Elite professional golfers must be stopped and how far they hit the ball must be held back.
The sentiment of golf’s governing bodies’ pursuit to protect the future of the sport is more than justified to me. The ball cannot be launched further and further. Skill is being diluted, and it is unsustainable at the highest level.
The romanticist in me comes out in this debate. There are many fans who believe this is nonsense, and many others who think it is useless without a joint-limitation on driver technology.
But surely the USGA and R&A bosses Mike Whan and Mark Darbon, as well as his predecessor Martin Slumbers, sit on their sofas, watch the compelling action at Royal Portrush and think, “Why can’t every event be held on a golf course like this?”
Sure, there are still scores of six-under and seven-under in single rounds. The devil’s advocate might question why it matters if the stars are still able to conquer championship venues and make loads of birdies. But if they conquer it in this manner, with cunning and creativity and not whacking the dimples off the ball without caring about thick rough and the like, then so be it.
It would save the awful expense of consulting the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, Augusta National, players and manufacturers if all professional events were staged on golf courses that excel to the strategic levels that the Dunluce Links and its many seaside siblings do.
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Rolled back golf ball wouldn’t be needed with the correct challenge…
There would be no chatter of how far forwards the ball travels, more how far sideways. There’d be no concern about the longest players overpowering the golf course and no recalculation of the conditions under which golf balls are tested.
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The variables and challenges that these masterpieces present with a lack of protection from trees or inland buildings would override any long-term concerns about the ball travelling too far. These courses emphasise the need to plot your way around, instead of powering. Especially when the wind is howling and the rain is pouring.
“That’s the nail on the head right there,” 2023 Open champion Brian Harman said when NCG shortened this rant and put it to him during a press conference in Northern Ireland.
“We could talk all day about the golf ball. I’m not going to say that we need to roll it back, but it’s like the golf ball is so stable – it’s like the golf ball will accept speeds of up to 200 miles an hour, and that just hasn’t been the case.
“Guys have kind of got that figured out, so they’re just waylaying on it because they know – like the spin of the ball doesn’t go up with speed, like it did when I was a kid.
“Any time you can play at a place where the farther the ball misses the middle of the fairway, the worse off you are, if that held every tournament we played, then we wouldn’t be having a conversation at all.”
Well-placed bunkers, awkwardly shaped greens, and cavernous drop-offs keep these players awake at night. The Antrim track is a grand equaliser to the amped equipment and perfect golf balls that reside in the bags of every top professional player in the modern era.
They don’t need to think outside the box, they need to emigrate 100 miles from the box and then think outside of it. This is not an ode to links golf either, it is a look into an alternative universe whereby the tours would use the golf courses based on strategy and thought, to the point where incessant booming shots weren’t an obvious concern.
Every event in professional golf can’t be held on a links course, or courses as outstanding as Portrush, Troon, Hoylake and Birkdale, or Pinehurst and Oakmont. They are luxuries fit for majors and rise above rocket-fueled equipment.
That dreamland isn’t possible, but in this ideal world where power isn’t the priority, clubs and balls can remain untouched, and we need not envy or groan at top players decimating long holes, but instead be thrilled by their ingenuity and creativity.
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Is a rolled back golf ball the answer to increasing distances? Or is course set-up the real solution instead of a rolled back golf ball? Tell us on X!
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