the years we’ve seen advances in technology and player development that have changed the game forever.
Gone are the days of it being all about just the pure skill element of the game and now, unless you can drive it over 300 yards on a regular basis, you’re struggling across a full season.
The likes of Tiger Woods paved the way for the big hitters, while Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau have taken things to new levels in recent years.
Still, power is no the be-all and end-all for some involved in the game and one well-known coach in the golf world, Brad Faxon, has suggested there might be a point where players are in the gym a bit too much.
Brad Faxon suggests golfers could be working out too much
While so much of golf involves being good in all aspects of the game, there’s a lot to be said for gym work now to develop the body and with that, increase power and flexibility.
Speaking on the Golf Channel podcast on concerns over injuries with the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele missing time this season, Faxon admitted that there could well be a point where players are focussed too much on gym work.
“I don’t think Scheffler concerns me at all. It certainly looks like Jordan Spieth played well enough. He’s so exciting to watch and listen to, his gyrations when he plays. I think his wrist feels strong. But Arron Oberholser will tell you how his wrist issues ruined his career. So that’s a delicate part of the body” Faxon said.
“The one thing that is interesting to me is the Players now… go back 25 years when Tiger and David Duval were one and two and they were really the top two players that you could see definitive changes in their body composition as they got bigger and stronger and golf got cooler and was thrust into the spotlight with Tiger and the money that followed him.
“A lot of these people – Jake Knapp iso one of these guys, Koepka did that as well, Rory is in incredible shape. What’s too far? I mean I think a lot of these guys would rather go to the gym now than go to the practice or putting green. It’s something we have to watch out for.
“Do these injuries, you are lifting more weight than you ever have? What is the right way and what’s the wrong way? I still think we are a little bit in the infancy of professional golfers what they have to do and what they shouldn’t do for their workouts.”
What John Daly said about players working out too much
While the modern golfer is all about being in the best shape possible to compete over a long period of time, one man who isn’t as fussed about the fitness side of things is John Daly.
In fact, Daly actually believes players can do themselves more damage.
“I think working out,” Daly said on the Like a Farmer podcast.
“I think a lot of guys lose their flexibility and so many guys are mechanical, too, they don’t have a lot. That means their body’s not equipped to taking the club back as far as I can or not fortunate to be as flexible as I can, but they work strenuous on the game and getting their their swing into exactly the way they want it, but I think working out hurts a lot of these guys, I really do.”
With the likes of Tiger Woods still in great shape at 49 and the likes of Padraig Harrington and Bernhard Langer excelling on the Champions Tour, there is a lot of longevity in the game now.
Quite whether Faxon and Daly’s prediction on it being too much comes to fruition, remains to be seen.
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