R&A Chief Slumbers On Distance: "We have probably crossed that line in the sand"

John Huggan of Golf World talks to R&A Chief Martin Slumbers about The Open going to St. Andrews in 2021 as well as Turnberry's prospects (2023 now at the earliest), but the real eye-opening comments came on the topic of distance.

As with the USGA last week, Slumbers is hinting that the governing bodies saw huge distance spikes last year and will be revealing so soon.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the technology has made this difficult game just a little bit easier,” Slumbers said. “At a time when we want more people to play the game, I think that’s a good thing. But we do also think that golf is a game of skill and should be reflective of skill. If you look at the data, there has been a significant move up across all tours. We’re looking at the longest on-record average driving distance. Both of those have caused us and our colleagues at the USGA serious concern."

That sure sounds like a bifurcation case, but as we know the B word is forbidden in the rulemaking world!

Here are the strongest words out of R&A headquarters in a long, long time:

“For a number of years there has been a slow creep upwards, but this is a little bit more than slow creep. It’s actually quite a big jump. Our 2002 joint statement of principles put a line in the sand. But when you look at this data we have probably crossed that line in the sand. A serious discussion is now needed on where we go.”

Strap in, this is about to get interesting!

USGA Head: "It does make you wonder what golf courses will look like if we stay on this trajectory."

While new USGA President Mark Newell touched on concerns about distance at the association's annual meeting, Executive Director Mike Davis did the heavier lifting. Continuing his full-frontal attack on expanding golf's footprint, Davis largely backed up comments he made in 2017.

Golf.com's Dylan Dethier reports from Miami on the key comments in Davis' address.

"We all love hitting the ball far, but distance is all relative," he said. "I remember watching Jack Nicklaus, when he really got a hold of one maybe it went 280. That was the long ball then, and the long ball now is a lot longer."

Any potential rules change limiting technology would be sure to cause a stir among equipment manufacturers, who Davis said will be consulted throughout the process. But he was clear that he sees the issue of distance as a threat to the game at every level.

"This isn't just about the male elite game," he said. "It just isn't."

It looks like the U.S. Open's return to Shinnecock, recently narrowed after low scoring at Erin Hills, will be a point of comparison for the USGA in trying to convince those on the fence:

"An astonishing, perhaps even sobering example close to home will be this summer's U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills that will be played at over 7,400 yards," Davis said. "One hundred and twenty-two years ago at the 1896 U.S. Open, care to guess Shinnecock's total yardage? 4,423 yards. Now, don't read too much into that – I don't want to see a headline next week saying the USGA is proposing going back to hickories and gutta-percha balls in the future, but it does make you wonder what golf courses will look like if we stay on this trajectory."

Davis talked to Golf Live's Ryan Asselta regarding driving distance and while Davis slightly walked back some comments made to the Wall Street Journal, the overall take from these on-the-record comments is this: something is brewing.

Newell Elected Next USGA President, Distance Issue On USGA Annual Meeting Minds

We all must thank Golf World's Ryan Herrington for attending and reporting on the USGA Annual Meeting so that the rest of us can only dream of mingling in a sea of navy, grey, officials from wannabe U.S. Open courses, and many others working to not say anything construable as interesting. Because you know how rumors get started!

New President Mark Newell replaces Diana Murphy and he sounds aware that the USGA's focus on sustainability is going to be pressured by distance increases.

“When you combine [distance] with the effect of the size of golf courses on the economics of the facilities, on the environmental issues that come from that and, in some cases, on the effect on just the enjoyment on golfers, it’s something we need to look hard at,” Newell told Golf Digest. “That’s what we’re planning to do. We have been, and we’re going to be focused on what that situation is and how we can deal with it.”

Herrington says the end of February will yield a joint USGA/R&A distance study update. Last year's said there wasn't anything to see here.

There was also this from Herrington's report:

In addition to the bigger picture issues, there are other practical matters the governing body is preparing to address. Among Saturday’s announcements was the formal transition of the USGA Members Program, established in 1975, into a newly formed USGA Foundation, charged with helping increase the ability for golfers to invest and contribute financially to the game.

To paraphrase our late, great friend Frank Hannigan, you're no one in golf if you don't have at least two foundations.

In conjunction, the association is launching a multi-year campaign “Driving Golf Forward” to help fund innovation and research while boosting inclusivity within the sport.

PSA makers rejoice!

The full release on Newell's appointment is here, along with a discussion hosted by Mike Trostel.

Mark Newell Elected as 65th USGA President
Other elected volunteers include World Golf Hall of Fame member Nick Price

LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. (Feb. 3, 2018) - Mark Newell of McLean, Va. has been elected to serve a one-year term as the 65th president of the United States Golf Association (USGA). The election took place at the Association’s Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, Fla.

