The atmosphere at Augusta National always has a way of sharpening the mind, but it was Gary Player’s recent comments during the Masters press conference that truly set my brain whirring. When a legend of the game suggests the ball needs to be rolled back a staggering 60 yards, it’s impossible not to sit up and take notice.
However, while Player’s hyperbole grabbed the headlines, it prompted me to put pen to paper on a much more pressing concern: the sheer madness of implementing a universal rollback without a single real-world professional trial.
Gary Player has been very vocal on the golf ball rollback this week
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The powers that be have clearly made their move. They’ve decided the ball is the primary lever to pull to “protect” the game’s future. While I don’t doubt there is a mountain of R&D data and wind-tunnel research to substantiate this hypothesis, data is not a substitute for the heat of Sunday afternoon in a localized breeze.
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What is stopping the governing bodies from hosting a trial tournament – or even a series of them – to test numerous options?
The Blind Spot in the Data
It seems as though almost every player and pundit within the game has weighed in on the topic at some point, with many expressing serious concerns that the ball rollback is a blunt instrument for a complex and nuanced problem. The community has offered up a buffet of alternative solutions, such as limiting driver clubhead size to reward precision, stricter MOI and COR limits to reduce forgiveness, or even increased fairway grass lengths to negate excessive ground roll.
There have been projections published, but is that enough?
(Image credit: USGA)
I recently inadvertently put one of these theories to the test. For an upcoming Golf Monthly YouTube video, I competed in a GB&I PGA event using a 130cc driver.
The experience was eye-opening, and I have never been more convinced that this would be a better route for the authorities to take.
At that size, the penalties for missing the center of the clubface are so severe that I am certain they would immediately deter even the most elite professionals from “swinging out of their boots” without a care in the world on every tee box.
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