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On Tuesday morning the United States Golf Association and the R&A released their highly anticipated report which determined distance is playing an excessive role in the game and causing the sport to go in an unsustainable direction.
The 102-page Distance Insights report features data and information from 56 different projects, but doesn’t offer a solution to the distance problem. Instead it paves the way for change, after a period of research and evaluation.
Brandel Chamblee has a few ideas on possible solutions, and he shared them during Golf Channel’s two-hour special edition of Golf Central Tuesday evening.
“As I read (the report), I found myself agreeing with some of the issues from a sustainability standpoint as the game continues to grow,” said Chamblee. “But I found myself differing in a lot of aspects of the report. Namely, I feel like the game is out of whack at the professional level in one way, and I think we do agree about this, the inability to play the game with great accuracy, what I would define as being outside the top 100 in driving accuracy and to be rewarded is out of whack.”
Chamblee, as he’s known to do, gave a strong opinion and brought some stats to help support his argument. Six players who finished 2019 in the top 10 in scoring average were outside the top 100 in driving accuracy. Patrick Cantlay was 160th in driving accuracy, and second in scoring average.
Do you think distance is a problem in golf?
— Golfweek (@golfweek) February 4, 2020
Chamblee, winner of the 1998 Greater Vancouver Open, compared that to the first year the Tour started to keep that kind of data in 1980. For players in the top 10 in scoring average, the worst driver of the golf ball finished 80th in driving accuracy. The leader in scoring average? Lee Trevino, who finished 12th in driving accuracy. Jim Herman was 12th in driving accuracy last year on Tour and finished 167th in scoring average.
“I can find those correlations diminishing and I think impoverishing the game,” said Chamblee, “but I think the solution is more organically found than the more difficult solutions that are proposed or hinted at.”
His first solution? Grow the rough.
“The golf ball can easily be constricted by raising the fairway heights, growing the rough and firming up the greens,” he explained.
His second solution, this time to solve the sustainability problem, is much more fun: Play 12 holes.
“On the sustainability issue, real quick if I can, I’ll use a rowing analogy. You row forward by looking back. This game was 12 holes when it began, at the highest level it was 12 holes. For a dozen years it was 12 holes. The record was 149 and he won by 12, Old Tom Morris in 1870. Why is it 18? You want a smaller footprint, you want a faster round, why don’t we go back to the beginning of the game and play 12 hole golf courses?
Why not play 12? Historical records, thousands of courses are built for 9 or 18 holes already, just to name a couple. Chamblee’s retort?
“There was a historical record when they went from 12 holes to 18,” said Chamblee. “I’m talking about sustainability issues. I’m talking about times issues. Why do I worry about those records? We’ll have new records for 48 holes or 60 holes or whatever you want it to be. But if you really want a smaller footprint, and you want to play faster, the easiest solution is 12 holes, not 18.”
[opinary poll=”do-you-think-distance-is-a-problem-in-go” customer=”golfweek”]
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