Tag: USGA

Nichols: Distance debate feels light years away at my local range

Recreational golfers weren’t too familiar with the USGA distance report, but issues of equipment and playing from right tees are important.

LAKELAND, Fla. – It’s just after 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon at Sanlan Golf Course, a 27-hole, 464-acre site that was once mined for phosphate. It’s home to the only full-size driving range on the south side of Lakeland, and with temperatures hovering around 72 degrees, the place is packed.

This is gritty golf. There’s a guy wearing a tank top slashing drives as Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to Be an American” blares over the speakers. There’s a group clinic going on at the short-game area. Three-year-old Ireland Decker is amusing herself with the plastic range bucket in between bites of goldfish while her dad works on his game. If she’s not jumping off the empty bucket, she’s wearing it like a helmet.

On Tuesday, the USGA and R&A released their distance report, which determined that we have a distance problem in golf, and that it’s moving the game in unsustainable directions.

One day later, this revelation had yet to trickle down to most of those on the range at Sanlan. Diego Nunez, 20, was one of the most well-versed out of the bunch, and his grandfather got him hooked on golf less than a month ago.

Nunez, a Barstool Sports fan, happened to stumble upon Fore Play’s latest podcast, which addressed the upcoming report and what it might mean for professional golf, soon-to-be-obsolete courses and the environment. The Barstool crew took a complex issue and laid it out in easy-to-understand terms for a newbie like Nunez.

“It gives you a lot to think about,” said Nunez. “This rule would be more about the future than say the next five years.”

Wendy Doolan, a 51-year-old Aussie who won three times on the LPGA, started the FunGolf Club at Sanlan. (Beth Ann Nichols, Golfweek)

Athletes and technology will continue to evolve. Eventually, we’ll run out of land.

Nunez’s buddy, Shane Schmucker, is a caddie at Streamsong. He’d hate to see pros like Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka be forced into equipment that takes heat off of their games, but he’s all about amateur Joe learning to play from the correct tee.

It’s part of Schmucker’s daily speech at Streamsong, getting guests to move up to a yardage that makes sense.

“You’re paying $300 to play,” Schmucker said. “You might as well enjoy a hair of it.”

Big-hitting pros coupled with plus-sized golf courses have helped to create an epidemic of recreational golfers playing from the wrong set of tees. That’s in the USGA’s report too. It’s one reason why rounds of golf in America drag on far too long.

“People think if they play the golf course all the way back, it makes you better somehow,” said Wendy Doolan, who knows just about everyone on the range.

Doolan, a 51-year-old Aussie who won three times on the LPGA, started the FunGolf Club at Sanlan six months ago.

Golf, she said, isn’t about shooting 62 like the pros. Doolan didn’t have much fun chasing low numbers for most of her life. Now she spends her days giving students attainable goals that aren’t attached to score – counting fairways hit, number of pars, how many times a chip landed on the green. Her lessons are 10 to 15 minutes long. People can’t stay focused long enough for an hour-long lesson, she said, and they feel too much pressure.

Doolan’s students sometimes hit marshmallows and poker chips. Her group clinics cover everything from pre-shot routines to balance to how to increase swing speed.

Her driver clinics are always full. But she’s trying to get her students to understand that being able to two-putt is kind of cool, too. A $79 monthly fee gives students four private lessons and an unlimited number of group sessions. Even a beginner in his 90s named Don signed up.

On Wednesday afternoon, Doolan crouched down on the range to help 12-year-old Anna Lloren get her club in the correct position. This was Lloren’s second lesson, and her follow-through is a thing of beauty. When the soft-spoken seventh-grader took a full swing and missed the ball entirely, she broke out in a smile full of braces. That’s because Doolan was there making even the misses seem fun.

Three-year-old Ireland Decker has some fun on the range at Sanlan. (Beth Ann Nichols, Golfweek)

On her last swing of the 10-minute session, Lloren hit a stunner. High-fives all around.

The distance debate, and what to do about it, seemed about as far away as the moon in that moment. And yet, the conversation is happening for beginners like Lloren and soon-to-be beginners like tiny Ireland, who might one day become as obsessed with the range balls as she is with the green basket.

