Artist and scientist
Is a golfer an artist or a scientist? The question was raised by Rory McIlroy last week and now casts a shadow over The Open Championship , which begins today at Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland (starts at 12:35pm today; round 1 is scheduled to conclude at 2:30pm on July 18).
“I like to think of myself as more of an artist than a scientist in the game . But I think in this generation, with the biomechanics and all the technological advances, and the evolution of golf over the last 20 years, we are more of a scientist than an artist,” the Northern Irishman said.
McIlroy is a local hero, one of two strong candidates along with Scottie Scheffler.
Golf can sometimes seem like a driving contest where imagination is pushed aside.
But like the legendary Gallia, there is one place that is resisting that trend: The British Open – the place that brings golf back to its roots .
The tournament takes place on courses shaped by nature, by the sea, where shots depend on the winds that change everything.
Here, the law of the strong over the weak no longer applies. The winner is the one best adapted to natural conditions.
No one knows that better than Seve Ballesteros, the Spanish legend who learned to play golf on Pedrena beach.
It was the harsh conditions that trained him to imagine shots that others could not imagine, leading to 3 The Open titles (1979, 1984, 1988). However, that type of golfer has disappeared.
“Technology has taken away the creativity in golf,” admits Sergio Garcia. “In the 1990s, people played with balls that had to be more dynamic, had to be hit high or low depending on the wind.
The ball is flying much better now. At least The Open is still special because it requires skill in a different way and depends a lot on the weather.”
The stats are clear. The 2025 season recorded the longest average driver distance in PGA Tour history: 302.9 yards (277 meters), the second year in a row that it broke the 300-yard mark.
In 2000, the average was just 270 yards (246 meters). Also in that season, the record for average ball speed was broken: 174 mph (280 km/h) – a new high.
Farther, Stronger, Faster. The World of Ranged Hitters.
The age of technology
Technology has had a huge impact on golf. Research and development budgets have skyrocketed. Major companies have even hired engineers from NASA to push their equipment to the limit.
Golf today is like Formula 1 in terms of materials. Race cars are pushed to the limit to the point of failure.
People are pushing the boundaries of performance. Brands are looking to copy each other and find loopholes in the rules to make clubs longer and easier to hit.
That's why McIlroy's driver was declared invalid at the recent PGA Championship.
The most typical example of the new generation is Bryson DeChambeau, nicknamed “The Scientist” because of his obsession with measuring and calculating every element of his game, as if it were a mathematical equation.
DeChambeau has cut all of his clubs to the same length (37.5 inches, or 95 cm – equivalent to a 7-iron).
DeChambeau recently revealed that he is trying to incorporate wind force and direction – an extremely important factor at The Open 2025 – into the formula in the laboratory.
“I want to decode the wind on the golf course, know how to use it, control it and understand exactly what's going to happen to the ball in each specific situation,” DeChambeau said.
In addition, McIlroy warned about another danger compared to previous The Opens: the location of the sand traps at Royal Portrush is very dangerous, which can cause the ball to fall into whether the player uses a driver or an iron.
Amidst the wave of technology, the British major is calling for golf to be brought back to the artists. Nature is their powerful ally. Today is forecast to be rainy, windy and cold at Royal Portrush.
However, this is just a small oasis. The old style of golf has disappeared.
Jon Rahm – the modern golfer who combines both worlds – admitted: “No one will win the Open the way Seve did again” .
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/khai-mac-the-open-2025-nghe-si-danh-golf-voi-nha-khoa-hoc-2422775.html
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