Will the USGA Force Golfers to Use a New Ball?

This essay was written in April 2023, when I took an abridged dive into the history and metrics behind driving distance. The controversy remains the same today.

1997 was just the start.

When his PGA campaign was complete, John Daly had made history. He broke a barrier of something once seemed so unachievable, if ever considered physically possible. He became the first player to average 300 yards with the driver.

Not only did he reach a landmark denoted by a round number; In relative terms he crushed the competition. The rest of the PGA averaged 264 yards, which was an average that was farther behind Daly’s than the distance from home plate to first base. Yet as prolific as Daly was with own swing, several of his competitors were doing themselves a disservice. The majority of players hadn’t yet acclimated to the new driver technology and this included eleven poor souls, one of which was soon-to-be World No. 1 David Duval, who still used persimmon woods. After noting Daly’s numbers using the new Callaway Driver -  Big Bertha, the old school players saw the light and traded their gear for the latest technology. 1997 would be the final season of multiple PGA players teeing off with wooden clubs.

1997 was also groundbreaking for the PGA, because it was the Year of the Tiger. In his first full season on Tour, Tiger Woods won the Masters and became the world’s number one. He launched a new era of athleticism, regimented workouts, and data-driven training. In summation, all of these factors in 1997 began a revolution in driving distance. 

Fast forward a quarter century later. Instead of one player averaging 300 yards, it’s now 82 players. Instead of the Tour average being 264, the shortest hitter on Tour is reaching 280. The numbers don’t lie. Golf has seen innovation in the long game. Combining the kinesthetics of Daly, the graduation to better driver technology like that of Duval, and the disciplined workouts of Tiger, players have combined these tools to build a faster swing with cleaner contact, leading to the golf ball traveling farther. 

But arguably the biggest jump in the yardage was the golf ball itself. Around 1997, players began using single-layer solid core balls, deviating from the previously ubiquitous wound balls. It only took three years for the single-layer solid core ball to influence another innovation - the multi-layered core ball. When Titliest launched their ProV1, the Tour’s average driving distance increased 6 yards. This was enough evidence for players to stop using their previously preferred single-layer. The multi-layered core ball was now the primary choice for pros - they were never looking back. 

Yet somehow, despite the awe-inspiring visuals of balls flying majestically into the sky, increased distance has become a problem for the sport. Talent is increasing but it’s coming at a cost.

So let’s dive into the early signs of concern.

Although PGA officials began tracking driving distance in 1980, complaints about distance had fluttered around the golf ether many times before. Every so often from the 1930s-70s, fans and purists would scoff at the newest clubs and improved golf balls - but nothing was done. Officials and higher ups thought that for the most part, distance was good for the game - attracting more eyeballs and making the game more fun. 

Over time and with respect to the aforementioned events in the late 90s and early aughts, we started to see increased driving distance become “too much of a good thing” as it was on alert as a potential concern for golf’s next generation.

The first new wave of grumblings came in 2003. This was the first year the USGA and R&A, aka the two governing bodies of golf worldwide, released their Joint Statement of Principles. Although the two had been collaborating and revising the golf rulebook for decades, this inaugural Joint Statement of Principles was a report about key policies about the state of the sport and among other specifics, its equipment regulation. 2003 also happened to be the PGA Tour’s first season partnering with ShotLink, a shot tracking GPS used to measure every shot during a tournament. In the Joint Statement of Principles report, the USGA and R&A were explicit, “any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable.”

The Joint Statement of Principles was amended yearly and with ShotLink, driving distance was more meticulously monitored, but it wasn’t until 2015 where the USGA and R&A created a new report about their ShotLink findings. Their first ever Distance Report addressed this consistent incremental distance gain seen year over year. From 2003 to 2016, driver distance was creeping upward albeit at a snail’s pace (approximately .2 yards per year). This gradual increase was too minute to hit the panic button. Yet two years later, the alarm went off. In the third version of the report, detailing the stats from the 2017 season, the PGA Tour’s drives lengthened by 2.5 yards. A growing concern had now become a threat. 

Let’s look at the following graphs featured in the 2017 Distance Report.

On Figure 14 (our first Figure, but #14 in the 2017 Distance Report), the red lines feature the driving distance of 0-5 handicappers, aka the best among us recreational golfers. The top drives within a 20 year span have fluctuated without any substantial upward trend. This is regardless of the new golf clubs, golf balls - essentially over the course of a huge sample size, new products and an evolution in technology hasn’t improved driving among us mere mortals. 

Now let’s look at this next figure, Figure 2.

We want to focus on the red line again, but this time it’s signifying PGA Tour players. On all measured holes, aka holes that the R&A and USGA constituted as having a “grip it and rip it” approach, the trend is clear - up and to the right. No oscillations, no peaks and valleys, just a linear progression of prodigious driving. Therefore the USGA and R&A weren’t concerned about the trend for the joes…just for the pros.

