USGA/R&A Distance Report

PA-PLAYA · 2020-02-07T05:53:34+00:00

Well... apparently the governing bodies have finally come to the conclusion that golf's changing distance climate does indeed exist. Without wasting enormo...

Sparky

Sneakylong Anyone who has played sports knows golf in the hardest to play. And it already has three strikes against it. It's too hard, takes too long to play and is too expensive.

A shorter ball on a shorter course helps on the last two, and makes no difference to the first one unless you are playing the wrong tees.

Par4QC

LogicalOne This sounds nice.....

**We plan to expand our testing approach to better detect “Driver Creep”,
which can result in drivers exceeding the limits set out in the Equipment
Rules.

We will continue to monitor drivers and explore possible additional options
related to distance. Specifically, we will research the forgiveness of drivers
and how they perform with off-center hits**

Just bring back hickory and gutta percha, fer chrissakes.

LogicalOne

Par4QC

Looks like I should get a large ball order placed, because that’s where the big money will be made. 😂 Oh crap, I should adjust my golf ball prices immediately! 😬

ode

Par4QC as I previously stated

ode Good God are they out of touch with reality in so much bigger way then I ever thought. Fucking clowns

They should have been the ones to defect to LIV....and the Saudis could....I digress😬

garyt1957

Par4QC oh He'll, yea it won't matter then. A 100 yard drive now goes 95. Who cares? And I probably won't remember when I was longer

Par4QC

garyt1957 A 100 yard drive now goes 95.

I got 300 yd. drives still pushin' 190!! 😄

garyt1957

sdandrea1 yea, I didn't realize they were talking 7 years from now. I'll worry about it then if I'm still alive.
Realistically this rule isn't going to effect many of us hete, we're already too old. By the time you're damn near 80 I think golf will be more about just being in the sun on the right side of the grass then competing

garyt1957

Par4QC eventually you run out of tees.

sdandrea1

LogicalOne Looks like I should get a large ball order placed, because that’s where the big money will be made. 😂 Oh crap, I should adjust my golf ball prices immediately! 😬

Golfbuzzers who are on the list pay double or get 50% off? 😈

Sneakylong

LogicalOne

"Through our Distance Insights Project, we have been focused on using data to
understand the impact of innovation – including in equipment, golf course maintenance,
launch monitors and fitness - while looking to ensure a healthy and sustainable future
for golf. Through our research and review, as well as our discussions with industry
stakeholders and partners, we have sought to embrace and respect the current
momentum and growth of the game, while also taking a broader, unbiased and longterm view on how continuing increases in hitting distances could impact our sport."

You morons (USGA). The average median driving distance among males across all age groups 15-79 is 225.4 yards. For women it's 177 yards. Saw another article where it was closer to 147 yards. Regardless it's not a problem.

The USGA is in search of a solution where a problem doesn't exist. The overwhelming number of courses do not need to be lengthened because they will never see a USGA of PGA Tour tournament.

Of the ones that do then there's a whole host of things the USGA / PGA Tour can do to 'trick' up the course to make it difficult without lengthening it. We've seen them make it pretty goofy in the past.

This whole thing is beyond ridiculous.

Par4QC

Sneakylong I think they had a lot of pushback from ball companies. Originally they were discussing 2 balls, and that probably wouldn't have been a good deal for the ball folks. This rule now allows a couple years for the ball companies to sell off any inventory and produce only the 1 type ball.
Golf life will be the same for everyone after 2030.

Except for us dead players.😲

Just wait til they start finagling with the drivers next year!! Hammer's coming down!!

KCee

Sneakylong The USGA is in search of a solution where a problem doesn't exist.

I completely agree. A few people don't like seeing certain courses yielding lower scores and feel the need to regulate something. Most of us love seeing great players shooting under par. I don't need to see a US Open every round. We all know what can be done to a course to make it play a LOT harder without lengthening it. I suppose everyone is always looking for useless stuff to do to justify their jobs.

Sneakylong

Par4QC

The USGA doesn't know their customer. Again, for 99% of golfers they need to hit the ball farther. I play with two guys who are 76 and 84. They were decent players in their day.

The one thing that prevents them from scoring better these days is distance. They simply hit it too short to hit greens in regulation. The 76 year old shot a 78 yesterday only because he was able to play at 4700 yards.

