OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA | Per USGA custom, the governing body’s president, Fred Perpall, and CEO Mike Whan met with the media in advance of the U.S. Open at Oakmont and addressed a wide variety of topics. Among them was the state of the golf ball distance situation.
Along with its governance partner in the game, the R&A, the USGA issued new golf ball testing protocols for all golfers in December 2023. The new protocols are intended to deal with what they believe is a vexing problem of increasing distance off the tee, primarily in the professional game. Commonly referred to as “rollback,” a term the USGA strongly dislikes, the new testing methodology goes into effect for the professional and elite amateur game in 2028, and in 2030 for recreational players.
Perpall and Whan strongly defended the USGA’s Notice of Decision regarding ball testing, and despite continued lobbying by other golf organizations and ball manufacturers, they made it clear that they are “full speed ahead” and are now more interested in discussing the fine points of implementation rather than continuing to litigate the final decision.
Whan participated in a meeting at Oakmont with other industry constituents. It was the third such meeting of the year, and it was intended to promote collaboration and consensus around this issue. Among those in attendance were: R&A chief executive Mark Darbon; PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan; PGA of America president Don Rea and CEO Derek Sprague; Augusta National Golf Club executive director Will Jones; and PGA of Great Britain chief executive Rob Maxfield. DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings and LPGA interim commissioner Liz Moore participated virtually.
Observed Whan: “I’m really excited that the different stakeholders are in the room talking about the how-to and what further things we need to know to do that better.”
Since the so-called rollback was announced, a new dynamic has emerged. The PGA Tour now has a for-profit arm, PGA Tour Enterprises, with investors, the Strategic Sports Group. This powerful and uber-wealthy group has interests in other sports, including the NFL, Major League Baseball and the Premiere League in Europe. Some of the individuals are said to be dismayed that a third party – the governing bodies – can dictate the terms and conditions of the competition. And some are said to be not too pleased that that third party could potentially disrupt the business of the PGA Tour and impact their investment.
“Could we come across something that would make us feel like our decision needs to be altered? Could. We’re definitely going to stay open-minded to that. But we have yet to see anything that would suggest that.”
Mike Whan
This has led to speculation that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour might not go along with the new protocols. Although the pro tours don’t want to be in the rules-making business, they retain the right to make their own rules, and this option is under consideration. It is well known that the new protocols have generated little if any support among the rank-and-file PGA Tour members or their Player Advisory Council.
Encouraged and empowered by the SSG and its investors, the two leading professional tours may choose not to adhere to the governing bodies’ mandates.
If this were to occur, it is entirely possible that the PGAs around the world would align with the pro tours. Rea and Sprague, both relatively new in their positions with the PGA of America, have made it clear on several occasions that they are opposed to the coming change. Maxfield has been in vocal opposition in Europe from the beginning of the process.
The PGAs have many concerns. A key one is that their members, the on-course golf professionals, are on the firing line with recreational golfers. They are the ones who are going to have to explain and defend the change to recreational golfers. And they are the ones who are going to have to enforce it at the golf course level. That will not be easy or fun if the new golf balls prove to be unpopular among recreational golfers.
The PGAs also believe that most recreational players are distance challenged, and any rollback could cause greater frustration and curtail growth in participation.
Should all of this come true, the game of golf will have an existential crisis. It is a chaos scenario, with all kinds of unknown second-order consequences.
Because the new protocols don’t kick in for the recreational game until 2030, the issue is not on the radar screen for most consumer golfers. And it likely won’t be until sometime in 2029, when the reality of the timeline becomes apparent. The focus then will be the three million golfers who have handicap indexes, the real sign of seriousness about the game. Should the tours and PGAs go their own way, will retail golfers follow the rules put forth by the conventional governing bodies, or will they take their lead from the professional tours and demand to play the same golf balls they have always played?
This all comes at a time when the health of the global game may be in as good a condition as it ever has been. TV ratings for the PGA Tour have rebounded and pro purses are higher than ever before. Recreational participation has risen every year since 2019. Women and young girls are coming to the game in numbers never before seen. Private clubs have waiting lists, daily-fee courses have full tee sheets in season, and COVID-related “revenge travel” remains strong.
To then have a schism in the game – with the governing bodies and Augusta National on one side and the professional tours and PGAs on the other – would be disastrous. Reputational harm will likely come to all parties, and the recreational golfer will be caught in the middle.
The good news: there is time. But there is also urgency. Testing of real prototype golf balls is underway, in an effort to understand how the proposed new balls will perform in the real world for both professionals and recreational golfers. The resulting data will go a long way toward deciding the outcome of this years-long saga.
Whan hedged ever so slightly, perhaps for the first time, at the press conference. “Could we come across something that would make us feel like our decision needs to be altered? Could. We’re definitely going to stay open-minded to that. But we have yet to see anything that would suggest that.”
The people in that Oakmont meeting care deeply about the game. They are bright, talented, and dedicated servants of the game. Here’s hoping they can forge a consensus that makes everyone reasonably happy, most especially the recreational golfer who drives the game.
As Whan observed at the press conference, golf governance is hard. Especially when it comes to equipment regulation.
E-MAIL JIM
Top: USGA CEO Mike Whan tries to orchestrate consensus on the thorny issue of equipment regulation.
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