The rollback of the golf ball has been delayed but not gone.
The USGA and R&A recently moved away from their original plan to introduce the new dance standard for the elite competition in 2028 before extending it to everyone else in 2030. Instead, the governing bodies are aiming for a single implementation date in 2030, because we would all jump into the brave new world together. They issued a formal notice to the producers this week which is open for comments until October 21.
If you ask me, that’s a big headache for not nearly enough of a benefit.
I understand the reasoning behind the rollback. Professional golfers hit the ball incredible distances. We only averaged 331 yards per tee shot, set the all-time distance record on the PGA Tour. Courses were lengthened as a reaction (which I think is ridiculous), the bunkers were moved and the classic architecture was occasionally overwhelmed by the advances of equipment and increasingly athletic players.
But making the golf ball slightly shorter for everyone remains an unnecessarily blunt solution to a problem created by a tiny percentage of golfers.
And ultimately, if you give players and manufacturers a new set of guidelines, eventually they will discover a way to optimize each club and ball to maximize their distance and forgiveness. It just seems like we’re doing a hell of a lot for very little gain and ending up in a similar place not long from here.
I also understand that recreational players may not see much effect with the rollback, but it shouldn’t be a part of this conversation in the first place. When was the last time you played a course and thought, “this place is too short for 14-handicaps”?
They’re not flying fairway bunkers from 315 yards or reducing 500-yard par-4s to a pitch ‘n’ putt. The weekend pirates are just trying to carry the ball 220 yards, reach a par-4 in regulation and finish before sunset.
And it’s frustrating because I think there are two alternatives that accomplish a lot of what the dance rollback is trying to accomplish.
If professional golf wants to refresh its players longer and bring back more skill in the game, why not go with two cheaper, simpler and much more interesting alternatives: restrict the professionals to 10 clubs and make them use shorter tees.?
One part attacks specialization. The other will directly address the driving distance.
And, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t blame the ordinary golfer either.
Give professional golfers only 10 clubs
The 14 club limit has existed for almost 90 years, but there is nothing sacred, scientific or significant about that particular number.
The governing bodies chose him to put out a fire. At the 1935 US Open, professionals carried an average of 18 clubs. Lawson Little, one of the best golfers of his generation, said he drove as many as 30 (I’d hate to be his caddy).
It got out of hand (literally) because they put a stop to the nonsense.
But the number 14? It is only the gospel because a nearly century-old rule says it is.
Tour players now have gear built for remarkably specific purposes. They carry multiple wedges separated by narrow loft spaces, driver irons designed for certain courses and high-lofted fairway woods that land like the proverbial butterfly with sore feet.
That’s impressive…but it also eliminates decisions.
They have a club for almost every distance. There is less need to take something from a longer club, hit a shorter club harder or change the trajectory. The equipment menu is comprehensive enough to provide a highly specialized answer for almost any question and you have many professionals who do not play an imaginative brand of golf. It’s robotic.
The reduction of the professional limit to 10 clubs would change, in my opinion.
Players have to build their bags specifically for each course. Do you need four wedges in a short and demanding spot or do you prefer to keep your options near the top of the bag? Drive a 3-wood for two reachable par-5s or use that spot on another iron to close a pesky yardage gap?
These decisions will become an integral part of the tournament. We all talk about it at length. Producers will have more focus, not less.
Broadcasters may explain why a player chose a 7-wood over a 3-iron or why someone left a space between their 6- and 8-iron. When a golfer has an annoying yardage, we’ve seen him improvise instead of selecting the perfectly calibrated option.
The best players will always win. I would say the best players will win more. They just have to demonstrate a wider range of skills along the way.
This rule must apply only to elite competition. Recreational golfers should be allowed to carry 14 clubs (or more, for all I care).
There is no reason to make golf harder for someone who plays twice a month. If a 15th, 16th or 17th club helps a 15-handicapper enjoy the round, let him carry it.
