30 Comments

1. 

   GMatt

   Mar 7, 2018 at 12:05 pm

   Again, the USGA is out of touch with 99.99% of the golfers in the world. Why are they concerned with distance of maybe 1,000 touring pros in the world when the distance of millions of normal amateur golfers hasn’t really changed, same as handicaps….

   For an organization that is supposedly around to grow the game, they sure are doing their best to stagnate it a best. What is increasing distance? (not necessarily in order of importance) agronomy-better turf conditions than in years past, better equipment, lower spinning ball, bigger and more athletic players. So I guess in addition to rolling back the ball, the USGA should limit strength and size of us players, they should roll back the care of the course to goat pastures of years past, they should take over the equipment companies and tell them to no longer innovate and improve golf clubs and balls.

   Does this all sound absurdly stupid to you? Perhaps the USGA should listen to the very people they claim to represent and not cater to their own agenda. Both Matt Adams and Michael Breed this morning were extremely outspoken about this very subject

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2. 

   JThunder

   Mar 6, 2018 at 11:25 pm

   Instead of rolling back the ball, how about a limit on height and fitness of tour players?

   If you want to protect par, just reduce the par by one on every PGA Tour hole.

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3. 

   JThunder

   Mar 6, 2018 at 11:23 pm

   If they want real numbers, maybe they should be measuring more than two holes per tournament. Seems like a lot can go wrong with that baseline, as I believe the PGA Tour and others are now pointing out.

   Have they genuinely kept track of “driver use” on these holes over the years. Today’s top players seem to hit 3 wood less and less – Dustin, Justin, etc. It doesn’t take much to change a stat by 3 yards (at 300 yd drive ~ 1% gain) if a few pros go from 3wd to driver.

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4. 

   MT

   Mar 6, 2018 at 4:32 am

   Don’t know about you guys, but I hate one sided half the story reporting.

   They state the 3 yards as some huge “Oh No”.
   What they don’t mention is the average swing speed of tour players over the last 10 years.

   To prove their point. They need to show swing speed staying the same while distance is increasing.

   The data is all there and available. Swing speed vs ball speed vs distance.

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   • 

     Matt

     Mar 6, 2018 at 10:29 am

     Roll it back!!

     This isn’t about hackers. If you carry it 220 or less off the tee, which something like 90% of golfers do, you won’t even notice a difference. You don’t compress the ball enough for it to matter. These changes will stop the 200 yard 7 irons and 330 yard drives. Bring back some shaping and skill. Shorten courses, so you can walk them, and play in less than 6 hours. The longer the ball goes the further off line it goes. Less time in the woods, less time waiting behind foursomes looking for balls. Etc. etc. etc.

     Roll it back!

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     • 

       Matt

       Mar 6, 2018 at 10:30 am

       Didn’t mean to reply to your comment – just a general comment.

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5. 

   Steve

   Mar 5, 2018 at 7:26 pm

   I just took up golf this past summer. I am not very good, but I have learned that eventually I will know the distance for each club. I would think the pros should be much more efficient at that than I am, so who cares what the length of the course is.

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   • 

     Du

     Mar 6, 2018 at 3:25 am

     No need to lie, dude

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6. 

   DaveT

   Mar 5, 2018 at 5:42 pm

   My position is that the USGA is not interested in protecting golf; they are interested in protecting par. They’d do a lot more for golf if they ignored the 3yd/drive/year increase, and allow the Tour to amaze us viewers even more than they do now. That will sustain interest in the game on TV. I guarantee nobody I play golf with is going to threaten the viability of today’s golf courses. If you make the courses play longer (either by changing the courses, the ball, or the clubs), you’ll anger the vast majority of golfers.

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7. 

   Anthony

   Mar 5, 2018 at 3:43 pm

   3 yards? Better make the golf courses 8000 yards to combat that!
   What a load of the proverbial!!!!

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8. 

   John

   Mar 5, 2018 at 3:29 pm

   For years the PGA and R&A have tried to tackle the distance issue by lengthening courses. Any fool can see that this merely plays into the hands of the bigger hitters. If I had anything to do with it I’d shorten the courses and bring the shorter guys into the picture. Make the course layouts reward skill rather than brute force. The old ‘drive for show, putt for sigh’ maxim still holds true but to a far lesser extent nowadays. Shorter courses might also address the nonsense of six hour rounds. Not by much probably but any reduction would be welcome.

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   • 

     John

     Mar 5, 2018 at 3:32 pm

     ‘Drive for show, putt for dough’ obviously. Damn autocorrect!

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9. 

   Alfredo Smith

   Mar 5, 2018 at 2:42 pm

   SHANK! The only thing that needs rolling is a big fat doobie after reading this nonsense.

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10. 

