Georgie Bingham: The shorter ball donger-swingers
Bryson DeChambeau watches his drive on No. 7 tee box during the third round of the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, August 7, 2021 at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo by Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images).
So here we are two weeks after the raising of the idea of new ball technology (again) and I think I finally know what I think. I’ve really REALLY had to ponder over it though.
Firstly, what I do know is there’s some serious donger-swinging going on over it. I can’t put it down to anything else. The ego’s are bruised by the idea of a shorter ball and immediately I want to rail against that. Golf’s biggest donger swinger Bryson de Chambeau was first to say he hates the idea - and I get it - he’s the big dog - the big hitter - the one who’s famous for his distance and doesn’t want to be made mortal by a golf ball.
It may be egotistical but he, as with all elite level golfers works on marginal gains for longer games and better scores. I don’t love De Chambeau but I also don’t see why he should be shackled by a ball making his game incomparable with amateurs.
It’s a thing; everyone wants to hit long. Everyone wants to be above average distance-wise whether it’s tour distance for tour players, pro distance for pros or handicap relative for us golfing mortals. We want to hit like pros and obsessively compare ourselves to them. I may be a low teen handicapper but I pay attention to every single club the long hitters are using on the men and women’s tours as I want to see how I compare. (In reality, I hit a 5 iron 160 and Rory can hit his 225 - so go figure - but I’m about average with most female pros with my irons and I really thrive on that, even if my 210 yard 5 wood always finds bushes not fairways). Comparing my length with my clubs is part of the fun in the ONLY sport where you can directly compare yourself to the golf god/goddesses you seek to emulate.
I can play against anyone because I can give shots or they can give me shots and it’s fair game. I can play the same equipment as my favourite player - hell I can hit the same balls, use the same tees and even go to the same places they do. So - the prospect of a ball change doesn’t actually sit well with me because suddenly the pros are playing not-the-same game as us club golfers and that would be a sadness, as it ends the almost unique notion that golf is a game that’s the same for all levels.
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland watches his drive from the eighth tee during day two of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Golf Championship at Mount Juliet Golf Club in Thomastown, Kilkenny. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images).
Think about the conversations you have with your golf geek friends; “He hit it 345 over the BACK OF THE GREEN and nearly aced it. Par four. I mean” and “he was using a 9 iron to make the green on that par 5 because he’d hit it over 350 off the tee”… It’s sooo often about distance. These are numbers we dream of and numbers the pros work their asses off for - hence they do get to donger-swing about it and we get to dream we can emulate it.
Rory McIlroy’s response to the ball change was brilliant. He’s in favour. He doesn’t see it as a problem. Here’s a man who is so comfortable in his own skin there’s no need to donger-swing at all. Goddamit that any of us could ever be that un-fussed. How that must infuriate his fellow pros. I realise a shorter ball also doesn’t really affect golfers like McIlroy, it affects the shorter tour players who already struggle to keep the big hitters in their sights.
I also know longer golf courses isn’t the answer either as that would make the game too hard for most amateurs. Hey, I don’t have the answer, I never said I did, but for once I am not in the Rory camp on this one.
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