Tiger Woods has stated his desire for bifurcation in the game of golf but admits that a rollback “should have happened a long time ago.”
Woods is a strong proponent of dialling down hitting distances in the professional game to ensure that classic golf courses don’t become obsolete, with very few venues boasting the resources of Augusta National to continue lengthening holes and adding in new tee boxes.
The 15-time Major winner makes his first start this week at The Masters since the rollback proposal was announced last month, and he had some strong views as always on the subject of hitting distances.
“If you do anything to the equipment, I don’t think that you can change the size of the heads anymore, just because there’s so many out there,” he said.
“But I still think that it’s very much like baseball with aluminum bats and wooden bats. You can have a difference in the golf ball, and tennis has the same thing, you go to different events. They have different balls; the public doesn’t really know that but the players do.
Woods is happy to see the proposal for bifurcation
(Image credit: Getty)
“I’ve been of the position if you play in a pro event or you have a P next to your name, you should be playing a pro ball. Now, that was my opinion on it. If you have an A next to your name and you’re playing an amateur event, you should use an amateur ball.
“But you’re an amateur playing a pro event, now that’s where the transition can be had, where you can start, I wouldn’t say rolling the game back, but you can start slowing it down because we’re just not able to create enough property out there.
“I think this should have happened a long time ago”
“The guys are going to become more athletic. Everyone is going to get bigger, stronger, faster as the generations go on. Even if you roll the ball back and get a spinnier golf ball, guys will find you may go to a 4-degree driver and you may find a different shaft and you may have that one match up. I think this should have happened a long time ago.
“That’s what Jack was saying, the 384 was going too far. This is back in the ’80s. But still, that was my take on it; that the amateurs should be able to have fun and still hit the golf ball far but we can be regulated about how far we hit it.
“Now, I understand the marketing is going to be different for how you’re going to market your equipment to the public.
“But yeah, I understand that, but on a competitive level, there’s only so much we can do at the amateur level or the Tour level…
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