The U.S. Golf Association and the R&A, the sport’s governing bodies, announced new rules Wednesday regarding golf balls in an effort to reduce distance off the tee. The rules are targeted at professionals but eventually will apply to all players, regardless of skill level.
Moving forward, golf balls will be tested with a swing speed of 125 mph, up from the 120 mph established 20 years ago, with a spin rate of 2200 rpm (previously 2520 rpm) and launch angle of 11 degrees (previously 10 degrees). But the distance limit will remain 317 yards. Balls will have to be made to stay within that 317-yard limit with the added swing speed.
According to the USGA/R&A announcement, golf’s longest hitters will see a reduction of as much as 13 to 15 yards off the tee. Average professional tour and elite male players are expected to see a reduction of nine to 11 yards, with a five- to seven-yard reduction off the tee for an average LPGA or Ladies European Tour player.
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The rules will go into effect for professionals in January 2028 and for everyone else in January 2030. It isn’t clear how amateurs would check the legality of their balls or how widely they would follow the new rules, but the USGA said in its statement Wednesday that “a significant portion of golf ball models that are currently in the market — and more than 30 percent of all golf ball models submitted for conformance across the game — are expected to remain conforming after these changes are applied.”
In a statement, the PGA Tour said “we believe the proposed increase in test clubhead speed to 125 mph is disproportional to the rate of increase we see when analyzing PGA Tour radar data” and that “we will continue to share our feedback with the USGA and the R&A.”
In 2022, a USGA and R&A study found average driving distance on the world’s major professional tours had increased by 4 percent between 2003 and the end of the 2022 season, in large part because of technological advances in equipment. The governing bodies called the increase “undesirable” because it reduces “the challenge of the game.”
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In introducing the ball rollback, the USGA and R&A also are seeking to protect historic courses from becoming obsolete to the sport’s biggest drivers. Many of the courses played by professionals have been lengthened to make their holes more challenging, but land around the courses is finite and courses can be stretched out only so much. Plus, course officials were beginning to combat the added length by tricking out other parts of their courses, often by adding water hazards and making greens roll more quickly. This can slow the pace of play.
“For most of us the game is pretty well in balance,” golf legend Jack Nicklaus, a longtime proponent of the golf ball rollback, said at the Masters in April. “Power has always been a plus. Today, the [professional] game is balanced more toward power. I don’t know whether there’s an imbalance. I think we are going to run out of land.”
Rory McIlroy, the second-ranked golfer in the world, said Sunday that the rule changes will be good for the sport.
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“I don’t understand the anger about the golf ball roll back,” McIlroy wrote on social media. “It will make no difference whatsoever to the average golfer and puts golf back on a path of sustainability. It will also help bring back certain skills in the pro game that have been eradicated over the past 2 decades.”
McIlroy added that a more logical change would have been “bifurcation”: to have one standard of golf ball for professionals and another for nonprofessionals, as was initially proposed by the USGA and R&A in March. But manufacturers resisted that idea for financial reasons, and it also was opposed by the PGA Tour, the PGA of America and others who wanted all golfers to play by the same rules, regardless of skill level.
“The people who are upset about this decision shouldn’t be mad at the governing bodies, they should be mad at elite pros and club/ball manufacturers because they didn’t want bifurcation,” McIlroy wrote. “The governing bodies presented us with that option earlier this year. Elite pros and ball manufacturers think bifurcation would negatively affect their bottom lines, when in reality, the game is already bifurcated. You think we play the same stuff you do? They put pressure on the governing bodies to roll it back to a lesser degree for everyone. Bifurcation was the logical answer for everyone, but yet again in this game, money talks.”
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Tiger Woods also said he would be in favor of bifurcation at last weekend’s Hero World Challenge.
“I’ve always been for bifurcation. I’ve always said that,” Woods said. “Just like wood bats and metal bats” in baseball.
But other professionals said the shorter golf ball will be harmful for the sport as a whole.
“For the amateur world, to hit the ball shorter is monstrous,’’ world No. 15 Keegan Bradley said at the Hero World Challenge. “I can’t think of anything more stupid than that. I don’t think it’s very smart at all, with golf’s growing popularity.”
Said PGA Tour pro Rickie Fowler: “I completely get it as far as some protection can be better, but when you look at it across the board for everyone who plays golf, those weekend guys aren’t going to want to hit it shorter. I don’t think the golf ball is the one thing to throw out there. I think there are other ways to work at this.”
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Mike Whan, chief executive of the USGA, said golf’s governing bodies tried to strike a balance between the two opinions.
“Governance is hard. And while thousands will claim that we did too much, there will be just as many who said we didn’t do enough to protect the game long-term,” Whan said. “But from the very beginning, we’ve been driven to do what is right for the game, without bias. As we’ve said, doing nothing is not an option — and we would be failing in our responsibility to protect the game’s future if we didn’t take appropriate action now.”
Said R&A CEO Martin Slumbers: “We are convinced that this decision is one of the key ways of achieving a sustainable future for golf, protecting the integrity of the game and meeting our environmental responsibilities. The measure we are taking has been carefully considered and calibrated while maintaining the ‘one game’ ethos deemed to be so important to the golf industry. Importantly, it also keeps the impact on recreational golfers to an absolute minimum. We are acting now because we want to ensure that future generations can enjoy the unique challenge of golf as much as we do.”
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