Professional golf should be asked to become more challenging but in an interesting way like this. Recreational golf should be encouraged to become more enjoyable.
These are not contradictory positions for me.
Lower the tee and watch what happens
The 10 clubs rule improves strategy, but probably won’t have any effect on driving distance. Practically every player keeps a driver in the bag. After all, it has become the most important club in pro golf. Even Tiger admitted so.
This is where the height of the tee comes into the equation.
Go ahead and laugh. I’m serious.
Nick Faldo recently proposed making the pros use one-inch tees, an idea Rory McIlroy said he would support testing (Faldo also endorsed reducing the number of clubs available to PGA Tour players).
A modern driver is designed to launch the ball high with relatively low spin. Teeing the ball high makes it easier to hook the top of the face and hit it high through impact, helping players create the launch conditions needed to maximize distance.
Lower the ball and that becomes substantially more difficult. How do you know? We tried!
In our tee height testshots hit from a 1.5-inch tee carried an average of 14.19 yards farther than those hit from a half-inch tee. The total distance difference was 14.66 yards, while the lower tee produced about 326 additional revolutions per minute of spin.
This was a test involving a particular driver, ball and group of golfers, so we shouldn’t assume that every Tour player immediately loses exactly 14 yards. More extensive testing would be required.
The potential is obvious, though.
A lower tee would make center contact more difficult and reduce the ability to launch the ball with minimal spin. It could bring back low-key, controlled action and force players to decide when maximizing speed is really worth the risk.
At the moment, the driver is the safest club in the bag for professionals. This would make it a little less secure.
Current equipment rules allow tees up to four inches. For designated professional events, tournaments could provide one-inch tees—more palatable than going straight to half-inch tees—in each tee box and require players to use them. That would be extraordinarily cheap and easy to test.
Try it at a fall event. Collect launch-monitor data. Ask the players how it affected the location of the strike, the curvature, the distance of the carry and the selection of the club.
Baseball does this kind of minor league experimentation all the time. That’s how we ended up with the pitch clock (which was a massive hit).
If it doesn’t work, quit. Golf had lost almost nothing, right?
It’s much more attractive than forcing manufacturers to redesign entire product lines for what seems like a nebulous benefit.
Make professional golf different (but don’t make recreational golf worse)
The immediate objection will be bifurcation. There’s that word again.
Golf has traditionally appreciated the concept that professionals and amateurs play under the same rules. You can buy the same ball, play the same equipment and compare your score on the same course. That was the value that was protected with the rollback ball plan.
I appreciate that sentiment, but the professional game is already very different from the recreational game. It could be argued that they have never been further apart.
Tour players compete on perfectly groomed courses with grandstands, TIO (temporary immovable obstruction) relief, model local rules, spotters, rules referees, coaches and crew technicians. Its drivers are optimized to fractions of a degree. Go to a professional golf event and it is clear that you are basically playing a different sport compared to a weekend hack.
Pretending that their version of golf is identical to a Saturday morning quarter is increasingly ridiculous.
And if the fork is unacceptable, why should ordinary golfers eventually be required to use a shorter ball because the pros have it too far? It also imposes a solution designed for elite golf on millions of people who did not create the problem.
A limit of 10 clubs and shorter tees will produce a cleaner separation. Some will call it gimmicky, but it’s just weird because it goes against long-held arbitrary standards.
Let the pros keep the golf ball current, but make them think harder and work more creatively. Reduce their driving distance by changing the height they can tee the ball, not by changing the ball itself.
Meanwhile, leave the recreational golfers alone. That they use normal tees, the current ball and as many clubs as reason wants to wear.
Where is the cutoff? I would say that if you make a payment, these rules apply. If you’re not, I’m not.
am i crazy Let me know what you think in the comments.
Top Photo Caption: Scottie Scheffler tees off at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. (GETTY IMAGES/Brian Spurlock)
The place I am against the Ball Rollback. There are two other solutions that I like better appeared first MyGolfSpy.