On Wednesday, the United States Golf Association and the R&A are expected to announce an across-the-board rollback of the golf ball for all players, be they professional or amateur.
At the professional level, the new ball is expected to reduce driving distance by 15 yards for the longest hitters. For the average touring professional, the reduction is projected to be closer to 9 yards. At the recreational level, the effect should be about a 4-yard loss.
This move is a dramatic about-face from numerous statements made by the governing bodies that they wanted to avoid negatively impacting the recreational game. For many months, the USGA and R&A went to great lengths to reassure the industry that they didn’t want to alter the recreational game in any way, given how healthy it has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The change will take effect January 1, 2028, when the governing bodies expect golf ball manufacturers to comply with the new ball specifications. Recreational golfers will have a two-year grace period and will be expected to use the new conforming ball beginning January 1, 2030.
In a letter to the governing bodies last week, the PGA Tour made clear its objections. The crux of the matter is that the tour believes that all affected stakeholders need to be part of the process, to have a seat at the table as it relates to equipment regulation. They are concerned that the governing bodies are listening to their concerns but not actually hearing them.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are on the record as supporting the notion of some form of rollback for touring professionals, but at least two of their PGA Tour colleagues were quick to criticize the move for the broader game. "For the amateur world, to hit the ball shorter is monstrous," said Keegan Bradley, who called the rollback "stupid." Rickie Fowler added: "Those weekend guys aren't going to want to hit it shorter," noting, "there are other ways to work at this."
The PGA World Alliance, composed of nine associations around the world and led by the PGA of America, also wrote to the governing bodies late last week, expressing concern with the decision, sources told GGP. Their reasons are similar to the PGA Tour’s, but the alliance is looking out for the entire game, not just the elite professionals.
Augusta National Golf Club, host of the annual Masters Tournament and a leading voice in the game, is expected to support the governing bodies.
Mixed reaction is expected from the golf ball manufacturing community, which was briefed on the change last week.
Acushnet Golf, parent of the Titleist brand of golf balls, likely will push back on the new rule. The company has been very vocal in its opposition to any change in ball regulations, believing that current protocols are working, and that distance poses no imminent threat to the game. Other ball makers are likely to characterize the new rule as a compromise and a better move than bifurcation – separate standards for touring professionals and elite amateurs compared with the rest of golfers – which had been on the table since last March.
The letter from the tour, described to GGP by officials who were briefed on it, made several points. First, to make a hard rules change without a proper “notice and comment” period is inconsistent with the Vancouver Protocol, a 2011 agreement that would guide the golf equipment manufacturers and the governing bodies as it relates to any proposed equipment rules changes. In the eyes of the PGA Tour, the process is simply moving too fast.
Secondly, the tour believes that the interpretation and usage of the data to support the case for a rollback are improper. The data used by the governing bodies to guide their decision were provided by the PGA Tour from its ShotLink platform. The information was not intended for policy making but rather to support the tour’s TV broadcast effort. The way the governing bodies are manipulating and interpreting the data focuses too much on the longest hitters – 320-plus yards on tour – and therefore is not representative of tour players as a whole, the tour contends. The tour average last season was 299.9 yards, with 98 players topping 300 yards.
The PGA Tour also contends that the proposal ultimately will be ineffective. By tweaking other variables, the tour thinks that most of its members will be able to recapture lost distance over time, and therefore nothing will have changed. Equipment manufacturers suggest there might be as many as nine levers – including shaft length and weight as well as data-driven optimization of club and ball – that enable a player to add distance. The governing bodies seem to be interested in only one: the golf ball.
However, the overarching message delivered in the letter is that when it comes to golf equipment regulation, all stakeholders – the tour, the PGAs, the equipment makers – should have seats at the table. The tour wants more transparency and a more collaborative process.
The rules change would serve as the culmination of a five-plus-years multi-faceted project shepherded by the USGA and the R&A “to study the past, present and future impacts of distance in golf.” The governing bodies hope this decision ends decades of debate and discussion about the effects of driving distance on golf at the elite level. Many argued that the required skill set to play the game at an elite level was declining as golf professionals continued to drive the ball farther each year. Others pointed out that there were many factors in this increased distance, including greater athleticism and fitness, better equipment (clubs and balls), increased data-driven optimization of club and ball at launch, advanced agronomy practices that enable well-struck balls to run out on fairways, and improved instruction.