The distance debate is, at its core, about protecting the game. Making golf environmentally and economically sustainable. Making it practical. Making it less about power and more about well-rounded skill.

Scaling back so that ultimately, golf can grow.

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MORE ON THE DISTANCE REPORT:

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Eamon’s Corner: USGA, R&A taking heat but don’t call them amateurs

The only thing that seems to unite the two sides of the distance debate is the belief that the USGA and R&A have gotten things wrong.

Too often it doesn’t matter what the USGA or R&A say. When they say it. How they say it. Or even who says it.

The distance discussion is no different. Like much of what we see in daily life, most minds are already made up.

The only thing that seems to unite both sides on this fractious topic is the belief that the USGA and R&A have gotten things wrong, which is fair enough. That’s the cost of being in a position of authority.

But the most asinine dismissal we frequently hear is that they’re amateurs, ill-qualified to sit in judgment on the professional game.

Check out this week’s edition of Eamon’s Corner.

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Phil Mickelson takes shots at USGA and R&A over distance report and more

Phil Mickelson questioned whether the USGA and R&A were qualified to make equipment rulings that could effect the professional game

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Phil Mickelson read the USGA and R&A’s distance report that was released Tuesday and took his share of jabs at golf’s governing bodies during his pre-tournament press conference on the eve of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Mickelson’s biggest beef with the report, which expressed concern for distance gains becoming “unsustainable,“ was his opposition to what he perceives as punishing athletes for getting better.

“I don’t think that we have had massive equipment changes. We have just had athletes that have been able to take advantage of the equipment more so than in the past. And I hate to see that discouraged,” Mickelson said. “You look at what Bryson (DeChambeau) has done getting in the gym, getting after it, lifting weights, and hitting bombs, and now he’s – now you’re talking about trying to roll it back because he’s made himself a better athlete. So, I don’t know if I agree with that. But I also don’t really understand the whole scope of how it affects the game and how it affects agronomy and golf courses and so forth, so I’m not sure I’m the best one to really comment on it. I just know from the small little bubble of the PGA Tour, I hate seeing the athletes be punished or discouraged from continuing to work and get better.”

Mickelson also questioned whether the USGA and R&A were qualified to be making decisions that would shape the future of professional golf.

PRO-AM: Tee times | Power rankings | Odds

“I struggle with some of our governing bodies,” Mickelson said. “I struggle with it because we’re the only sport, we’re the only professional sport in the world that is governed by a group of amateurs, and that leads to some questionable directions that we go down. I wish that we had people that are involved in the sport professionally to be in charge a little bit more.”

Mickelson slinged his last arrow directly at the USGA and its U.S. Senior Open, which will be held at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, June 25-28. It would be the first PGA Tour Champions event that he is eligible for after turning 50 on June 16. It is scheduled the week after the U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club, where Mickelson has one of his six runner-up finishes.

When asked if he had any interest in playing the U.S. Senior Open and if winning the title would bring a certain level of satisfaction to him, Mickelson answered, “None whatsoever. No.”

For playing it or satisfaction, he was asked.

“Both,” Mickelson said.

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Golf has reason to celebrate on National Girls and Women in Sports Day

On National Girls and Women in Sports Day, take a look at climbing participation numbers and increased opportunity for women’s golfers.

On National Girls and Women in Sports Day, women’s golf has much to celebrate. The statistics and shout-outs rolled in Wednesday on social media, painting a picture of a growing segment of the game.

Women and girls across all sports are recognized in this way annually on a day powered by the Women’s Sports Foundation, an organization that funds research, educates and advocates for women in athletics.

In the golf world, many of the competition opportunities for women are afforded through through LPGA and USGA Girls Golf, a national junior golf program that provides opportunities for girls to learn the game.

The USGA annually hosts five amateur championships for women at all ages, and participation has climbed noticeably there, too. The USGA reported receiving 189 entries for the U.S. Girls’ Junior in 1989, and a record 1,606 entries in 2018. The U.S. Women’s Amateur also hit its record entry number (1,468) in 2018.

The ANNIKA Foundation also creates playing opportunities for young women and does it all around the world. According to the foundation’s 2018 annual report, 550 girls from 60-plus countries participated in one of the foundation’s events last season. More than 600 ANNIKA competitors have played golf at the collegiate level, with 45 earning LPGA Tour cards.