Newell will lead the 15-member volunteer USGA Executive Committee, which provides strategic direction and oversight to the Association's full-time management and staff.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve the game of golf as USGA president, and to champion our staff’s work to lead, grow and sustain our sport,” said Newell upon his election. “We are at an exciting time in golf’s evolution, and our collective focus on ensuring its future has never been stronger.”

Newell, now in his eighth year with the Executive Committee, has chaired the Rules of Golf Committee since 2013. During that time, he has been a leading force behind the USGA’s joint initiative with The R&A to modernize golf’s Rules. He also chaired the USGA Handicap Committee and spent four years as co-chair of the USGA/R&A initiative that led to the development of the World Handicap System, which is scheduled to debut in 2020.

The other members of the 2018 Executive Committee were also elected at the Annual Meeting, with four new additions: three-time major champion and former world No. 1 player Nick Price of Hobe Sound, Fla.; Kendra Graham of Winter Park, Fla.; Sharon Ritchey of Asheville, N.C.; and Paul G. Brown of Brookville, Md.

Current members of the Executive Committee who were elected to continue their service to the game are: J. Michael Bailey, of Sandy, Utah; Stephen E. Beebe, of La Quinta, Calif.; J. Stuart Francis, of Burlingame, Calif.; Robert D. Kain, of La Quinta, Calif.; Martha Lang, of Shoal Creek, Ala.; Gregory B. Morrison, of Duluth, Ga.; Clifford J. Shahbaz, of Portland, Ore.; and William B. Siart, of Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Two current members of the Executive Committee were also elected to serve as officers: Mark Reinemann, of Pinehurst, N.C., as secretary, and Thomas Barkin, of Atlanta, Ga., as treasurer.

Richard A. Shortz, of Los Angeles, Calif., was elected to serve as USGA general counsel. Robert Weber will retire as general counsel.

The USGA Women’s Committee, which advises the Executive Committee on matters pertaining to women’s golf and supports women’s amateur championships, has appointed Pam Murray of Richardson, Texas, as chairman and Courtney Myhrum of Pittsburgh, Pa., as vice chairman for the 2018 term.

Other members of the 2018 Women’s Committee are Jan Berry, of Madison, Ala.; Debbie Bizal, of Evansville, Ind.; Barbara Byrnes, of Mesa, Ariz.; Carol B. Graybeal, of Chatham, N.J.; Jean Mulcahey, of Hydes, Md.; Delia Nava, of The Woodlands, Texas; Nancy Rees, of Rye, N.Y.; Mary Shepperd, of San Diego, Calif.; Peggy Span, of Houston, Texas; Kathryn Washburn, of Mill Valley, Calif.; Ginny Waller Zanca, of Memphis, Tenn.; and Patti Zeeman, of Lake Bluff, Ill.

It Was Fun While We Had Him: DJ Pivots On Distance Regulation

Long ago--December 2017 actually--Dustin Johnson had joined the bifurcate camp when discussing the matter with Golf Channel's Todd Lewis. The comments came as Tiger was more outspoken than ever on the harm distance jumps have had on the footprint of golf.

Well the world's No. 1's views pivoted this week in Abu Dhabi at the HSBC Championship and just days after nearly making a 433-yard (give or take) hole-in-one. Will Gray looks at DJ's shift for GolfChannel.com:

"It's not like we are dominating golf courses," Johnson said. "When was the last time you saw someone make the game too easy? I don't really understand what all the debate is about because it doesn't matter how far it goes; it is about getting it in the hole.

He did offer some hope that he understands a well-handled rollback would still allow him to shine:

"If the ball is limited then it is going to limit everyone," he said. "I'm still going to hit it that much further than I guess the average Tour player."

Perhaps the viewpoint shift came after he read Claude Harmon's Golf Digest My Shot, where DJ's instructor vented about distance rollback talk.

I'VE WATCHED DUSTIN JOHNSON spend three hours a day in the gym, seven days a week. When he's out on tour, there are no days off. I've watched him pay the price. To want to roll back equipment and put him and guys like him in a box, so they're confined to old benchmarks, drives me nuts. Is there another sport as determined to go backward as golf? Dustin is almost a physical freak to begin with, 6-4 and unbelievably strong and coordinated. When he hits a 9-iron 185, the TV commentators usually react with a laugh and an incredulous tone, as if it's the equipment more than the unbelievable clubhead speed and technical precision. It's just wrong.

Jack Nicklaus Sounds Like He's On Board With Governing Body "Variable Distance" Option

The A Position's Steve Pike was present when Jack Nicklaus christened The Legend Course today at The Club at Ibis in West Palm Beach, Fla., and the Golden Bear spoke about the distance issue.

