The 2030 New Year’s Day competition is looking a bit different. Bleary eyed at the start of another decade, wrapped up against the bleak winter – or donning T-shirts if global warming has its way – you make your way to the tee to see a stern-looking club official demanding to inspect your balls.
It’s a request that would raise an eyebrow at any time, but this isn’t something out of a Carry On film. That bag full of TaylorMades you were happily slapping round the course just a few days ago have become obsolete. Non-conforming. Against the rules.
The golf ball roll back is in effect.
Don’t yawn just yet. While the rollback has been popping up in pro talk for the last couple of years, what it might mean for the recreational player has elicited little more than ‘don’t worry, it probably won’t make a lot of difference’.
OK, so you might not see drive distances slashed unless you’re toting some serious swing speeds, but it will still have implications for what you do on the course – at least in competitive play.
That took another turn with the latest rumblings coming from our governing bodies.
The ball roll back plan as it stands sees the professionals, and some elite amateurs, playing the new ball in top events from the start of 2028. Yes, less than 24 months from now! Club players will still be able to use the existing models for further two years.
But the R&A and USGA are now looking at that timeline and asking opinions on bringing everyone under the new rules at the same time in 2030.
I will give the governing bodies some credit for this. It makes sense to me at least to have everyone singing from the same song sheet.
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If we do get all our ducks in a row at the same time, though, how might the ball roll back affect us in our competitions? Are we really going to see our balls checked in random searches? Or will we be left to our own devices?
Let’s speculate on a few of the key questions…
How might the golf ball roll back affect us?
Will golfers pay any attention?
We’ve seen this seismic shift in equipment rules before. Cast your minds back about 15 years and some quite complex rules came in about grooves and punch marks. Yes, those wedges which spun a bit too much.
If you’re wondering why your mate is still toting those clubs from way back in the day it’s because none of the restrictions have ever really applied at our level.
It’s enforced in the professional and elite amateur game through a Local Rule and though it’s often said it will come to the rest of us at some point, no one seems to be hurrying to bring it in.
Could we see something similar for roll back? A phase out – if only for when it first starts to dig its heels in. It’s all well and good when you can change a ball every hole or are being handed several boxes when you turn up for a tournament.
But I’ve still got balls I bought several years ago. And I’ve got a bag full of others that are probably even older. I’m sure many of you are the same.
Are we really just meant to dump them? And having separate stacks, one conforming and one not depending on whether we’re playing in competitions? Well, that’s not going to be confusing at all…
When the new rules of golf arrived at the start of 2019, they were such big changes that some clubs had an unofficial amnesty. They said, ‘don’t worry if you inadvertently do something daft in the first few weeks. We won’t penalise you’. It gave players breathing space to get used to the changes.
That was in the pre-World Handicap System days, though, when there was a defined off-season and people weren’t trying to get you to put in a counting round in January.
No one is going to check what you’re playing
Will you even be able to tell? How will you distinguish between the legal new ball and the now illegal older version? Are they going to be branded or marked in some way?
Given we can barely get a set of starters together for a competition, I can’t see any way club committees are going to pay any attention to what ball you’re playing with in a competition.
They’ve got better things to do with their time.
So following the new roll back rules will come down to individuals and integrity. Will most of us even know what we’re looking for? I reckon it will pass an awful lot of people by.
Is there going to be a great big golf ball yard sale?
We all love a bargain, don’t we? I don’t suppose ball manufacturers are just going to stop making balls in the run up to the roll back.
You’d imagine at some point there is going to be a surplus of old stock as the countdown intensifies and outlets are looking to get rid. Will you be taking a pass, or are you going to be leaving the store weighed down in both arms with cheap balls?
The temptation to fill your boots will be strong. What will make it even more confusing is that some existing balls will continue to conform.
When the initial roll back plans were released, the governing bodies estimated up to 30 per cent would remain legal. But which? I’m still none the wiser.
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Will that AD333 you’ve found in the rough be OK? Is it the Pro V1 which doesn’t make the grade? What about that Chrome Soft I’ve just dug out of the boot?
I don’t fancy spending my spare time trawling through a conforming list to find out.
How many bad shots are you going to blame on the ball?
‘That would definitely have carried’. Even though we’ve been told most of us won’t see a big difference in the length our shots travel, the first time you hit a shot that hits the back of a bunker and slips into the sand, or plops in at the far end of a pond, you’re going to give these new balls an accusatory glance.
So what will the future hold?
We’ve been through quite a decade of change already. New rules, a new handicap system, lots of tweaks, and now a ball roll back on the horizon. None of these other ‘modernisations’ settled instantly – WHS probably still hasn’t – and this is going to be a massive shift.
You can’t play golf without a ball. It doesn’t get any more fundamental. Expect lots of upheaval, plenty of stories about people getting penalised after forgetting there have been changes, and a lot of moping on social media.
There will surely be a transition as one ball gradually disappears – in the shops and on the golf course – and new models establish themselves.
It won’t be overnight, but the game will be OK. It always has.
Now have your say on the ball roll back
What do you think? If – and when – the golf ball rollback arrives how do you think your golf club will deal with it? Let me know by leaving a comment below, emailing me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com, or by getting in touch on X.
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