Scotland has an exceptionally poor record in recent years of talented young players making the grade on the European Tour, and if McDowell’s view is correct then it is not going to become any easier for them over the next four years before the rule is extended to cover top amateur events.
McDowell had first-hand experience of this situation during the Dubai Desert Classic where he was paired alongside a young player who had qualified locally for the tournament, then suddenly had to switch to unfamiliar conforming clubs and missed the cut by a wide margin.
“He had to change every wedge and iron in his bag because his stuff wasn’t legal. That’s crazy. It makes it so much more difficult for amateurs to make the transition to tournament pro,” said the world No.47.
McDowell was talking to The Herald at Wentworth where Ballantine’s, whom he represents on tour, produced another former winner of their tournament, Neil Coles, to mark the 50th anniversary of the switch at their event from the 1.62-inch diameter ball to the current 1.68 and to play a couple of holes with old and new equipment.
That was a change that caused controversy at a time when the Americans, who generally played the 1.68, were routinely thrashing Great Britain & Ireland, who used the 1.62, in the Ryder Cup. It was 1988 before the 1.62 was totally outlawed.
Meantime it is the grooves issue, aimed at encouraging greater accuracy off the tee by making it more difficult to play out of the rough, that is causing debate.
“Balls are going to spin less so maybe the game is going to be even more one-dimensional and take more skill out of the game,” said McDowell. “I don’t think the change is going to make courses any more difficult for the best players.
“I realise the whole point is that they don’t want a guy whipping it 350 yards into the rough and get a wedge at it rather than find the fairway and hit a 7-iron, but I just don’t think it is going to have the desired effect. It’s such a small change.
“It is causing nothing but bad press over these Ping Eye 2 lob wedges [that are legal because of a 20-year-old legal loophole], it has cost the manufacturers millions and it is causing upset to players having to change equipment.”
McDowell, who grew up playing the classic links of Royal Portrush, regards himself as an old-school golfer who likes to shape the ball into the wind and high or low accordingly.
“I play with so many guys nowadays and it doesn’t matter if it’s downwind, crosswind or straight into the wind, they drive the ball with the same flight. To me that doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia are two players who like to flight the ball around, but the shotmakers are kind of disappearing.
“Modern equipment is great for the game in some respects. It helps handicap golfers, but the problem is we are beginning to decimate great courses like Augusta National and the Old Course at St Andrews.
“If you get St Andrews on a flat calm day the best players will just destroy the place, and look what they’ve done at Augusta, lengthening the course and ruining it. They’ve made it such a beast. It’s disappointing that has to happen, but that’s the way technology has gone.”
McDowell, donning plus fours for the occasion at Wentworth, enthused about the chance to meet up with Coles and play with persimmon woods – which he used when he was learning the game aged about 10 – and the small ball. “It really zips through the wind,” he noted.
Coles, winner of the Ballantine’s tournament back in 1961, beats his age of 76 usually by five or six shots every time he steps out on St George’s Hill these days, and looked back fondly at the 1.62 ball of which he was one of the last masters.
“It went through the wind better. It was a much livelier ball around the green and you had to allow for run all the time. You also used to get a lot of fliers out of the rough,” he recalled.
“The theory was that you had to strike the big ball that much better to get the maximum out of it. Because it was a lively ball, the 1.62 still went well even if you were just off centre whereas the big ball didn’t.
“I can remember players like Harry Weetman and Dai Rees wearing out the heel of their club by striking it just off centre, but they still got the distance out of it. They wouldn’t have been so good with the big ball.”
