Charley Hull is Right

Hit it as far as you can, find it, and hit it again until it finds the bottom of the cup. That’s what golf has turned into over the last couple decades.

Now, is the long ball fun to watch? Absolutely. There’s a reason why Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau are two of the biggest fan favorites in the sport—they absolutely launch it. Of course, I wouldn’t put their overall games in the same basket, but that’s a conversation for another time.

But with all the modern changes to clubs, balls, and courses, the artistry of golf has been all but removed from the game. Shaping it both ways, off-speed wedges, using the contours as opposed to elevation. You just don’t see that stuff very much anymore.

Well, except when the best players in the world are across the pond.

And that’s exactly where the best women in golf are this week for the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl. The next four days of links golf will be the latest breath of fresh air from the monotony of parkland style—make sure to set those alarms if you don’t want to miss it.

Before the action got underway early Thursday morning, Charlie Hull met with the media in Wales on Wednesday and explained why today’s style of golf doesn’t exactly make her want to turn on the TV.

“I think golf back 20, 30 years ago, say 19—up to like 2000s, it was more of an art,” Hull said. “The players, even then men, would have to hit draws and fades and stuff it in, where I think now it's become more of a power game and where it's become -- the technology has advanced so much everyone can just hit it straight and far, and it's kind of taking the art away from it.

“Whenever I watch golf, I watch golf and all that lot, like who won the British Open in the 1970s and that. I find it way more interesting back then.

“Like I wouldn't really watch golf now really.”

Before the Genesis Scottish Open, McIlroy uttered a similar sentiment.

“Yeah, I mean, I'd like to think of myself more as an artist than a scientist when it comes to the game,” McIlroy said. “But I think in this generation at this point with TrackMan and biomechanics and all the technological advances, I think—again, I think my perception of myself as an artist. But I think with the way the game has went over the last 20 years, we are probably more scientists than we are artists.”

Now, the golf ball roll back is coming. Absurdly long drives will (hopefully) be a thing of the past when the changes go into effect, but the long hitters will still be the long hitters. Kevin Kisner isn’t going to all of a sudden play from the same areas as a McIlroy.

But will it bring artistry back? That’s the question I can’t wait to have an answer to, because in the end, Hull and McIlroy are right.

The game has been boiled down to numbers, data, analytics, and teeing that thing up as high as you can—and that sucks.​​