Chicken little ran screaming…the ball is too long, the ball is too long, golf will never be the same.
The USGA has decided that distance is ruining this once great game. This drum beat has been getting louder and louder for the last 25 years. Ever since Tiger woods made Augusta National look like the prettiest muni track in the world and full on trucked the field.
The response to this once in a generation talent was to lengthen the Master track by 500 yards. The Goat looked at what they had done to challenge his talent, and proceeded to go back to back wins, that he didn’t threepeat was seen as a victory.
See the reason that length alone did not faze Tiger has to do with his all around game. Dude was the best ball striker of maybe any generation and his putting and short game were not bad either.
What the extra length did do, is give the longer hitters an advantage. Since professional golf is not a long drive contest, just ask Kyle Berkshire, that long drive has to be followed up by an elite approach and putt. Maybe a chip or sand shot too.
The retort from the long ball haters is “ but there are so many more players driving it 300 yards or more” yes, well given the modern PGA course length of, on average, 7300 yards you would have to average 300 yards to be competitive. Crank the distance back to 6900 yards and neck the fairway at 300 yards and watch all the short hitters (280 yards) start roaring to the top of leader boards.
The irony of all of this, is that in stretching the golf courses the people that scream that distance is killing the game are the ones sending the signal to players that they need distance to compete.
The same people that are telling the average golfer to move up a tee or two because they don’t hit it far enough, seem unaware that making pros compete on longer courses means the longer players have an advantage.
So let’s forget about all this making the courses longer and blame all the distance on technology, yeah that’s the ticket. Let’s forget we made it nearly impossible for a 280 player to win or be competitive, let’s just roll the ball back. Brilliant!
Further lets forget that the average club golfer has improved distance off the tee by only 20 – 25 yards since 1990. So while the USGA talks about the ball rollback being a “nothing burger” that 5 yards is a 20% reduction of what you and I have gained over the years.
The pga tour average has improved by roughly double the amateur gain during the same period. Same technology, yet twice the distance. Could it be that the biggest variable is the athlete? Could it be that by offering larger and larger prize pools and longer and longer courses to compete on, the tours have brought better and faster athletes into the game and now the USGA wants the merry go round to stop so they can bring us all back to a simpler time of ballata and persimmon, of blades and plaid pants.
Bryson Dechambeu seems to think that the fundamental question of what is the desired endstate has to be answered. As in do we want to grow the game of golf or do we want to make the game look more like it did in whatever period the governing bodies are trying to achieve, because you can’t do both, these are mutually exclusive goals.
The USGA and those that support these efforts to pull distance out of the game mistake nostalgia for stewardship of the game. The truth is that courses are faster, longer, and prize purses are life changing. In response better and faster athletes are rushing in.
The ball didn’t do that. The driver didn’t do that. Equipment is not what’s changing the game.
The game is still about the lowest score regardless of technology or athleticism. Statistics have changed the game as much or more. Strokes gained have put drivers in the hands of golfers more often. Strokes gained and Decade have stressed that one shot shape is more consistent than hitting it both ways. Are we going to outlaw these things too? Because you would have to roll back knowledge as well if you want golf to look as it once did.
So my open question to the USGA is simple, do you want nostalgia or a growing thriving game?
I know what my answer is.
May the fairways be with you!