DeChambeau reason for PGA rule changes

The game’s “mad scientist” is flattered that rule-makers are proposing changes to regulations in an effort to control how far big hitters like him can launch a golf ball.

Bryson DeChambeau has been pushing the limits of golf with his quest for increased distance off the tee.

So the game’s “mad scientist” is flattered that rule-makers are proposing changes to regulations in an effort to control how far big hitters like him can launch a golf ball.

“I think I might be pushing them a little bit,” a smiling DeChambeau said Feb. 3. “I don’t know if anybody’s pushed them like — and I’m not really trying to push . ... I think that I’m willing to try things that people are not OK with trying.

“When you go to the fringe limits of the rules,” he added, “there will be conversations about it, for sure.”

The USGA and the R&A on Feb. 2 announced three proposals and six areas of interest involving the modern game.

This comes one year after their “Distance Insights Project” revealed a steady increase in distance for more than 100 years — with average gains of about 30 yards by PGA Tour players

in the last 25 years — and golf courses that keep expanding.

Rory McIlroy, speaking from the Phoenix Open, said the governing bodies were looking at the game through a “tiny lens.”

“What they’re trying to do is change something that pertains to 0.1% of the

golfing community; 99.9% of the people play this game play for enjoyment, for entertainment. They don’t need to be told what ball or clubs to use,” McIlroy said. “We have to make the game as easy and approachable as possible for the majority of golfers.”

McIlroy said he thought

the distance project has been “a huge waste of time and money.”

“Because that money that it’s cost to do this report could have been way better distributed to getting people into the game, introducing young kids to the game, introducing minorities to the game,” he said.

MATTHEW THAYER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Bryson DeChambeau lines up his putt on the ninth green during the third round of the Tournament of Champions golf event Jan. 9at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.