A much anticipated report by golf’s governing bodies—the USGA and the R&A—on the debate about the distance the golf ball travels were released this week, and seems to indicate the organization is considering ways to slow down or even roll back distance gains. The report came out only days after Tony Finau hit a 366-yard drive on the final hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, only to lose to light-hitting Webb Simpson.
“We believe that golf will best thrive over the next decades and beyond if this continuing cycle of ever-increasing hitting distances and golf course lengths is brought to an end,” the report says, adding, “Longer distances, longer courses, playing from longer tees and longer times to play are taking golf in the wrong direction and are not necessary to make golf challenging, enjoyable or sustainable in the future.”
The report adds a “concept is that equipment meeting a particular set of reduced-distance specifications – for example, a ball that does not travel as far or a club that will not hit a ball as far – might be a defined subset of the overall category of conforming equipment.” It adds this could allow club committees to use a “local rule” that would require a reduced distance ball to be used. The report goes on to say further study is needed and nothing is expected for another nine to 12 months.
The debate
Point
The ball travels too far, especially for PGA Tour pros, and has necessitated changes to lengthen some classic golf courses, and has eliminated some courses altogether. Some argue distance gains—the average driving distance on the PGA Tour in 2019 was just over 293 yards—is eliminating the need for golf pros to be able to hit longer iron shots and demonstrate their true skills. Some golf architects have argued the ability of even the average player to hit big drives—sometimes well off the line of their intended target—is making some courses unsafe.
Counterpoint
Everyone loves watching pros bomb the big dog! There’s a great argument to be made that like home runs in baseball, pros like Rory McIlroy smashing drivers is more exciting to watch than more subtle golf. Besides that, most amateurs don’t melt drivers the way pros do, and would probably be very reluctant to accept rolling the ball back and having them hit it shorter off the tee. For the average amateur, the game is still hard—and handicaps haven’t dropped even as distance has gone up.
What’s your take?
Do you love watching Dustin Johnson crush drives and can’t imagine the ball being rolled back? Or has the ability of players to hit long, straight 300-yard plus drives made the game slightly dull? What about your Saturday foursome? Would you accept rolling back the ball and driver in some fashion or would you stick with your latest driver and Pro V1? Weigh in on the debate in the comments below!
I do not think that limiting the distance with either a ball or club change is something which any amateur will enjoy having partaken in the current equipment available right now.
I will continue to use the equipment which is available right now. I would agree to use a ball provided by the tournament committee in competitions as all players would be equally handicapped.
I believe too much distance has made some beautiful classic courses obsolete although it is fun to see pros hit their drives over 300 yards. Course set up could create a disadvantage to long drives by narrowing fairways and lengthening rough to create penal conditions. In that way the bomb-and-gouge type of play would not work and players would be forced to hit more fairways and greens.
The problem is not the professionals or even the low handicap player. On too many occasions a good day of golf is ruined by the following
– a foursome, usually younger players, all playing from the longest ties, wait until the group ahead of them is almost on the green before they hit. In a perfect world, if they hit it straight this is proper. But they then hit, each spraying the ball in a different direction, 2 of 4 in the rough, 1 of the 4 with a mishit and only 150 years down the fairway. And then have to go find ball, hit, often more than once. The fact that they hit the 280 yard drive once or a few times on the range makes them believe they can hit it on the course. Jack Nicholas has long argued for shorter distances. The game is really won or lost from 120 yards in, why can’t we acknowledge this and modify behaviour (for regular golfers.) Pros and very low handicaps play by different rules.
Roll back for the pro’s makes sense. For the average amateur golfer it would be a pity to lose the gains of the new ball and club technology.
The idea of course specific balls sounds like a good one, not sure it is fair to remove clubs pros are used to using depending on the course, but the ball should be an option, though having too many variations creates other issues too.
There are many courses that are simply no longer played due to the distance they hit the ball. Those are great courses, and would be nice to see them back in the PGA rotation again.
As a 6 handicapper and now in my 50’s, I would hate to see rollbacks on equipment when its becoming more than necessary for me in keeping up with the younger generation. Straight is difficult to do in this game as is the short game and putting. Just hitting bombs will not win you tournaments in my opinion when a 3 ft putt counts just the same as a 300 yard drive. if you miss both left, your score is affected.
I say leave it the way it is.
To tell U the truth, I am getting sick & tired of this crap, about he bombs this & this 1 bombs it further, get back to being a shot makers game, because this is getting ridiculous. Anther thing is this tap rule of supposed spike marks, these guys are going crazy, tap, tap, tap, thats all they do, if they have a 2ft putt, they tap a path from their ball to the hole, now what the Hell are U doing,get on with it. They should go back to the old rule????
Quit grooming courses for pro golfers including sand traps. Regardless of distance the ball is hit there should be a penalty for wayward shots as there is for us non pro players. Sand traps should not be something to be aimed for when the green is the object. It is very seldom, if not at all, that non pro players get the opportunity to play a groomed course. Make the pros pay the price for errant shots like us non professionals do.
I also think it is a good idea to force the pros to play some of the courses that are deemed too short now. That way they will not be able to pull out the “big stick” all the time and will have to adjust by using other clubs like their long irons etc. Make them go back to having to play like they used to. Also by modifying courses with more obstacles will force them to adjust to a more skill game than a bombing game. For the rest of us, yes I would hate to lose the benefits of the recent equipment that helps me to just hit 250 yards off the tee.
I am a senior and not a long hitter, and never was, so I need all the distance I can get, I struggle to reach most par 4’s in regulation not to mention long par 3’s and 5’s.
No roll back for me!
