Rory McIlroy can kick your glutes.
The boy is ripped, having remade himself more along the blueprint of a free safety than a golfer. Everyone knows that golfers belong on the cover of Cigar Aficionado or Pizza Today Magazine. Yet, McIlroy this month will become the first of his kind to grace the cover of Men’s Health Magazine.
He just did a Nike video extolling the virtues of his five-day-a-week regimen — one that reportedly has resulted in him adding 20 pounds of muscle while cutting his body fat to around 10 percent. For him, he said, a reward for a good round is not a beer and a brat back at the clubhouse (as God surely intended) but rather some squats and core work at the gym.
So dramatic has the transformation been on the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer, and presumptive Masters favorite, that it has some tongues worriedly wagging. Has the fitness trend in golf — introduced by Gary Player, popularized by Tiger Woods and now practiced widely on the professional circuit — gone too far? Are players searching too hard for a little more power off the tee at the expense of becoming too bulky and increasingly injury prone?
In advance of next week’s Masters, a line of former players now working as network analysts formed to weigh in on the weight work. On their various conference calls, sometimes without even being asked, they launched into warnings aimed at PGA Tour players in general and McIlroy specifically.
“Where did this change?” wondered ESPN’s Curtis Strange, a former U.S. Open champ. “Yeah you want to keep your legs under you. You want to keep your body in shape and keep your weight off. But when you’re 25 years old, to me you don’t have to lift the first weight because you have extraordinary flexibility, the best you’re ever going to have in your life. You have all the strength. And it’s not about strength hitting the golf ball. It’s about controlling the golf club and controlling yourself.
“I just don’t understand the big weights. We’ve seen one guy go by the wayside because of big biceps. I think you have to be careful in your training.”
Strange, of course, was referring to Tiger Woods, whose problems are manifold, but include a body that has begun breaking down at an alarming rate. They may not be kinesiologists, nor do any of them play one on TV. But many in the golf world see Woods physical problems stemming from him adding too much muscle for his frame and for his game.
“Sadly, for whatever reason, Tiger sacrificed the winning swing at the altar of the perfect swing. And he may have sacrificed a winning body at the altar of the perfect body. It has been hard to watch that undoing,” ESPN’s Paul Azinger said.
Woods’ former instructor Butch Harmon saw it the same way, and recently told Irish radio that McIlroy needs to take care to not fall victim to the same hubris that grows in places where every wall is a mirror.
“The only caution I would give Rory is, I see a lot of pictures of him lifting a lot of very heavy weights and I think, in a way, you can almost hurt yourself in the gym if you get too bulky,” Harmon said. “Hopefully, he will keep his body tone down, more like a Dustin Johnson (a Harmon client), who’s in absolutely perfect physical shape to play golf.”
The changing nature of the game has put increased emphasis upon power off the tee, a trait that is particularly helpful at Augusta National. Next week, it will be possible to find some of those throwback body types, those who have not gone all Michelangelo on their profiles: Kevin Stadler; Angel Cabrera; Miguel Angel Jimenez; Jason Dufner. Yet the pursuit of greater length has driven many others to the squat rack.
But, really, just how strong does a golfer need to be?
“I always say the golf club just weighs 12 ounces,” CBS’ Nick Faldo, a three-time Masters champion, said.
“I wouldn’t believe it even if I was told by a physician that throwing around 200- and 300-pound weights would be good for my golf swing,” Faldo said.
“You can play some decent golf with a decent pair of shoulders on you, a strong neck and a strong pair of hands.”
Added Azinger, “It’s not a requirement to be a great player to look all ripped and have 10 percent body fat or less. I don’t want to see somebody who can be great with the body he has change his body.”
Woods put his back into the job of pushing the pendulum toward greater physical fitness in golf, and now that back does ache. So, some are pushing back, preaching restraint, actually expressing concern that golfers are getting too buff. What next, bowlers who flex while standing over the ball return?
In part because of the strain the new generation of player is putting on his body, the Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee believes that longevity-based records like Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors are safer than ever. Something just has to give, he reasons, before they ever reach such a summit.
Added NBC’s Peter Jacobsen: “When I see all these guys going to the gym it makes me nervous for their longevity. I get why (McIlroy’s) doing it, but it makes me nervous. There is an epidemic of injuries in the game now and I can’t help but think a lot of it is due to how rigorously guys are training in the gym.”
McIlroy next week will be attempting to complete the career Grand Slam by winning the only major that has eluded him. He is only 25, and has so much more winning in front of him if his biceps don’t get in the way.
The years will testify to the wisdom of McIlroy’s approach. As for the short term, Strange did come up with one undeniable benefit of hitting the gym so fervently. One entirely non-golf related.
“He is single,” he said, “maybe that’s why he has abs.”
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