The Truist Championship is about to get underway over at Philiadelphia Cricket Club but Rory McIlroy’s pre-tournament comments have caused quite the stir among golf fans.
McIlroy is going to the tournament looking to continue his fine form and fine tune things ahead of the PGA Championship.
There is a chance McIlroy wins again as well, with world number one Scottie Scheffler missing the event as he prepares for the PGA himself.
However, speaking ahead of the tournament itself, McIlroy caused a bit of head-turning by suggesting that the Philadelphia Cricket Club is basically now a place to hit it big and just figure it out.
“I just realized that these new renovated old-school courses, like, the strategy is just hit driver everywhere and then figure it out from there. That’s sort of the strategy of this place this week,” McIlroy admitted to the press yesterday.
And over on social media, those comments seem to have caused a bit of a ruse.
Golf fans agree with Scottie Scheffler ahead of The Truist Championship
Social media is always quick to pick up on comments made by the big players and with Rory McIlroy suggesting that the Cricket Club is now a hit and hope type course, it’s caused some to question the architecture of certain courses.
Indeed, after Scottie Scheffler suggested the removal of trees is a problem in the modern game, golf fans on X are making the same sort of point.
Responding to McIlroy’s comments on the Philly course, journalist Dan Rappaport predicted another really low scoring week.
And following on from Rappaport’s own comment, a number of golf fans brought up the issues around a lack of trees.
“The answer is trees. Add more trees so they can’t hit over things. The course looks better too“, one fan said, while another commented that ‘Tree removal trend has gone too far’
Continuing on that trend, another followed suit and mentioned the older courses in particular.
“Stop cutting down all the trees on these old courses.”
While another namedropped certain courses that have managed to ‘hold up’ despite the cuts.
“Because they got rid of all the trees. You can cull it back without removing them all. The Country Club held up fine. Oakmont will hold up”
With another bringing up more examples of the issues.
“That’s the trend these days, especially around here…Aronomink, Overbrook, Waynesborough all removed tons of trees. Can play even the most wayward of tee shots most times”
It seems, then, that golf has a bit of a problem right now and if even the world’s top players are making comment, then it’s a big worry.
What Scottie Scheffler said about PGA Tour courses
Of course, this reaction comes in response to McIlroy’s comments but it’s worth noting the context around Scottie Scheffler’s comments as well.
Speaking on Grant Horvat’s YouTube channel, Scheffler aired his frustration with the current state of certain courses.
That’s one of the reasons why I would like to get into some golf course design. Because what they are doing to golf courses now I don’t like. They take out all the trees, make the greens bigger and typically make the fairways bigger as well. So the only real barrier to guys trying to hit it as far as they want to or need to is trees. When you host a championship tournament if there are no trees you can hit it wherever you want. If I miss the fairway by 10 yards I am in the thick rough. If I miss it by 20, you are in the crowd,” he said.
“Strategically Augusta is really good. You still have to hit it far. Hitting it far is an advantage at Augusta, but the areas you have to hit the ball are so small. And the big run off areas, fairways around the greens, are better in terms of short making and creativity. There is more stuff to it than if you just put heavy rough by the side of every green because then it just becomes a competition of who gets a decent lie,” he added.
“Also Harbour Town and Sawgrass are genius. I love Sawgrass. You have to hit different shots, so I feel silly naming two golf courses that I love the design are ones I have won at. But if you look at Sawgrass first hole, cut off the tee, draw into the green. Second hole, draw off the tee, cut into the green. Then it’s a cut and a draw. A cut on five. Draw on six and draw on seven. You have to hit shots.”
Golf has a number of issues right now to solve in the main but surely, making things even easier for the top players is something they can get on top of.
If not, we risk having tournaments with consistent winning scores of 25+ under par and eventually, that just becomes tiresome to the fans.
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