Bryson DeChambeau hits his tee shot on the 17th hole during the second round at the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club (West Course) in Mamaroneck, N.Y. on Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. (Kohjiro Kinno/USGA)

Pádraig Harrington could have told Rory McIlroy “I told you so” when he started working on his speed but he has no worries about the Co Down man or Shane Lowry as they battle to rediscover their best form.

Speaking ahead of the Honda Classic, the Ryder Cup skipper insisted he wouldn’t berate McIlroy for losing his swing trying to emulate Bryson DeChambeau’s power gains because he opened that Pandora’s box himself as a rookie 25 years ago.

“It's not like I haven't done it myself, so I'm not going to sit here and pass judgment on him,” Harrington said of McIlroy, who he believes has more than enough power and speed to compete and like DeChambeau and other big hitters, will have even more of an advantage in the future if the governing bodies roll back equipment and the ball.

“At the moment 180 ball speed is plenty good enough. Rory has that easily. He's the best driver of the ball in the game.”

Admitting he knew the downfalls and makes players aware when he sees them experiment on the range, Harrington said: “There was definitely a downside, and I see the addiction of chasing speed. It’s a bit of a Pandora’s box.”

He added: “I could see Rory getting into it. I talked to Rory about it, and I couldn't have said I warned them away from it, but certainly I would have talked to many players and just said, look, you're going down a road that you might have to go down, you might want to go down, you might make that mistake yourself, but it really is a tough one if you're not long enough and you need a bit more length you might have to do it.

“But as I said, I -- by the way, I haven't seen anybody in my career gain speed when they're on Tour except for Bryson. He's the only person. Nobody else has gained speed on Tour.”

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his stroke from the No. 2 tee during Round 1 of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, November 12, 2020.

Harrington is the king when it comes to ball speed, buying his first monitor more than 20 years ago and picking up the nickname “Ball Speed Harrington” recently as he knows the ball speed of every player on tour.

“I've chased distance every day of my life,” he said. “The one thing I'm obsessed about is chasing distance. “When I came out as a pro, at the orientation — it was called the MacGregor week back then— I remember gaining 20 yards, and thinking this is fabulous. My whole life I've looked to try and stay competitive. I suppose it definitely has cost me at times.

“There's no doubt about it. I'd be looking at speed and focusing on my training, at times more than just being mentally sharp at tournaments. So yeah, there was definitely a downside, and I see the addiction of chasing speed and I see the problem of if somebody -- and I see these young guys -- not young guys, medium-aged guys go out there, if you're chasing speed and you hit a good drive down the fairway, you're very happy, but you're standing there thinking, I wonder could I hit it five yards further, I wonder what speed that was, I wonder would it have been this or that.

“There’s no satisfaction in it. I would thoroughly recommend to a young guy to do it early so that he comes out with speed and never has to worry about it, but the fact that I have chased it means that I'm 49 years of age and I don't go out on the golf course giving up anything to anybody in terms of speed.”

“Bryson gains massively if they draw back the equipment”

— Pádraig Harrington

Having watched Tiger Woods destroy fields early in his career thanks to his superior speed, he watched McIlroy enjoy the same advantage ten years ago and now it’s DeChambeau who is the king.

“Right from the get-go I'm surprised in 1996 that most people didn't recognise it with Tiger that he had a tremendous advantage off the tee and try and keep up,” he said.

“I'm startled. Rory used that tool exactly in 2010 and 2011, and Rory's long-hitting and just hitting more drivers allowed the likes of DJ, Bubba Watson, J.B. Holmes, they were all trying to play golf like the rest of us at that stage. Rory came out and starting hitting drivers on more holes, being more aggressive off the tee. That's when you started seeing these guys freeing up and going, oh, maybe we should hit drivers.

“What you do see on the Tour now is pretty much the whole field now hits drivers on holes that -- especially I'll go back to a course like this where I've played over the years. Holes that used to be a 3-wood lay-up off the tee, now everybody hits driver. We all push that risk.”

As for calls to roll back the ball and equipment, the Dubliner makes a compelling argument, citing the added expense of maintaining courses, slower rounds, the obsolescence of classic courses and increased danger from wild-hitting amateurs as just some of the drawbacks.

Asked if the game was close to reaching a point where the authorities were compelled to act on distance, he set out his stall in detail.

