Canadian Tour Will Help USGA Test Shorter Golf Balls
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Where do you fall in the debate over distance in golf: Are you fine with ever-longer golf courses to accommodate advances in club and ball technology that combine to help us hit the ball farther? Or do you think distances need to be reigned in, even dialed back, to keep the game’s traditional yardages (and courses) intact, and to prevent the land-use/environmental concerns associated with bigger courses?
If the latter, do you think the distance “problem” is more properly blamed on club technology or ball technology?
Many of the game’s experts – most prominently Jack Nicklaus – argue for dialing back golf ball technology as a way to reverse distance gains they believe are bad for the game’s future and dismissive of the game’s past.
A while back the USGA asked several golf ball manufacturers to create prototype balls that don’t fly as far as the balls currently on the market. The request wasn’t a prelude to any rules changes, the USGA told manufacturers, just a chance to collect and compare data.
Next month, those prototype shorter golf balls will be tested by Canadian Tour players, the Winnipeg Free Press reported (hat tip: Geoff Shackelford) earlier this week:
What we do know is that the Tour, after one of its events next month, is going to have a couple dozen of its players come back on a Monday for some research.
They’ll play in what could be termed a one-day tournament. It might be better termed a lab experiment, and they’ll all play with the same kind of golf ball – one of these less-zippy models.
Word is these “prototype” balls will be anywhere from 10 to 20 percent shorter, with the 20 percent figure applying only to the hardest-hit and longest shots from the driver.
It’s all hush-hush; the Canadian Tour director declined interview requests, telling the Winnipeg paper he couldn’t talk about it.
The figure that jumps out is the possibility of a 20-percent dial-back on driver distance. Citing that figure probably represents a bit of an exaggeration. A 300-yard average drive dialed back 20-percent becomes a 240-yard drive. That’s not going to happen.
In 2010, the tour’s leading driver averages 317.7 yards. In 1980, the first year the PGA Tour kept driving distance as an official stat, the tour leader averaged 274.3 yards. That was with persimmon drivers and wound, balata balls. In 1990, the leader averaged 279.6 yards; in 2000, 301.4 yards.
Golf is never returning to persimmon drivers or wound, balata balls. Back in 2005, the USGA first contacted ball manufacturers about producing prototype balls that fly shorter distances. At that time, the USGA said it was looking for a 5- to 8-percent decrease in distance, which is far more reasonable than 10-20 percent and probably represents a good guess at the distance decrease that will be observed by the Canadian Tour testers.
And after the testing? Expect the USGA to move very slowly, with lots more testing, and much negotiating with ball manufacturers. If the governing bodies really do expect to dial back golf ball technology someday, they have to be prepared for tremendous pushback – and potential lawsuits – from the industry.
And what about average golfers? Hitting the ball too far is not a problem most of us are familiar with.
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