Do not limit ball distance or place limits on the technology of the clubs. It is still a hard game for average and above average players. It is great to see the pros hit the ball but to change the game because of the few that are in that league is rediculous.
I do not think equipment or balls should be restricted. If a course is too easy, placing more hazards 290-330 off the tee is the answer.
Personally I think the marketing to the professional golfer is not included in the amateur golfer whereas the pro gets everything for free and the amateur golfer has to pay exorbitant prices for equipment to get any thing like fitting for type of shaft or etc. like the pros. In other words we are paying for the pros clubs and balls. If this continues there will be a lot less golfers in the future but the industry will only increase the prices..This also doesn’t help the golf courses because they have to lengthen them. Which is another cost that the industry won’t help.
The distance debate really concerns only the touring pros who make up about 1/10 of 1 percent of all the golfers in the world. Most amateurs couldn’t care less about it. Your average 6,300 yard course presents all the challenge most of them will ever need.
There’s no need to dial back the equipment. Just make tour courses more penal to put a greater premium on accuracy. I find the bomb and gouge game very boring. Long drives are impressive but golf involves so much more than an endless series of drive and a wedge.
Tighten the fairways and grow the rough to force pros to keep the ball in the short grass. If that results in shorter drives so be it.
Balls go toooo far when hit by the pros. 300 yards should be the maximum for pros. Recreational golfers might like to hit scooped up balls but I think everyone should play using the same balls as the pros…we can’t hit them 300 yards anyway.
Do what needs to be done, ensuring professional golf remains exciting to fans. Leave us amateurs alone though. I think I speak for most of us when I say as we age we naturally lose distance so let us enjoy hitting the driver as far as we can.
What is more important than absolute distance is relative distance. The longest hitting pros will still be 10 per cent longer than the average hitting pros, so roll back the ball 10 per cent and save the classic courses.
We just watched the AT and T at Pebble Beach last weekend. The announcers kept saying this is the shortest course on the PGA tour. I notice 2 or 3 under was a good score per day. So forget about the ball, the lengthening of courses just set up the course differently. Narrow the fairways to next to nothing from 280 yards to 375 yards on par 5’s and long par 4’s. If the pros want to hit in the rough let them. They will figure out pretty quickly if they want to bomb it and take chances on the rough especially if you use smaller greens like Pebble Beach. Maybe we need to go back to the home of golf and play links style? In any event the amateur golfer ( I have been playing for 58 years ) does not need any distance reductions in the ball clubs or anything else. Two years ago I had a first in golf. I came up to a 226 yard par three. It was the first time I ever hit a driver on a par three. So if you reduce the distance then I believe you will reduce the number of golfers also. Lets see who buys the new clubs, the balls, the lessons oh yes the amateur. Don’t kill the golden goose!
As a 85 year old senior who has played golf from the age of 12, I find that I have abandoned my skills of shaping my shots in pursuit of lengthening each club, like the pros. Yes I have swallowed my pride and moved up to other sets of tees in my senior years when I tired of hitting three wood approach shots to lengthening holes.
I would welcome some reduced ball travel and a return to the old skills of the game.
Hi
I don’t think most amateurs hit the ball too far.
Also the average age of golfers is getting older who also don’t hit it as far.
I don’t think any change should be made .
For the pros make the fare way soft where the ball lands on the drive so no thirty yard roll and rough higher.
Also rake bunkers with every other tooth out so it is a hazard for them.
PGA should change the golf ball to be used by the pro,s
In a tournament in order to maintain the intent of the golf course architect to allow for the placement of traps etc. As to not be able to blow over every hazard on the course . Or every dog leg.
The average golfer can no longer even imagine hitting the ball with a nine iron 180 yards it is getting out of control.
Penalizing the golfer for advancements in tech is absurd. The clubs are the same for all but not all hit the ball 300+… preparation, diet, flexibility to name a few are part of the reason some pros have this ability. However the biggest reason is pure talent and hard work! Has anyone seen the long drive competitions??? The ball can be banged a long way past where todays PGA pros are hitting it – they just can hit it straight! Plus the ball still needs to get in the hole so you better have a good short game and putter. Guys like Johnson, McIIroy and Finau work diligently at their craft and will work even harder if the courses are set up tougher at the longer distances. Like a few posts before me – if the course is set up tougher at 300+ yards on some holes – the pros and amateurs alike(that can bomb it) will think twice about the big stick. Risk and reward… I don’t know about you … but I love the short par 4 that the pros pull driver and knock it on, as an amateur I love trying too (when there is wind assist!)
They better not make my brand new $700.00 driver illegal.
Even making my 3 boxes of Pro-v illegal would not sit well. Freeze everything at this level would be fine and would probably save me some money.
I feel the distance should be rolled back. Watching a pro hit driver then six or seven iron to the green on his second shot on a par 5 is a joke. As far as amateurs are concerned, have them move up one set of tees and speed up the game.
The golf ball goes too far. It is a great ball for Senior players because they have not lost a great amount of distance as they have aged. So for a Senior, the game can still be fun. However, in the hands of anybody 55 years and under the ball goes too far in varying distances separated by age of the player. Any good young amateur golfer hits it starting at 300 yards. A decent 55 year old hits it about 270 yards. It is the equipment more than athletic ability. If it was just athletic ability then baseball would be knocking balls out of stadiums at record rates. That is not happening because baseball has held to tradition. Wooden bats not aluminum. No jacked up baseballs. I have lost interest watching PGA pros hitting 340 yards and being out driven by some players. To me, that is not golf. To me golf is about hitting a four iron or lower to a par 4 after hitting a good drive. Hitting par five holes in three shots. That is golf and to score you have to be good.