Padraig Harrington has never been one to hold back when discussing the state of golf, and he has launched a scathing attack on a rule change introduced seven years ago. The three-time major winner has made it abundantly clear that he despises the 2019 decision by The R&A and USGA to reduce the time players at all levels have to find a lost golf ball to just three minutes.
Players had previously been allowed five minutes to locate a lost ball, but the governing bodies implemented the rule change to speed up the pace of play at both professional and amateur level. Harrington believes the decision was taken for the “wrong reason,” and he is hoping the rule won’t come into play when he competes in the US Open this week, with chaos anticipated at the notoriously difficult Shinnecock Hills.
The 54-year-old Irishman, who earned his place by winning the Senior Open Championship last year, said in the build-up to the tournament that there was “zero logic” in cutting the time players have to find their ball. “The worst rule change I’ve ever seen is the three-minute rule change for a lost ball,” he told Life on Tour.
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“One, they changed it for the wrong reason. So, they changed the rule because amateur golfers were taking 10 minutes, nine, 10 minutes, instead of five.
“So they decided, well, if they’re taking twice the time, let’s cut it back to three, and then they’ll probably look for five. That’s the logic behind it. There is zero logic in that.”
Harrington is of the view that the five-minute limit was entirely reasonable, and that it was down to the officials to apply it properly. “The fact of the matter is, it should be five and a strict five,” he insisted.
“It’s up to the amateurs to look for five minutes. The professionals, we all look for three minutes. You know, the minute we hit the zone to look for the golf ball, my caddie will start a stopwatch. That’s it.
View 2 ImagesHarrington is in the US Open field again this week(Image: Getty Images)
“And if I’m playing with somebody that doesn’t start a stopwatch, I’m not happy. As in, you start your own stopwatch and you know three minutes is up. It’s not three minutes, five seconds, but three minutes goes incredibly quickly.
“You walk down there and you could be a minute, minute and a half looking for the ball on your own because obviously if you’ve hit it in a bush, everybody knows you’ve got to look for it. But if you hit it in the rough, a lot of times people go, you’ll be all right. They go down to their own, and then all of a sudden, by the time they arrive to look for your ball.”
Harrington will tee up at his first US Open since 2023, and despite his major triumphs coming at the PGA Championship and The Open, he maintains that the gruelling test set by the USGA is where he feels most at home.
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“Bar the wins yes, the US Open is the one that suits me the most because it usually has a very strong element of mental fortitude and being able to deal with the good and the bad breaks,” Harrington told Irish Golfer.
“I like the style of US Open golf courses in general, the heavy rough doesn’t scare me whatsoever. They are the ones that I go into where I am quite comfortable with the test.”
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