USGA/R&A Report: "Misleading" "Joke" "Propaganda"

So nice to have others do the heavy lifting on this distance debate! (My take here.)

In the old days, there were about four of us wondering why no one was alarmed by all of this distance chasing and what the governing bodies were doing to great courses in an effort to mask the matter.

Not anymore!

In the defense of the engineers and researchers who put together this report, they are picking up in 2002-03 as the starting point for this week's study because that's when the Statement of Principles was issued. Which means the goal of this data mining was to show what has happened since then and statistically, they made the data case that a "significant" change has not occurred since then.

However, even the most casual observer knows something has changed and the bodies involved make it easy to point to their continued lengthening of courses, the pursuit of faster green speeds, increasingly difficult hole locations and other touches as evidence of continued change.

Michael McEwan at Bunkered noted the R&A's "treatment" of every Open course in his analysis and did some of his own data cherry-picking of a report he called "deliberately misleading" and "propaganda."

Between 1995 and 2015, the distance of the longest recorded drive on the PGA Tour increased by almost 100 yards, from 315 to 409 yards. But driving distances aren’t increasing.

I noted this is as an add on, but just wanted to send you again to Kris McEwan's Golficity broke down the numbers and said the year-by-year analysis is "the equivalent of measuring the growth of a child and only reporting the year to year change.  In turn, you are ignoring how much taller the child is actually getting across the overall span of time.  Suddenly, you look at your kid twenty years later and he’s six feet tall and you’re asking yourself, 'when did that happen?!'"

Looking at the USGA's charts, here's where he picks up from the Statement of Principles year:

Now let’s put that twenty additional yards to work in an actual scenario.  A pro hits driver in 2002 on a par-4, 400 yard hole, that means his second shot is going to be 140 yards.  In 2012, the same drive leaves him with 120 yards to the hole. Any hack on a municipal course on a Sunday morning will tell you how significant those twenty yards are.

Fast forward from 2002 to 2012 and pros are now hitting driver another ten yards farther. Meaning over a twenty year span, golfers on the PGA TOUR gained an extra 30 yards off the tee.

Oh, and before you tell me, “players today are in better shape and more athletic,” allow me to point out that the Champions Tour guys—you know, the old dudes—are hitting the ball 275 yards today versus 250 yards twenty years ago.

Just a reminder of the Statement's key lines:

The governing bodies believe that golf balls, when hit by highly skilled golfers, should not of themselves fly significantly further than they do today. In the current circumstances, the R&A and the USGA are not advocating that the Rules relating to golf ball specifications be changed other than to modernize test methods.

The R&A and the USGA believe, however, that any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable. Whether these increases in distance emanate from advancing equipment technology, greater athleticism of players, improved player coaching, golf course conditioning or a combination of these or other factors, they will have the impact of seriously reducing the challenge of the game. The consequential lengthening or toughening of courses would be costly or impossible and would have a negative effect on increasingly important environmental and ecological issues. Pace of play would be slowed and playing costs would increase.