Jacklin tells today’s pros: You are like boring robots.. you don’t need to worry about more distance bring back the skill

RYDER Cup legend and two-time Major winner Tony Jacklin says golf has become “boring” and the sport is in desperate need of a radical shake-up.

The R&A announced on Tuesday that it was finally planning to break the “ever-increasing cycle of hitting distance”.

But Jacklin says he and his contemporaries have been telling golf ’s rule-makers for decades that something needed to be done.

“It’s boring, watching golf these days,” said Jacklin (right). “The game has become all about smashing the ball as far as you can and putting contests.

“You see the distances the modern-day player is hitting the ball and the fact they can use wedges to get the ball out of the rough and on the green.

“If they were hitting it 50 yards shorter and had to hit five-irons for the second shot, they wouldn’t get the ball on the green from the rough.

“The players don’t need new technology, it was brought in to help the amateurs, not the pros. But I’m bound to think that the ball is the biggest culprit. They’re hitting nine-irons where the top players were hitting five-irons 50 years ago.

“I also don’t consider these elite guys are that talented and nobody looks like they’re having a good time.

“A 30ft putt goes in, but they don’t smile, there’s no fist-pumping and it’s all matter of fact.

“The players have become too robotic, there’s no emotion. The guys these days don’t interact with galleries at all.

“It’s the same people every week, getting millions of dollars. Who cares any more? It’s all very predictable.

“It’s not like when Arnold Palmer or Seve Ballesteros were in their pomp. Tiger Woods still pulls the biggest crowds and he’s got a bit the more oomph... but, generally, there’s little emotion shown.“

The R&A and USGA will assess the potential of a “local rule” which would allow tournament committees to “specify use of clubs and/or balls intended to result in shorter hitting distances”.

Jacklin added: “The players shoot 61s and 62s every week and it makes a mockery of the game. They don’t need 14 clubs in the bag, they don’t use half of them.

“It’s about gripping it and ripping it. Tiger put it in a nutshell when he said they go for the driver every time. The game is in a sorry state and I’d like to see the old skills coming back rather than brute strength.

“I can imagine some of the young guys thinking it’s sour grapes from an old man, but I just have the best interests of the game at heart.”