Sir Nick Faldo is very much a traditionalist when it comes to the rules of golf.
When Nick Faldo was in his prime from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, he was one of the premium ball strikers in the game.
After winning 43 professional tournaments, including six major championships, the Englishman stopped playing competitively back in the mid-2000s and went on to become one of the most popular golf commentators.
He is well known for his harsh takes on modern-day players. Faldo recently claimed Rory McIlroy would find it very difficult to win another major championship, and numerous golf fans criticized him for that view.
Faldo also questioned McIlroy’s fitness regime, and he never shies away from telling it how it is, unlike many other pundits today.
We need more strong opinions like that in the professional game.
Now Faldo has lived up to his reputation once again when commenting on one upcoming rule change which he thinks is really bad news for the game.
Nick Faldo calls for rule change
The rules of golf have been a hot topic of discussion amongst fans and players alike over the past 12 months or so.
There are unquestionably some rules which are simply not fit for purpose anymore.
However, there is one rule which is coming into play within the next few years that will supposedly ensure the long-term viability and sustainability of some of the best golf courses on the planet.
The golf ball rollback will be brought in for the start of the 2028 season but Faldo is convinced that it’s a bad idea.
Faldo made an appearance on the National Club Golfer Podcast recently, and he responded when asked whether the upcoming golf ball rollback will be a good thing for the game.
“No, I don’t,” Faldo exclaimed.
“It’s designed for the guys who have got 125mph clubhead speed. If you’re back down at 100mph – you’re going to get affected more at that end than they are.
“They’re going to lose 10/15 yards off their 360-yard drive. Whoop-de-do! They’re now at 345. What difference does that make?
“But the other end is going to hurt. It’s a bigger percentage, isn’t it? If you’re hitting it 270 and you lose 15, that’s going to hurt a lot more than at the other end. I’m not a fan of rolling back – I keep going on about skill, bring back skill. The obvious (one) is the size of the driver face.
“I keep saying, if we had a tee peg, seven-eighths of an inch – you lose 10 or 15 yards just by the length of the tee peg,” Faldo said, as he began to explain his own solutions. “That doesn’t cost a dollar to write that in the book. I even thought for pros on a course under 7200 yards, which is short, say to the guys – no tee pegs this week. And if you’re good enough to place it and hit a driver off the deck, good for you.“
Nick Faldo wants two specific golf clubs to be banned forever
Faldo shared another idea he has to simply make the game tougher without rolling back the golf ball.
And it revolved around taking two golf clubs completely out of play for good.
Does the rule on mud balls if you hit the fairway need changing?
“If we’ve got length rules, what if we said nothing less than 10 degrees with a driver? That’s like a 2 wood, but it’s a different-shaped shot. And we go to the other end, 56 degrees is the max. That’s it, no more 60s and 62s (wedges). That’s a written rule change that’s not going to cost the manufacturers a penny, but they would then start developing the driver. How can we make the driver go further at 10 degrees?
“There’s a handful of guys who can hit it 340 through the air. That is frightening, to think a seriously good driver in my day was 260,” he continued.
“Try and bring back the skill in the game – we need that separation back to the old school. If you were in the top dozen guys who could really strike it well, you were a better player, week in week out, you were better than the average guy. Now, ball striking is simple. There are 100 or 200 really good ball strikers.
“You can miss the centre by a long way. In the old days, that would be a real clanker. If you were 12 millimetres off centre – that’s a big half inch. If you missed it by a half inch, you’d be giving it the ‘Ow!’ on your fingers. But now, you’re like, that didn’t feel great, and it’s gone four yards left.”
Faldo wants more skill brought back into the game, and banning the 60 and 62 degree wedges would be a great way of ensuring that more touch and imagination is required around the greens.
In fairness to the six-time major champion, his ideas to combat old fashioned golf courses being made redundant by the long hitters of today seem far better than the USGA and the R&A’s golf ball rollback plan.
It does make you wonder: are golf’s governing bodies seeking out the opinions of the players at the top of the game and legends from previous generations?
The answer to that question sadly seems like it’s no, unfortunately.
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