So now that the governing bodies are seeing a major change in driving, why should the sport feel threatened? The biggest concern is due to hazardous and expensive changes to golf courses. Just as Augusta National had to purchase land from neighboring Augusta CC to expand the 13th hole, other courses will have to do the same. Lengthening holes and moving tee boxes back is one facet, but not every PGA course has the luxury of expanding so easily. For example, several Tour courses in Florida are surrounded by residential houses and potential expansion could involve lawsuits and wreak major havoc. 

An overall makeover of hundreds of courses requires more than just moving tee boxes backwards. Unlike your local muni, Tour level courses have narrower landing spots and more unforgiving placement of bunkers. In order to accommodate the strategy component of the sport, courses must undertake alterations that pose major ecological and environmental issues. Man-made lakes and hazards were built to lure players into hitting over on approach shots, but course management becomes obsolete if the driver removes the obstacles from the picture. Rearranging features including the necessary irrigation systems could cost golf courses millions of dollars. 

In a manner of speaking, golfers have always been in competition with the golf course. After all, shooting under par can be interpreted that the player won and the course lost. But only now, is there a more visceral, overt concern that the match between golfer and course is a zero sum game. Given the trend of the driving distance, either the golfer wins or the course wins. 

So what can be done? If the USGA and R&A found a problem, they’re responsible for finding the solution. 

Let’s go back to Figure 2.

We already discussed the red line marking the PGA Tour - Measured Holes, but you’ll also notice the slightly opaque red box covering the years 2000-2004. That was when the previously mentioned multi-layered core balls became the ubiquitous choice for pros, resulting in the graph’s largest inflection point. Driver distance had its steepest increase - gaining 12 yards in four years. Perhaps that’s why the ball is the biggest scapegoat and the most malleable for change. 

The USGA and R&A have proposed that come 2026, they will require pros to play with a flight reduced ball - the most significant change to the ball since the multi-layered solid core. Given that golf balls are regulated through a dynamic robot swinging at 127 mph, among other conditions that include launch angle and spin, this means that any ball eclipsing 317 yards via this simulation would be banned.

This proposal needs to be approved by the PGA Tour who will provide feedback in the coming months on whether a new ball will become non-negotiable to its players*. But at the very least, expect to see this ball change in the two majors run by the governing bodies - the US Open and The Open Championship. 

As it stands right now, the biggest winners are the golf courses - especially links-style courses. While I’m sure the R&A wants to do right by golf on a global scale, at the very least this change will save courses under their jurisdiction. After all, their birthplace and headquarters is St. Andrews. But even as the organizer for all Open Championships, not just those played at the Old Course, a substantial amount of featured courses for their major will be links style. These courses are at least hundreds of years old and weren’t designed to match today’s distance. Even if a specialized ball is only used at the Open Championship, it will be a victory for the R&A. 

As you might imagine, the PGA’s best drivers will be negatively impacted. While every player will be affected to some degree, the ball change is clearly targeted at the top twenty or so drivers. One of the biggest opponents of the change is Justin Thomas, who’s stated, “So, for two of the four biggest events of the year we’re going to have to use a different ball? Try to explain to me how that’s better for the game of golf. And they’re basing it off the top 1 percent of all golfers.”

JT isn’t just describing the heaviest hitters but also those players whose distance off the tee is their advantage, where they receive the most strokes gained relative to the other aspects of their game. The flight-reduced ball should also significantly impact those players who can reach Par 5’s in two shots - holes in which a majority of their birdies come from.

There are several implications if the Tour schedule is a mixed bag of events with mandatory flight-reduced balls and events where they’re optional. The best players in the world are creatures of habits. In fact, Korn Ferry player Ashton Van Horne went on the podcast Sweet Spot and said the difference between those who make the Tour vs. those who don’t graduate from the Korn Ferry is the consistency in routine. Pros don’t deviate from their pre-shot routine, practice rituals, or mental preparation. In fact, one of the reasons the PGA hasn’t had a Tour event in Colorado in ten years is because players don’t want to recalibrate their yardages for the altitude. They’re creatures of stringent habit. Switching to flight-reduced balls from one tournament to another may jeopardize their ability to display their best effort.

Whether you’re in favor or against using reduced-ball flights, there’s one last fact I must point out. In the large scheme of things, the scores on the PGA have been consistent over the last four decades. The average score on tour is 71, the same as it was in 1980. The league leading scoring average on tour is 69, same as it was in 1980. No matter how much technology improves - clubs, GPS systems, training equipment, and of course, golf balls - scores remain the same. This is because Tour courses have maintenance teams who always find ways to make the course more difficult. Make the greens faster, build in more undulations, grow the rough higher. What we have to pinpoint is whether the USGA and R&A are more concerned about potential changes to the physical golf courses or the deviating nature of how golf was intended to be played. It’s reasonable to be concerned that all pros will soon eclipse 300 off the tee and we’ll see an abandonment of long irons and approach wedges for more of a formulaic path towards the cup. Drive, chip, putt. Drive, chip, putt. Drive, chip, putt. 

A change in the golf ball is coming. But a change in golf’s difficulty is not. 

*As of March 2025, the PGA still supports the rollback but hasn’t officially approved it.