A note from the author: First off, I want to apologize right now, before this is published. What started out as a 2 second post turned in to an epic novel of sorts. If you want to skip to the end, I understand, but realize that it’s my position that rolling back the ball is a bad move and perhaps courses just need to make it a bit tougher for players rather than trying to become longer. Now, enjoy the novel!
When I began playing the game of golf back in 1989, I was fortunate enough to have a “coach” that preached the “Grip-it-and-Rip-it” philosophy of the game. His thought was to hit the ball as far as you could first, then worry about trying to control it. Back then, we were just getting into metal drivers and graphite shafts and the balls were still wound. Still, on dry summer days, a well struck ball could travel hundreds of yards down the fairway and bounce and roll all the way to many of the par 4 greens if you caught it just right. In fact, I still have found memories of the first time I drove the 4th green at Riverbend. The hole was playing 412 yards, but that ball sure as heck found it’s way there. To this day, it’s still the longest drive I ever hit. I was using a TaylorMade Tour 8.5° driver with a 48” Harrison Titanium shaft and a Golf Pride Tour Velvet Grip. The ball that happened to roll out there 400+ yards was a Maxfli HT100 balata. There was no super tech involved, though for it’s time, the titanium shafts were quite amazing – but it was virtually the same club technology that the tour pro’s had available and the same ball technology that had been used for the last 30 years. It was nothing special, just the perfect swing at the perfect time.
Back in those days, we didn’t stat track and worry about hitting 300, we only wanted to outdrive our buddies off the tee. We also knew that so much more of the game was getting the ball close to that hole on our approach shots, which is why driving the ball a county mile was so important. We were young, in shape and could do swings that could make tour pro’s today wince. There was no monitoring our club head speeds or our launch angles or adjusting the weights of our drivers. It was finding a shaft we didn’t break and maybe a piece of lead tape here and there if we needed it. It was a much more simple time and we still drove the ball past the 300 yard mark on a regular basis. Fast forward 30 years, and golf suddenly has a major issue, the ball goes too far.
As I looked over the report that the USGA/R&A I had to laugh a bit at the data they used to prove (or did they really disprove) their point. Over the past few years, tour professionals, the top 250 golfers in the world, have picked up 7 whole yards in their average driving distance. In fact, 43 players last year, averaged over 300 yards on their drives. That’s up 18 players from 2007 and up 42 players from 1997. Here’s the interesting part though – in 1997, the shortest guy (#195 for those counting) hit 244.8 off the tee – in 2017, the 190th guy hit 271.4. In 2007, the midway point in this 20 year span, #196 hit 265.3 from the blocks. For a bit more solid data, in 1997, Tiger Woods averaged 294.8 and in 2007 he averaged 302.4. In 2013, when Mr. Woods won the PGA Tour Player of the Year Award and notched 5 wins on tour, he only drove the ball 293.2. While comparing Woods’ woods is one thing, what the bigger picture shows there is that courses were not made obsolete in 2013 by Tiger Woods’ distance, it was his short game and putting that killed everyone. In 2013, there were 13 players that averaged over 300 yards on their drives, and a ton more within 5 yards of that mark.
2013 – 13 players averaged over 300 yards on their drives.
2014 – 25 players averaged over 300 yards on their drives.
2015 – 25 players averaged over 300 yards on their drives.
2016 – 27 players averaged over 300 yards on their drives.
2017 – 43 players averaged over 300 yards on their drives.
What is hidden in this 16 player jump is how much over the 300 yard mark they were. 9 players cleared it by less than a yard. 5 more were within 2 yards of not making it. If you subtract those 14 players, you sit at 29 players above 300 yards on tour. Two more players only made it by 2.5 yards, which could take us right back to 27. There’s no distance spike on tour, it’s that some players are getting longer and most of the middle ones are gaining 5-10 yards and pushing up the numbers. It’s really a simple matter of more players are hitting drivers consistently than they have before. In fact, when you look at the 2018 leaderboard, Dustin Johnson is not leading the tour in driving distance. Actually, he’s not even in the top 10. You’ve got crazy names up there like Luke List, Ryan Palmer, Keith Mitchell and the current leader, Tony Finau. Keep in mind, they’ve played hilly courses in Hawaii that roll for miles, desert courses with fairways that have more speed than most public greens, and the biggest winner on tour so far this year is ranked number 10 in driving… Phil Mickelson, who just won for the first time in forever, is ranked 63rd in driving distance at a hair over 300 yards on those dry, hilly, desert courses.
Now, all of this said, ultimately, rolling back the ball does little to change the game. The gains made in technology over the years will be washed away and players that scooted back to the blue tees will move forward to the whites. The championship tees at most clubs would become true challenges again for the best players and classic courses will become relevant again. Rolling back the ball would definitely accomplish what the R&A and USGA want it to, but not for the reasons they think. For the longest time, courses were designed for target golf – a driver off the tee to a tight fairway or a long iron to a safe landing zone – a mid iron approach to a big green or a wedge to a small one – a large putting surface that has little movement or a tighter one with lots of break – courses tested golfers and we loved it. It almost makes us recall a day where not everyone got a trophy or a ribbon for participating. It was a time where the best got rewarded and the risk takers reaped benefits or paid a heavy price for their mistakes. It was the golden age of golf.
Rolling the ball back won’t speed up rounds or make this or that course more playable. Rolling back the ball will only encourage driver manufacturers to make clubs that hit the ball further. It will encourage iron companies to deloft their clubs more and change the numbers around so you can still hit a 7 iron 165 yards. They will find new ways of pushing the envelope with other technologies that will help players become better, just like hybrids replaced long irons and metal woods replaced wood woods. I feel a bit like Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park, “I’m simply saying that life, um, finds a way…” Golf is exactly the same, these 15 players, the ones that made the 2 yard jump to 300 yards last year, found a way, and rolling the ball back will just make them find another way.
Wrapping up this sordid tale, there have been two significant jumps in driver distance over the past 20 years. The first was a 5 yard spike in 2000-2001 when the solid core golf ball made its way into bags. The second was 2 years later when the oversized driver head debuted on tour. That jump made a whole 6.5 yard difference in the average. In that 3 year span, the average drive moved from almost 273 yards to almost 286. Other than that jump, the average drive moved less than 4 yards over the next 10 years, and there is just a small 3 yard spike in the average over the last two seasons. It’s really a shame that this is even a debate when honestly, it’s the 5 drives that Dustin Johnson hammered over 400 yards last season that probably started the debate. Back in the day, it was John Daly and Freddy Couples that were knocking it past everyone. Then Tiger, Bubba and even Dustin roll along. There are always going to be longer hitter and shorter hitters. I’m pretty sure if you shorten the ball, you’ll still have some longer hitters and some shorter hitters – they just won’t be as long and they will be even shorter.
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