Many of the courses we play there is no tee box short enough that allows them to hit it far enough to be able to hit greens in regulation.

And dollars to donuts there's far many more golfers like them that hit it too short than hit it too long. The USGA is wrongly focused on a small niche market in golf.

It's beyond arrogant.

Par4QC

Sneakylong to be able to hit greens in regulation.

Wasn't aware that was a requirement to be able to play good golf.🤔

Rules state 14 clubs can be legally carried. Best they choose better as to what goes in the bags.......comes under 'course management' iirc.

rsvman2

Sneakylong I think older players who are having a hard time even from the shortest tees should just tee ul their ball in the fairway somewhere and have at it. Go 20 yards in front of the red tees and play away. What are they gonna do? Kick you off the course?

Sneakylong

I'd like to see someone start a golf equipment company whose mission statement and sole goal was to make the game easier and more enjoyable for the masses. Unleash the engineers with no limits / restrictions.

I even have a name for that company. F*** the USGA. 😯 To make it less offensive shorten it to the the acronym FUSGA. 😎

sdandrea1

Sneakylong I'd like to see someone start a golf equipment company whose mission statement and sole goal was to make the game easier and more enjoyable for the masses

Same goes for course designers. Making it unfair and unusually fucking difficult is no longer "cool".

sdandrea1

I'm betting the FUSGA doesn't have a Facebook or X page where we can all tell them how screwed up they are. Website with customer feedback maybe? 🤬

Eguller

sdandrea1 customer feedback maybe?

Not sure about feedback now, but they offered an extended open feedback/opinion period earlier.

Sparky

The USGA has to walk a fine line between recreational players and competitions. It is not just the PGA Tour or the USGA Amateur here, that is just where the TVs are pointed at.

USGA guidelines are used for almost every junior, high school and college match & tournament. Sure, the PGA Tour guys can keep hitting it longer - let the courses expand to meet that right? College golfers hit it just as far, so now every course that hosts a college match needs to expand. But wait, many high school golfers are able to crank out 300 yard drives now, and now we are talking about the vast majority of public courses out there that host high school matches. Do we expect all of them to expand as well?

Is my enjoyment going to change when my 250 drive goes only 225? Maybe for a few months as I get used to it, but then I move up a set of tees and all is back to what I expect. Now my 6400 yard muni course can still work for me, but it also becomes a little more of a challenge to those high school players too.

MartinD

A semi-random thought that's somewhat related to this subject: You can choose to play with either current-generation clubs and a wound-core golf ball (Titleist Professional or something similar), or early 1990s clubs (think along the lines of the early Big Bertha drivers, and either blades or Ping Eye 2/Zing/Titleist DCI for irons) with a modern ball - which do you think that you would score better with?

What the proposed ball rollback is effectively doing is going down the route of option 1, but only part of the way (I don't have exact numbers in front of me, but my understanding is that the shift from wound core balls to solid core led to distance increases of something like 10%). For what it's worth, I think that professional golf would be more interesting (and more able to identify the best players) if there were stricter limits on the equipment used at the top level, with the aim of reducing forgiveness - that's the second option above.

Sparky

MartinD A semi-random thought that's somewhat related to this subject: You can choose to play with either current-generation clubs and a wound-core golf ball (Titleist Professional or something similar), or early 1990s clubs (think along the lines of the early Big Bertha drivers, and either blades or Ping Eye 2/Zing/Titleist DCI for irons) with a modern ball - which do you think that you would score better with?

I'd say the latter would be best for scoring, but a 460cc driver of today versus a 1990 driver is also a huge difference.

Yeah, the bifurcation path might be interesting, but trying to sell stuff to the masses would be a mess. You can't have Tiger saying "you should buy TP6" and then watch Tiger play a Balata Tour 90.

Par4QC

MartinD if there were stricter limits on the equipment used at the top level, with the aim of reducing forgiveness - that's the second option above.

But again, those restrictions are going to be paced on everyone. OEMs are not going to want to be making a lot of different clubs. And any competitions will always use 'the rules'. Best that everyone 'suffers'.
We will just have to get used to no more pancake driver heads. And maybe knocking off another inch of length of them.
And better learn how to hit centerface!!😉

I really think they will do something with the FW clubs, maybe more so than drivers. Those 300 yd. hits off the deck are getting a bit ridiculous, esp. when some of the gals are approaching that length now.

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