Shane Lowry of Ireland plays his shot from the 14th tee during the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2021 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

“Okay, I think -- right. I've got to think this through. One, everybody argues about speed, and the argument always tends to go about whether you like people who hit it long and playing golf with long-hitting or you don't. But that argument is just personal opinion. You can't argue, if some person likes it, some person doesn't like it, whether the golf is more fun or not more fun. That is purely down to each individual person. So, anybody who's arguing on social media, it's crazy because it's just a personal opinion. It's not a factual argument. I would say, though, golf ball going further means it's more expensive to build a golf course, it's more expensive to maintain a golf course.

“Golf ball going further definitely slows down the round of golf in terms of it's a longer walk, it takes longer, and that's the biggest issue with golf is the pace, the time it takes to get around. The golf ball going further also slows down the style of play because there's more bottlenecks when people wait on par-4s and par-5s. Golf ball going further has meant that some golf courses are obsolete, some of the great courses, and the golf ball -- I shouldn't say golf ball. Equipment going further. And it could be an equipment change. It doesn't have to be a ball change.

“With the ball going further, equipment going further, it also means that golf -- and I see this at home. Golf is extremely dangerous at home. People wing it off fairways. You go to any regular club in Ireland, guys who are 25 years of age are hitting it 340 in the air and they don't know where it's going. I'm not saying good players, I'm talking just your regular guys hitting it miles, and you can't keep it on these courses because there's doglegs, so it's dangerous, so for those six reasons I think the game should be tailed back.

“But the one thing that nobody seems to be getting in the whole of this argument, it's a massive advantage to the long hitters if they tailback the equipment. If they bring it back, it's a huge -- Bryson gains massively if they draw back the equipment. The longer you hit it, if you reduce Bryson by 10 per cent, say he's hitting it 350 and he's now hitting it 315 and you reduce a guy who's hitting it 300 and you reduce him to 270, Bryson is okay. He's still that same percentage ahead but it's a lot easier to hit the golf ball on a golf course at 315 than it is at at 345 or 350. It is an incredible advantage to the long hitters if they tailback how far the ball goes.

“I'm talking it will encourage even more of a chase of long-hitting because it's such an advantage.

“And remember, doesn't matter what they do with the equipment going forward. You can't change now. You're going to have young guys coming out who swing a 7-iron at 110 miles an hour and that means that there's no lie in the rough, there's no tree in the way that they can't get over or can't get out of.

“As I said, I saw it with Tiger Woods. In 1996 he destroyed everybody because he was faster -- he was a good player and was faster, and Rory did the same thing.

Rory McIlroy following his 2011 US Open win

“Now we're seeing Bryson, he's obviously getting the limelight for it, and it's very impressive, but it will be -- he should be screaming for a rollback because it would give him a big advantage.”

As for Lowry’s eighth-place finish in The Players and his battle to make the side for Whistling Straits, Harrington is happy to wait for the Offaly man’s putting to peak when it really counts, having seen him “playing probably the best golf I've ever seen him play” in their practice rounds.

“I've been playing with Shane,” Harrington explained. “Shane has been playing probably the best golf I've ever seen him play of recent. He hasn't been putting very well. As I've said about a few players, I'm never unhappy to see a player playing well but not quite get the results at this time of the year because I know they're going to turn around for Shane, and I can see good form there, and when it does turn around, it's going to be at the appropriate time of the year. It's going to be coming into, as you said, the majors, and then following up into the Ryder Cup.

“You know, looking from the outside, you just tell Shane just to let it happen. It's obviously very easy to say that, not as easy to do as a player. But he is playing very well tee to green, and I am keeping an eye on him like I am all the other players who are there or thereabouts. It is strange that Shane would be a rookie, but you do kind of think of him as a senior player.”

Meanwhile, Masters champion Dustin Johnson is not blaming his current driving problems on his short-lived attempt to match Bryson DeChambeau’s speed game.

“I messed around a little bit with it back in October maybe,” Johnson said in a pre-Masters conference call, insisting that the trade-off in accuracy was not worth the extra distance.

“Obviously the harder you swing, the bigger your misses are. For me, it just didn't help. Until I feel like when at my best that I can't beat someone, then I'll try and change something. But as of right now, I feel like if I play my best golf, I feel like I can beat whoever I'm playing against.”