By Fred Altvater
In addition to hosting the United States Open, the Women’s U.S. Open, Men’s and Women’s U.S. Amateurs, plus 10 other national golf championships, the United State Golf Association (USGA) oversees and occasionally fine tunes the rules of golf.
The USGA, along with The R&A have served notice, that in their vigil to shorten the golf ball for elite players, they plan to amend the Rules of Golf to do just that. USGA Championships would require elite amateurs and professionals to play a ball that does not travel as far as golf balls that are available today.
The proposed change will have no affect on the everyday player, who is trying to get every extra yard he can squeeze out of his ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction.’
Protecting Par
“We have attempted to protect par,” is one of the catch phrases heard from USGA officials at every U.S. Open golf course that is set up nearly impossible to negotiate, even for the best players in the world.
A better question is, “Should they really need to worry about protecting par?”
Isn’t par just a number? With golfers today being much more athletic, technology creating better equipment and courses manicured to perfection, shouldn’t we expect scores to be lower?
We have seen several 59’s posted in tournament competition over the past several years and even one 58. Did the world come to an end? Did casual golfers stop playing because they know they could never achieve such perfection? Ben Hogan spent his golfing life chasing the perfect round of 18 birdies and never came close. What could he have done with today’s better equipment, is something to be discussed at length in the 19th hole.
Does any golf fan watch a golf tournament on their big screen to see bogies and doubles? I think not.
Birdies and eagles are what sells the PGA Tour. Avid golfers rush to their favorite golf shop to buy the exact same set of clubs and balls that the pros use on television before heading to their favorite track to hopefully shoot lower scores.
Back 9 Report discussed the pros and cons of the proposed USGA’s Rollback of the golf ball https://youtu.be/rUK7Bw32K_E.
Equipment and golf ball manufacturers know this and for that reason pay the big names millions of dollars to use their brand and hoist trophies.
In the 1980’s the USGA tried unsuccessfully to ban PING’s square groove irons developed by Karsten Solheim and force PING to stop selling them. After a long and expensive court battle, the USGA agreed to settle out of court with PING ultimately allowed to continue manufacturing and selling square grooved clubs.
We will probably see the same gaggle of lawsuits and legal maneuvering over the USGA’s Rollback Proposal. I think it is inevitable that these issues will help increase hundreds of attorney’s bank accounts.
The USGA contends that the golf ball for elite players needs to be rolled back to protect aging golf courses and the demands of higher maintenance expenses for a course that is forced to expand to accommodate longer golf balls.
Maybe it would be better for everyone if the USGA got away from their flawed perception of par being the rationalization for changing the golf ball and accept the fact that the world moves on. Let the birdies come in bunches and the game more exciting.
