Is the ball going too far, and how do we feel about the proposed rollback? | Inside Golf. Australia’s Most-Read Golf Magazine as named by Australian Golfers

BUNKER-TO-BUNKER…. Inside Golf writers have their say!

By Peter Owen

FOR most of us, the proposed ball rollback doesn’t really matter much. It would mean our drives are perhaps four or five metres shorter, and if the members kicked up any sort of a fuss, well, the tee markers could be moved up a fraction.

No, the proposal is aimed squarely at limiting the enormous distances the world’s elite players hit the ball – something that has come about not just because of their unquestioned talent and fitness, but through years of technological improvement in equipment.

The proposal, endorsed by the USGA and the R&A, is all about preserving the integrity of the game as it is played throughout the world. Most golf courses – and certainly the ones we all recognise as being the greats – were built when it took three shots to reach a par five, a long par four tested a player’s ability to play a long iron, and a short par four was reachable only for the freakish.

Today, of course, there are no real par fives for any international professional, every par four can be reached with a drive and a wedge, and the short par fours are really par threes. And that threatens the relevance of our golf courses. 

So, do we rebuild all of those courses? Or do we just restrict the distance the ball flies? It’s a no-brainer, just as it was nearly a half century ago when the traditional small ball (1.62 inches) was replaced by the bigger version (1.68 inches), which is still used today.

We got used to it then, and we’ll get used to it again.

By Michael Davis

TETCHINESS is fast becoming my middle name.

My ability to rail against the simplest of proposals is, to say the least, alarming.

Perhaps I should see my therapist.

Again, I find myself in high dudgeon – quite rightly this time in my view – over the decision of golf’s governing bodies to ‘roll back’ the distance the modern golf ball travels. The custodians of the game have in their apparent wisdom decreed that the ball is travelling too far.

With apologies to former tennis great, John McEnroe: ‘They cannot be serious!’

Grudgingly, I’ll concede the game’s elite players – perhaps .001 per cent of golfers – need to be reined in because of the prodigious distances they hit the ball.

But for the life of me I cannot understand in my wildest dreams, how on earth the powers that be landed on the idea to include all golfers in this catch-all ‘roll back’. It simply cannot be justified.

The game is the most difficult in the world to master. Most of us will never be any good at it.

You could not be blamed for cynically thinking the rule-makers are determined to denude the game of any enjoyment the hacker receives from having a big ‘sweet spot’ on his driver and seeing his ball fly further because of modern technology.

Surely officials who view the game from their ivory towers have not thought this one through.

Or perhaps they are just trying to make themselves relevant.

By Andrew Crockett

PETER Thomson used to talk about this topic with great knowledge and acuity. It amazes me that in our golf industry when immortals like Peter Thomson, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and many other custodians of golf that have all been saying (for decades) ‘we need to rein in the golf ball’ that the industry seemingly ignored their pleas. And now after thousands of golf courses have been built with a 300-yard+ carry in mind, what are they going to do, roll the ball back and make all these 7000-yard courses even more difficult? 

I say, leave the ball alone for the amateurs, but cease allowing the golf ball to travel further and further. Put a cap on it now, or as the great Charlie Earp said, at the Greg Norman Medal dinner a few years ago, “pretty soon we will be teeing off in Brisbane and our second shot will be in Darwin.” 

For history’s sake, Peter Thomson studied the golf ball on human testing machines at university in the 1950s. He would later visit the golf ball making factories and discuss with the designers the dimple patterns and how to keep the golf ball from flying too far. He was doing that as far back as the 1970s. They listened back then.  

The average (male) golfer hits driver about 200 meters off the tee, struggles to break 90 and is more likely to be chipping for par than putting for birdie. Yet, since the golf ball was allowed to evolve into 300+ carries, we now have very long golf courses that, if they rolled the ball back, would make them even more difficult. 

I don’t think the extra distance of the modern golf ball makes a huge difference to amateur golf. In fact, it probably makes the game a bit easier and that makes golf more fun. So I vote to leave the ball alone for the amateurs, but a gradual roll back for the professionals and cease in expanding the distance they fly. Bring back old school shot making!

By Michael Court

I KNOW 172m might not sound that far to you and your average golfer. But at the age of 66, it’s just a bridge too far for me.

And winding back the distance the golf ball travels might not concern your average tour pro. But gee, it has me plenty worried.

Because 172m is the distance of the ninth hole at my home club, Roseville.

Yes, it’s a par three . . . and the problem with that is – I can no longer reach it with a driver.

Don’t give me that nonsense about it being index eight, meaning I get a shot there.

I should still be able to drive it onto the green, occasionally – even if takes my Sunday best.

So either put me off a more forward tee. Or even make it a par four.

Or better yet . . . give me a golf ball that travels further for an ‘older’ golfer. I’m thinking something like a ‘weight-for-age’ ball.

I actually applaud the plan to wind back the golf ball for the tour players. Watching them reach par fives with a drive and a wedge is a bit of a joke.

But that sort of feat is out of reach for your average player.

Remember, most golfers these days play off handicaps of 13 or above.

But they still harbor an ambition to be like any golfer and reach all the holes in regulation . . . even if it takes all the moving parts to come together at once.

That might not happen very often. But please let me walk onto the tee with dreams of reaching the par threes with a well-struck drive.

Shorten the distance the ball travels if you must; but to punish the weekend hacker, well, do that at your peril . . . and mine.

What do you think? Email comments to rob@insidegolf.com.au