McIlroy On Distance Report: Golf Needs To Minimise Its Footprint

The four-time Major winner was speaking about the Distance Insights Report and how golf has a responsibility to be more environmentally friendly

McIlroy On Distance Report: Golf Needs To Minimise Its Footprint

Rory McIlroy is constantly referred to by golf fans and us in the media alike when talking about how far the ball goes.

The World No.1 is one of the longest hitters in the game and players of his ilk are why the R&A and USGA have been releasing their Distance Insight Reports.

The new report was recently published and a number of concerns were voiced by the governing bodies over how far players are hitting it.

It said that increased distances were "detrimental to the game" in regards to all-round skill as well as things like course design and sustainability.

McIlroy was asked about the report in his pre-Genesis Invitational press conference where he said that golf has a responsibility to minimise its footprint in a world where global warming exists.

"I think the biggest thing that came out of the report for me, a lot of the stuff about the ball going too far and technology, it really pertains to 0.1 percent of golfers out there," he said.

"So look, if they want to try to contain what we do as touring professionals, I'm all for that.

"Selfishly, I think that that's only a good thing for the better players, but for the game in general, I think one of the best things that came out of it was the sustainability aspect and the fact that architects building these golf courses, and not even architects to a degree, but also the people that are giving the architects the money to build these golf courses with this grand ambition of maybe having a Tour event one day.

"Building these golf courses on these massive pieces of land, having to use so much water, so much fertiliser, pesticides, all the stuff that we really shouldn't be doing nowadays especially in the climate we live in and everything that's happening in our world.

"You look at what happened in Australia, you look at what happens in this state [California] every August, September, October time with fires and global warming.

"I think golf has a responsibility to minimise its footprint as much as it possibly can.

"For me, I think the sustainability aspect of what they're trying to do is very important and that's the one thing I would definitely stand behind."

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