With the swing speed debate back in the headlines, Brendan Porath and Joseph LaMagna sat down to pen a back-and-forth on the impact chasing speed may have on the next generation:

Brendan Porath: Joseph, this week some comments from Charley Hull through the smoke raised a few eyebrows. Golf Monthly brought them to the masses, in which Hull said her advice to parents of junior golfers would be to “get them to hit the ball as hard as they can. They can always rein it in when they’re older…”

It’s not bad advice and this is no criticism of Hull or her comments. This is not a new thought or trend. There were just some laments about junior golfers learning not golf but rather perfecting some laboratory experiment. And it’s not just happening at the junior level. Justin Thomas posted to Instagram this week some offseason work that had him touching 124.5 mph clubhead speed. As our own Will Knights noted, JT’s season average has never been above 118 mph.

Sports evolve and become stronger. Skill priorities change. I firmly maintain that being able to swing a certain speed, indoors or on a course, and hit it far with some modicum of control is an exceptional skill. It should be rewarded and sorted in a survival of the fittest way. But is this golf anymore? I think it makes me wince the most when thinking about it at the junior levels, which Hull’s comments target. Consider it alongside some comments from Greg Olsen last week, now a FOX analyst and football coach for his kid’s team, about how quarterbacks are not developed anymore and don’t truly know how to play the position because of misplaced priorities about instantly gratifying success from the shotgun at lower levels. The difference with golf is that a pure speed chase may not make a junior totally unprepared for the highest levels, like Olsen alludes to with NFL QBs. Is it right to get worked up about Hull’s recommendations and the kind of trend it exhibits? Or is this just sports evolving and golf, as one generation defines it, might be defined a little differently by a subsequent one?

Joseph LaMagna: Well I’m glad she could take some time away from ripping heaters to impart wisdom on the youth!

No, in seriousness, I endorse Hull’s advice, and her comments shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody paying attention to competitive golf trends. I believe the instructors out there who say “Speed isn’t everything. Let’s work on that short game technique” at the expense of prioritizing the long game will stick out as dinosaurs just like an NFL coach who stubbornly shouts that “Analytics aren’t everything!” while punting on 4th and short from their opponent’s 40-yard line down by 8 in the 4th quarter. That coach still had a place in the NFL five or ten years ago. Not today. I suspect the same will be true in golf.

In December of 2022, TPI posted a video of Chez Reavie and Charley Hoffman giving advice to young golfers. The advice? Swing fast. It’s advice you’ll hear from players and coaches at the highest ranks of the sport, and it’s an advantage supported by data, which we more fully understand now that we’re 15-20 years into the Strokes Gained era.

Speed is the most reliable advantage in the sport. Hot putters go through spells where the putts don’t drop. Speedy players don’t show up to the first tee wondering where their speed escaped. Throughout all of golf’s history, the players with staying power are the ones with firepower: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, etc.

So should speed be lamented? No, of course not. A speedier, more athletic version of the golf swing isn’t anything to bemoan in a vacuum. What should be lamented is the extent to which the speed revolution compromises the game board upon which the sport is played and narrows the bag of tricks from which a player must pull to have success at the highest level. More skill and strategy is required the longer a golf course plays, and the speed revolution has turned architectural masterpieces into pitch and putts. When Max Homa won the 2021 Genesis Invitational at Riviera, he had just 128 yards into the uphill, 470-yard par-4 18th on Sunday. That is the piece the pro-rollback crowd should build its argument around, not the speed of the swing. Though, relatedly, the size and forgiveness of the driver head and how it enables swinging at such a high speed should be scrutinized. And instead of sitting around and complaining about it, golf should regulate it.

But while we wait for equipment to be regulated meaningfully, here are a few dynamics of the sport I wonder about in the meantime:

1. Golfers being exposed in adverse conditions: At the tournament with some of the choppiest conditions in pro golf this year, the Open Championship at Royal Troon, “older” golfers Billy Horschel (Age 37) and Justin Rose (44) both finished T-2. Russell Henley (35) and Shane Lowry (37) finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Four golfers 35 or older finished in the top six. No other major this year had more than three players aged 35 or older finish in the top 10. As time goes on, will we see speedy, less well-rounded golfers struggle in adverse conditions? And are those conditions even worth investing significant time preparing for? You can’t win the Open Championship if you aren’t in the field.

2. The path of the junior golfer who doesn’t prioritize speed: How is a junior golfer who doesn’t work on his or her speed viewed as a prospect? Do college coaches see a golfer’s speed metrics and deem the player unlikely to succeed at the next level, or do they see the untapped power as a new asset to unlock in the player? You could make the case for either side, but I wouldn’t bet against the talented golfer who hasn’t yet prioritized speed. Xander Schauffele didn’t prioritize speed until the 2023 offseason at age 30. His career has turned out fine.

3. Injuries: We’ve seen quite a few injuries in professional golf this year. Many more injuries will go unreported. Attributing every injury to the pursuit of speed is not appropriate, but to what extent does the speed advantage result in injuries and shortened careers? The top golfers with staying power will continue, on average, to be on the speedy end of the spectrum, but those are the survivors. We’ll never hear about the junior golfers who derailed their careers after developing a neck or wrist injury trying to push their speeds to the max. Whatever advice you follow, do it carefully and responsibly.

To address your question directly: No, it isn’t worth getting worked up over Hull’s comments. She’s right. It is, however, worth getting worked up over the governing bodies’ failure to enact meaningful equipment regulation and the stranglehold equipment manufacturers have over the sport, which prevents meaningful regulation from seeing the light of the day.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.