Ryder Cup legend hits out at “chaotic” state of golf

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it cannot have escaped your attention that men’s professional golf has endured all kinds of rancour and schism over the last two years.

The emergence of LIV Golf and the subsequent response to it by other tours has created unprecedented division in the sport.

Have you turned-off to it all? If so, you’re not alone. Ryder Cup icon Tony Jacklin has stopped watching, too.

The two-time major champion, who turned 80 earlier this month, says he hardly ever tunes in to men’s golf these days, having become disillusioned by the way the modern game is played and the amount of money that today’s top pros are making.

Previewing the Farmfoods British Par-3 Championship, Jacklin said: “I think it’s chaotic. We’ve been in a state of chaos for a couple of years. I’m tired of watching guys hit 9-irons and wedges into every hole, shooting 62s and 61s from courses that are supposed to be great courses.

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“It’s a mess. The technology was never to help pros, it was always to help amateurs, but they took the pros as an example and now all the pros are playing what the amateurs were supposed to.

“In baseball, for example, they use wooden bats, the pros. We should still be using a similar wood in my opinion. These fellas, the guys that dedicate their lives to being better, they don’t need the help. But they’ve got it whether they like or not, and of course, on top of that, they’re getting paid an obscene amount. It’s obscene, hundreds of millions of dollars for playing golf. You’re joking!

“So, it’s all a bit out of context and you’ve got to have lived as long as I have to have seen all sides of it.

“I remember the days of Peter Allis and Christy O’Connor Snr, we’d play an exhibition match on a Sunday on the way home from a tournament for £40, and thinking we’d had a reasonable day. Now, the caddies make ten times as much as the pros used to make!”

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However, Jacklin stopped short of blaming the players for the current state of the game.

“The last thing I want to appear is sort of resentful,” he added. “It’s not the players’ fault. I don’t blame them one bit. They all doing things that they do best.

“Give Tiger another hundred million dollars for doing something and it’ll be fine. Just throw money at everything and the world will be a better place. Marvellous!”

The Farmwood British Par-3 Championship takes place at Nailcote Hall near Coventry from August 6-9. Click here to find out more.