The golf ball rollback has been the source of heated debate over the last week.
The rollback aims to reduce the distance golf balls travel to rein in the insane distances players are achieving off the tee in the modern game. Reducing distance is much needed, but the effectiveness of this rollback is questionable.
Cameron Young is already using a golf ball that would comply under the new rules, and the difference in his distance off the tee has been negligible. By the time the law comes into effect, the manufacturers will have rendered the change useless.
So Golf Channel analyst Ryan Lavner has named changes that players would rather see made to the game that would actually make a difference.
The changes PGA Tour players want to see instead of the golf ball rollback
The general consensus is that the rollback won’t have its desired effect. Lavner said that isn’t the end of the world, because it was only ever meant to slow down progress, instead of stop it altogether.
And on the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav, he named some changes he thinks players would rather see. Speaking about the rollback, he said, “The issue is that they’re entrenched. They’re not necessarily entrenched on the idea that we want to continue hitting 350-yard missiles.
“What you have presented is not a fix. It’s disproportionately affecting players. And so maybe the solution here, Rex, is that they kick the can. This is supposed to be implemented at the beginning of 2028 for professional players, elite players, and then for the recreational players supposed to be implemented in 2030.
“I think a potential solution here is to just have one implementation date back at 2030. However, I think it would also behoove the governing bodies to look is there a larger scale rollback that we can do? Not just the golf ball, which again may or may not be making any sort of tangible difference as it relates to driving distance.
How will the golf ball rollback affect the PGA Tour?
“And keep in mind, the whole point of the rollback wasn’t necessarily to bring the game back to the 1980s. It’s to pause or stop the huge gains, the significant gains that we’ve seen in driving distance. So right now, if the PGA Tour leader is at 320 yards, you don’t want to have a scenario where by 2030, all of a sudden that player is at 335 yards.
“If you could just either maintain that until you make other changes, whether it’s to the length of the driver shaft, whether it’s to uh the size of the driver head, I think those would be technological roll backs I think players would be interested in seeing as well because that would be a tangible difference in driving distance and all of a sudden you can go to some more some some more of the courses.
“Obviously, Mike Wall will be speaking ahead of the US Open in a couple of weeks’ time, where he will no doubt be asked about the player reaction. Obviously, the Trump card as well for the governing bodies is they can say, ‘Even if we do not have the PGA Tour support, I don’t care.
“We’re going to be using it at the Masters, we’re going to be using it at the US Open. We’re going to be using it at the Open Championship.’
“And so, if you’re a PGA Tour player, what do you do? Do you all of a sudden adopt that rolled back golf ball, knowing that you’re going to need it for the biggest events of the year, or do you somehow try to bed in two different uh golf balls? I think that is the trump card if you were the governing bodies.”
The drastic change that should be made instead of the rollback
We are currently in desperate times with the rapid advancement of technology, and that calls for desperate measures. If golf’s governing bodies truly want to stop this issue and sort it now, then they should consider this drastic move.
Drivers should be banned. That’s the club that is causing the most difficulties, with players hitting them comfortably over 300 yards.
If the driver was banned, and the longest club allowed was a three-wood, then that would immediately solve the issue. Make the largest club head allowed the size of a three wood, the same goes for the loft and shaft length.
It might not be a popular move, but if manufacturers refuse to help bring the game back to a sustainable position, then it’s the type of decision that must be made.
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