While this is hardly news, Mr. Nicklaus did seem to be echoing the USGA's concept of a variable distance ball.

“We ought to rate golf courses,’’ Nicklaus said. “Rather than going back and spending millions of dollars changing golf courses, golf courses should be 100 percent, 90 percent, 80 percent or 70 percent.’’

If golf’s ruling bodies (primarily the U.S. Golf Association) don’t want to roll back the golf ball, he said,  “they need to go to all the golf associations and say ‘This is our criteria to rate your golf courses.’’’

A golf ball would be rated to fit the corresponding course and could be a way to save some older, shorter courses.

“Take an old course that 5,800 yards. That doesn’t challenge anybody. But if you made that a 70 percent golf course and have a 70 percent ball for it, it would play just difficult as (The Legend) from the back tees. “If you want to play an 80 or 100 percent ball, go play it.  All you’re doing is making the course play shorter and faster.’’

Golf.com Gang Endorses Doing Something About Distance For Pros

The technophobic press is really warming to this idea of addressing distance gains at the pro level and I just enjoy copying and pasting this so much!

The SI/Golf.com gang this week responded to the USGA's Mike Davis calling the leaps horrible for golf courses. The chat included Michael Bamberger, John Wood (Kuchar caddie), Josh Sens, Jeff Ritter, Joe Passov and Alan Shipnuck.

Bamberger: I couldn't judge the hurt-the-economics-of-golf question. The modern ball has made Tour golf, for me, less interesting and more of a slog. At my level (92-shooter!) the longer ball with space-age equipment has made the game more enjoyable but at the expense of beauty. I'm in favor of a ball for them and a ball for us. I think a softer ball that curves more is a better test of golfing skill at the highest level.

Ritter: Totally agree. I've never hit the ball farther than I do today, and that's certainly a blast. But the pros are decimating classic courses. The ball isn't the lone culprit, but it's certainly a factor. I see no harm in a ball for the Tour pros, and one for the rest of us.

Wood: I'm 100 percent agree with Michael. There's no reason to change the ball for the everyday player. (By the way, if you're a 10 handicap or more, you'll shoot the same score with a decent range ball that you would with one from a $60 per-dozen price tag, speaking of economics.) I can only comment on the competitive aspect of the balls. Shrink the allowable head size of a driver and roll back the ball a bit for the best of the best, and I think the game at that level gets more interesting as well as preserves classic courses for major championships

Any day now we are going to have a reduced-driver head distance study released, I just know it. Because no matter how you feel about the impact of distance, wouldn't it just be fun to know how much today's larger driver heads allow players to gain distance. Or not?

Shark Talks Weakness Of Today's Players Inside 150, Why The Masters Can Make Players Use Anything They'd Like

We forget that when Greg Norman is not hawking golf carts and posting shirtless Instagram images, he can be a keen observer of the game.

In an interview with an unbylined Gant News writer filing for the CNN affiliate, Norman touches on Patrick Reed knowing so little about his clubs, LPGA players being more accurate with their drivers and many other topics.

But the two getting my attention involved what he sees as a big change in the prowess of today's players with a wedge approach (inside, gulp, 150 yards).

“If you look at today’s top players, their distance control inside 150 yards with a wedge is quite amazingly poor,” he said.

“These guys are 20ft short, 30ft left, 20ft long, their distance control is not consistent. It could just be the way they play — when it works, it works and when it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

“In our era, every time you’d put a pitching wedge in your hand, if you didn’t think you’d get the ball inside 10ft every time, or seven out of 10 times, you weren’t having any control over your golf game.”

I do see this in watching many of today's players compared to Norman's era and wonder what the exact cause is that makes Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson such standouts in this distance.

On the topic of distance, Norman agrees with others that this is about sustainability and Augusta National could be the solution.

“I remember the eighth hole at Augusta was nearly impossible to reach in two and now these guys are hitting irons in there,” said Norman who finished second three times at The Masters, perhaps most notably in 1996 when he blew a six-shot lead and Nick Faldo took the green jacket.

“Augusta can’t lengthen itself anymore but the tech is going to allow these players to keep hitting it longer year after year.

“If they sent out an invitation to the players and said ‘you’re going to use a gutter percha ball and a hickory shafted golf club, go get them worked out, practice before you get there, the best player will still win that week.

“The best players have that ability to make that adjustment no matter what they’re using.”

Ogilvy On Pro Golf: "We’ve completely outgrown the stadiums."

Add Geoff Ogilvy (again) to the onslaught calling for professionals to be regulated.The timing now, however, adds to the sense the game's best thinkers have finally conceded something needs to change.

Martin Blake, reporting from the Australian Open, on Ogilvy's comments in response to recent remarks of the USGA Executive Director.

