'It's For The Greater Good Of The Game. To Be Honest, Five Percent Was Soft' - Padraig Harrington Goes On Passionate Rant To Defend Golf Ball Rollback

Padraig Harrington has backed the upcoming golf ball rollback as being "for the greater good of the game" and says that if anything just a five percent reduction was a bit "soft".

The Irishman has always been a man to go to about the finer details in golf, and he's had his say again on the new golf ball rollback plans which he thinks are absolutely necessary for the game worldwide.

Nobody has tinkered more with their swing and set-up than the three-time Major champion, and he says the R&A and USGA are right to "draw a line in the sand" on the speed of distance gains.

"I know there is a bit of pain involved for the majority, but it's for the greater good of the game," Harrington told Golf Digest in what's described as a seven-minute single answer to the question on the rollback.

"And to be honest, five percent was soft. Ten percent would have been a fair hit, but five percent is really drawing a line in the sand. 

"It's just saying, in five year's time, we'll have eaten that five percent up anyway. It's a line in the sand that says if it starts creeping again, we're going to roll it back again.

"So it's very important for the rest of the world to roll it back. I'm sorry you guys in the US feel that way. There is that attitude in the US that the USGA is representing the very exclusive, old school courses. That's not the case.

"They are representing everybody, and I guarantee you the R&A, people have a much better view of them. They're just trying to make the game grow for everyone."

Harrington believes there's a difference between both the game and the attitude towards the lawmakers between the USA and Europe, Ireland especially, and says that a reduction in golf ball distance was needed.

"The one thing about the rollback is it's distinctly different - the attitude in the United States than the attitude, certainly in Ireland and the rest of Europe," Harrington said.

"You guys hate the USGA. We actually love the R&A. Golf isn't an exclusive game in Europe. 

"The majority of golf courses in Ireland are just regular member's golfer courses. Yes, you need to be rich to play golf - rich in time. The people who play golf in Ireland are people who have time. 

"Taxi drivers, policemen, anybody on shift work, and obviously people who are wealthy enough that they can make some spare time, but everybody plays in Ireland. 

"And we all know a golf course that we grew up on that has had to change its golf holes, move part of the course, actually move the whole golf course at times because the ball is just going too far."

Harrington added that some form of rollback was needed with swing speeds and ball speeds of younger players continuing to get faster, although up to now nobody has managed to follow Tiger Woods in putting that speed together with a genuine golf game.

"Eventually we're going to get a guy with 210-mph ball speed who is able to play," said Harrington. "Up to now anybody who has got to that speed just can't play golf, but that doesn't mean we're not going to get one. 

"Like Tiger, he came out and he was a 190-mph ball speed guy - not that we hadn't seen 190 ball speed before, we just hadn't seen a 190 ball speed who could play golf."