    Patricknorm

    Mar 5, 2018 at 2:33 pm

    I’ve been to many PGA Tour events, and the one that I notice right away is how big most players are. 30 years ago the odd player was over 6’1” but today when you see a Tony Finau or Dustin Johnson even Matt Kuchar, they’re all over 6’3”. 30 years ago before Tiger came along and purses increased, those athletes may have tried other sports like tennis or basketball. Plus, you can’t dismiss the John Daly effect who gave kids permission to “ grip and rip” the ball. Today most players , when they drive the ball, are out of their shoes.
    And then add in technology and better agronomy, well it was bound to happen.

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11. 

    joe

    Mar 5, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    Make the pro’s go back to persimmon, we’ll see who the best golfers really are…

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    • 

      Mikele

      Mar 5, 2018 at 2:24 pm

      Let’s go back to Radio Shack 64k RAM computers so we can see who the real computer users are.

      Dumb, dumb, dumb.

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      • 

        Dr Troy

        Mar 5, 2018 at 4:18 pm

        Exactly….3 yards is nothing. Everyone needs to go chill out and move on to other world problems in Golf.

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12. 

    george

    Mar 5, 2018 at 1:09 pm

    No need to roll back the ball for us amateurs. Just outlaw the Trackman/Flightscope/GCQuad.

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13. 

    JD

    Mar 5, 2018 at 12:43 pm

    Yeah I’m sure the cost of extending a par 4 at Augusta is going to trickle down to the muni courses I play.

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14. 

    Rich

    Mar 5, 2018 at 12:40 pm

    WOW! Are you kidding me? The players are in better condition,use better methods in training,video usage and the equipment has better materials and technology designs while meeting the rules.. It isn’t the ball it’s the layout of courses .The course should be designed or altered to make it a PLAYER’s course ,MORE RUFF,SAND,TREES,WATER,SHRUBS GREENS that have more shape and contour deeper sand traps. The Tour had decided wrongly that people wanted to see lower scores when in we really want tougher courses .That’s why the British open ,US open are the best matches and watched by more people than the regular tour matches. IT’s ABOUT SHOT SHAPING, DECISION MAKING AND RISK TAKING !!!

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15. 

    Brian

    Mar 5, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    Maybe fairways shouldn’t be designed to allow a hundred yards of roll out?! Rather than dial back the golf ball, dial back the course set up a little. But this is what the USGA wanted, along with everyone else: to see the likes of DJ ripping the ball further than anyone has ever done before on national tv. Now that everyone is doing it, it’s not cool anymore and by golly we need to fix this “equipment problem”! No one stops to think for a second that with the heyday of the TW era, the youth who grew up watching him physically dominate courses are now in the tour and working out, getting stronger, and more physically dominate than ever before as a whole coupled with course set ups to allow it. But keep telling yourselves it’s the equipment and golf ball’s fault…

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    • 

      C

      Mar 5, 2018 at 12:50 pm

      My thoughts exactly. Rollout.

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    • 

      Mike Cuttone

      Mar 6, 2018 at 12:57 pm

      THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^WELL SAID

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16. 

    juliette

    Mar 5, 2018 at 12:09 pm

    I get it about distance. As someone more or less in the lowest percentile of distance compared to the mostly men who comment on golf wrx I should be the most opposed to changes limiting my distance. But I see Mike Davis’ point about resource utilization in an era where most of us agree that something is going on here with this Earth and this extreme weather. Needing more land for golf courses, more water, more fertilizer more more more more more is not the time to start being blind to this and caring only about how far your 6 iron goes.

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    • 

      Murv

      Mar 5, 2018 at 12:22 pm

      Yeah, we need to reduce golf ball distance to save the world from global warming.

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      • 

        Bub

        Mar 5, 2018 at 1:24 pm

        Good plan, that way anyone that doesn’t want to ‘roll back’ the golf ball can be accused of hating the planet and children.

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    • 

      Mikele

      Mar 5, 2018 at 2:29 pm

      Juliette – You aere wasting your time with that argument on this website. Your sincere concern will be deemed political by the cretin crowd here. You don’t really think they bothered to read the report, do you? That would put it into context and god forbid they should go beyond the headline or blurb.

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      • 

        youraway

        Mar 5, 2018 at 5:56 pm

        Perfect – absolutely perfect response.

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    • 

      Wyomick

      Mar 6, 2018 at 7:39 am

      Anybody want to bring up Hitler? I’m sure the long ball hitters that want to destroy the planet are related or st least guilty of his nefarious intentions. Good grief. Go away, far away from golf please.

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      • 

        dvers

        Mar 6, 2018 at 10:57 am

        Is this GolfWRX or CPAC? For a group that alludes to the “snowflakes” of the opposing ideology, commentators on many of these articles get irrationally defensive about a political claim that often doesn’t even exist. Golf isn’t exclusively for men with Rs after their names. Lighten up and/or take it to the Breitbart forums please.

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