“Major league baseball in America they use wooden bats, and everywhere else in baseball they use aluminium bats,’’ he said. “And when the major leaguers use aluminium bats they don’t even have to touch it and it completely destroys their stadiums. It’s just comedy.

“That’s kind of what’s happened to us at least with the drivers of these big hitters. We’ve completely outgrown the stadiums. So do you rebuild every stadium in the world? That’s expensive. Or make the ball go shorter? It seems relatively simple from that perspective.’’

Wally Uihlein Shifts To The Get-Off-My-Lawn Phase Of His Career: USGA Has No Evidence Of Escalating Costs

In a letter to the editor, Acushnet CEO Wally Uihlein railed against the USGA claims of cost increases in golf due to distance advances. Be careful what you wish for Wally!

Dylan Dethier at Golf.com reports on the response to Brian Costa's story Saturday.

"Is there any evidence to support this canard…the trickle down cost argument?” Uihlein wrote. “Where is the evidence to support the argument that golf course operating costs nationwide are being escalated due to advances in equipment technology?"

Let's see, off the top of my head there are studies underway on multiple fronts, golf course operators who can point to increased insurance costs due to safety issues and the simple common sense wave realizing the absurdity of an expanding footprint.

"The only people that seem to be grappling with advances in technology and physical fitness are the short-sighted golf course developers and the supporting golf course architectural community who built too many golf courses where the notion of a 'championship golf course' was brought on line primarily to sell real estate," he wrote.

Easy there Wally, short-sighted developers sell golf balls too.

And his jab at Bridgestone did not note the irony of his letter's intent, which would be a similar commercial motive, no?

"Given Bridgestone’s very small worldwide market share and paltry presence in professional golf, it would seem logical they would have a commercial motive making the case for a reduced distance golf ball," Uihlein wrote.

BTW watched this the other night and really is a special film. Warning, bad language! Racially insensitive comments!

Update on 2017-11-21 05:15 by Geoff

**Thanks to reader JB for Brian Costa's follow up on Uihlein's reply, which ran under a headline titled, "Titleist CEO Blasts Push for Reduced-Distance Golf Ball" and subheadline, "Wally Uihlein issues forceful rebuttal against USGA plan to explore creating different sets of ball regulations for different players."

Bridgestone CEO: Standardize The Ball For Pros

We'll ignore all of the business motives momentarily and just take in the first-ever CEO suggestion of a tournament ball in golf.

The comment came during a Golf.com interview with Ryan Asselta where Bridgestone CEO Angel Ilagan said the time has come.

"As it relates to the Tour...there needs to be something to standardize [the ball] because the guys are hitting it way too long," Ilagen says.

This marks the first time the chief executive of a ball company has called for a dialed-back ball. 

And he offered this:

"I think there is an option to have a ball that is played on Tour, and a ball that is played casually," he said, adding that he gives a standardized ball a 50-50 chance of appearing on Tour in the near future.

There is the very reason possibility Bridgestone has made such a ball, perhaps even for the governing bodies to use in their studies and that it could be the basis for a competition ball concept.

That said, the standardized ball concept mentioned by Ilagan would not be relegated to one manufacturer, meaning brands with more market share and golfer loyalty would still be likely leaders in what sales there are for such a ball.

Match Play! 30 Years Of Tech Head To Head

Nice work by Laz Versalles to piece together his old circa 1987 set and match it against today's stuff only to confirm today's clubs are better and yet, not quite as fun of a game as we used to play.

He sets up his GolfWRX story this way (thanks to reader Peter V for sharing):

Somewhere between my father’s 1987 dismissal of the crucible that was the Rich Acres Par-3 and Koepka’s brutish dismantling of Erin Hills, golf has become a wildly different game. But is it a better game? Is it more entertaining to watch? Does the technology that facilitates the game for the masses belittle the game’s rich history? Most importantly, is today’s game more fun to play? I set off on a crusade to find out.

Short of buying a silver DeLorean and traveling back in time to 1987, my best bet was to try and piece together the clubs I played as a teenager and pit them against my current set to see how they would match up. A Match of The Ages if you will; Teenage Me vs. Middle-Aged Me. The artistry of the late 20th century versus the power of the early 21st century. This was going to be fun.

And to spoil the ending, though I hope you'll hit the link...

Middle-Aged Me may have won the match 5 & 4, but Teenage Me definitely won the fun 10 & 8. A big part of that fun was getting reacquainted with a game I hadn’t played in a while. A game that was less about distance and more about shapes and trajectories. A game light on predictability and loaded with variety where a good drive didn’t mean wedges into every green. I saw the golf course as the architect had intended it to be seen, which let me appreciate more of its features.