With the modern golfer on the PGA Tour able to regularly hit a ball north of 300 or more yards and technology ever improving, the conversation about levelling the field a bit remains vibrant.
Over the years in recent times, there’s been countless discussions on making the ball different, cutting back on driver specs and also shortening and lengthening courses.
There is, of course, only so much you can do with a golf course, which brings into the spotlight the idea of altering equipment.
- READ MORE: Augusta National has one hole which Jack Nicklaus can’t believe has not been changed in recent years
However, while most would suggest full scale changes across the board in golf, former Masters winner Patrick Reed actually has other ideas.
Patrick Reed shares controversial opinion on golf equipment changes
Speaking to Fried Egg Golf, Reed was asked about the potential for equipment changes in golf but rather than tow the line, he feels things should be harder for the professionals.
“Ooh, some people are going to hate me for this one. Personally, I don’t know what they’re going to do because they haven’t really said how they’re going to draw these back, right,” Reed began.
“But I think you go back to the lower compression, back playing the balata for professionals where, if you mishit one of those, they would spin so much and they’d start going sideways. And then with the driver heads: make them smaller. Make them back to almost like they were back when metal woods first came out. Make them tiny, make them small heads. Then it puts a premium on hitting the ball in the middle.
“If you can swing it 130 miles an hour or however fast these guys can swing it, and have ball speeds however fast they are, more power to you. But you better hit it in the screws and have control of that face.
“We’re the top 1% in golf – the guys out here on tour. It shouldn’t matter if we’re using the dinner plates as drivers nowadays that you can hit anywhere on the face and hit it straight. We should be able to hit the small ones. We should be able to have the control and have the finesse to be able to do things like that, to hit different shots.”
Patrick Reed wants golf made harder for professionals
Going into even more detail on the issues and how professionals should be able to manage, Reed then explained why he feels things should be harder for the pros.
“I can still hit my persimmon driver. I have some that I’ve practiced with for technique purposes to make sure I hit the ball solid and square. If I hit that with my normal golf ball, it still goes 275 yards. My (modern) driver, I hit 305 yards? So 30 yards,” Reed continued.
“My swing speed with the smaller head is going to be a little slower than it is with the big one because with my normal driver, I know I can swing hard. And if I barely miss the centre, it’s fine. But with that persimmon head, you have to swing within yourself, you have to hit it solid. I have no problem with them rolling it back.
“I just want to know how they’re going to do it. If you’re going to keep these drivers at 460 CCs where the sweet spot is almost the entire head, guys are just going to keep swinging harder and harder. And I’d rather shrink it, make us be the athletes that we are, make us be that top percent that we’ve put all of our grind into and let us show off.
“Those shots Tiger and those guys were hitting with the small heads and the stingers and what they were able to do with the balls back then, it’s almost impossible to do that stuff now. The golf ball will not allow it. Allow us to show off and do things like that. That is what’s cool to me.
“You look at every other major sport, the rules at every other level are different than at the professional level. So roll it back for us, do what you need to do. Make it hard for us, make the smaller heads, make the ball really spinny and kind of go different ways. Make us be creative.
“That doesn’t mean that you have to do that for everybody. I have no problem with having us play this type of equipment and the amateurs using the equipment they use these days. No problem whatsoever. It doesn’t have to be the same across the board.”
What Rory McIlroy said about equipment changes
With the issue of rolling golf balls back to make them not go as far, Rory McIlroy is among those who have been vocal on the issue before.
Indeed, in a rare social media post back in 2023, McIlroy actually tended to agree with Reed as he suggested a bifurcation of the game.
As time passes by, these issues will continue to rear their heads but there are official plans for a golf ball rollback from 2028 for the pro game, while it will impact the average amateur in 2030.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
