Pros won’t be hitting golf balls this far forever, whether they like it or not

LOS ANGELES – The United States Golf Association (USGA) acknowledged on Wednesday that it had heard ferocious opposition to its proposal for professional players

to use balls that travel shorter distances

– but it also had no interest in abandoning its ambitions to rein in equipment in the next several years.

The association and the R&A, a governing body based in Britain, had in March proposed a rule that they estimated could trim top golfers’ tee shots by an average of about 15 yards.

Framed as an effort to preserve the sport and the relevance of many of its finest courses, the proposal provoked a backlash among hard-driving professionals and equipment manufacturers, who relish selling weekend duffers the same balls the stars strike at events like this week’s US Open.

“Our intent is pure; it’s not malicious,” Fred Perpall, the USGA’s president, said at the Los Angeles Country Club.

“We’re thinking about all the good that this good game has given us, and we’re thinking about what is our responsibility to make sure that this game is still strong and healthy 50 years from now for our children’s children.”

The debate about distance in golf has played out for years, with executives increasingly irritated with stopgap fixes, like redesigning holes to accommodate the game’s most potent hitters. Some of the sport’s retired greats, including Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, have pressed golf’s rule book writers to take blunt action.

“Not everybody’s got the ability to go buy the golf course next door, like you do at Augusta,” Nicklaus said at the Masters in April. “You can’t just keep buying land and adding.”

In the 2003 season, PGA Tour players recorded an average driving distance of about 286 yards. So far this season, the tour’s average stands at nearly 299 yards. Some 91 players – up nearly 10 per cent since the USGA and the R&A released their proposal – exceed 300 yards on average.

Under the plan, balls that travel more than 317 yards when struck at 127mph (204kmh) would generally be banned.

The USGA and the R&A are gathering feedback about their proposal, which would not take effect until at least 2026. They would almost certainly impose the rule at the events they control, including the US Open and the British Open, two of the four men’s Majors.

But other golf power brokers, including the PGA Tour, have not embraced the plan, and many of the game’s biggest stars have openly resisted the thought of deliberately curbing distance.

Even those who have been receptive to the idea have urged golf’s leaders to have a consistent standard, without differences for top-tier professionals.

“I just don’t think you should have a ball for the pros that might be used some tournaments, might not be used some tournaments, then amateurs can buy different golf balls,” said Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the 2022 US Open.

PGA Tour players recently met USGA officials and manufacturers to discuss the proposal, and Patrick Cantlay said this week that “tensions were high” in those sessions.

Mike Whan, the USGA’s chief executive, said on Wednesday that he was sensitive to the concerns and suggested that the governing bodies could tweak their proposals in the months ahead.

But he emphasised that neither he nor Perpall indicated plans for a wholesale surrender.

“If you’re going to take on significant governance decisions that you think are going to help the game be stronger in 20 and 40 years, you can’t expect everybody to like those decisions,” he said.

“But I think the feedback process is important. Even when we don’t like the feedback, it makes us better.”
NYTIMES