More: Annika Foundation gives back to golf on global scale

At the college level, recent research compiled by the NCAA reveals a major participation jump in women’s college golf. The sport gained 157 new teams – across all three NCAA divisions – since 2008, which accounts for the largest growth among all women’s sports except lacrosse and track and field.

Women’s college golf grew at more than triple the rate that men’s golf did, though men’s numbers are also up in the last decade. The NCAA reports a net gain of 46 men’s golf teams across all divisions.

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Phil Mickelson on U.S. Open bid: No to special exemption if he doesn’t qualify

Phil Mickelson needs to get himself into the top 60 in the world rankings to qualify for the U.S. Open or win the Masters, Players or PGA.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Phil Mickelson’s lost year since winning last year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has taken a toll on his world ranking. So much so that it might cost him a spot in this year’s U.S. Open, the only major he needs to complete the career grand slam.

That didn’t seem conceivable when he left Pebble Beach Golf Links last year after defeating Paul Casey by three shots for his record-tying fifth title here. It was his 44th Tour title and left him ranked No. 17 in the world.

As he said, he was ready to crush the rest of the year. Instead, the rest of the year crushed him. He missed eight cuts, his best finish was a tie for 18th in the Masters and he fell to out of the top 50 in the world for the first time since 1993.

He fell to 86th after missing the first two cuts of 2020 but rebounded to 72nd with a tie for third in last week’s Saudi International. But he has to crack the top 60 in the world rankings by the end of the PGA Championship in May or by the Monday of the U.S. Open to get into the national championship. He’d also earn a spot if he were to win the Masters, the Players or the PGA Championship. And the U.S. Golf Association could extend a special exemption to Mickelson, a man worthy of such a gesture for the career he’s amassed that includes a record six runner-up finishes.

But there’s a rub.

“I won’t accept it,” Mickelson said Wednesday at Pebble Beach. “So I am either going to get in the field on my own or I’ll have to try to qualify. I’m not going to take a special exemption. I just won’t.”

Mickelson has missed just one U.S. Open since 1993 – that coming in 2017 when he attended his daughter’s graduation instead of playing at Erin Hills.

He turns 50 two days before the start of this year’s U.S. Open at Winged Foot in New York.

“If I get in, I deserve to be there,” said Mickelson, who might even play in a sectional qualifier if need be. “If I don’t, I don’t. I don’t want a sympathy spot. If I am good enough to make it and qualify, then I need to earn my spot there.”

He’s confident he will. Last week’s tie for third was his first top 10 in a year and boosted his confidence. His body is trimmed and tight, his game is rounding into shape and his mental game is sharpening.

“I have felt coming into this year that a lot of the physical areas of my game have been addressed. I was really excited about how I was playing. And then I get on the golf course and I start not seeing what I want to have happen but more what I don’t want to have happen,” Mickelson said. “My inability to kind of control my thoughts was getting the best of me the first few weeks. And I was able to identify the problem and then fix it and start to control my thoughts a little bit better, control my visualization, and I hit a lot of good shots thereafter (in Saudi Arabia).”

Returning to 17-Mile Drive won’t cloud his vision. He’ll make his 24th start this week on the Monterey Peninsula he loves dearly. His grandfather, Al Santos, was one of the original caddies at Pebble Beach. He loves the format, mingling with entertainment and sports stars as well as captains of industry.

And memories of his wins in 1998, 2005, 2007, 2012 and last year provide positives to call upon. Basically, it’s the perfect storm for Mickelson.

“As I got older I realized what an important event this is in developing kind of a relationship with a lot of the decision makers and key players in the game of golf and developing these kind of emotional connections that lead to better decisions as far as supporting the game,” Mickelson said.

As for his game, he remains as confident as ever.

“I believe I can play at an extremely high level. I just need to show it,” he said. “Physically, I’m swinging the club better, more on plane, striking it more solid, hitting the ball longer, swinging the club faster than I have in many, many years.

“But there’s a lot more to winning than just hitting bombs, and I’m trying to put all those pieces together and I’m enjoying the challenge. I’ve had a great off season and a lot of good things have happened in the last three, four months and I’m very excited for the year. I know the first two weeks didn’t go as planned, but the rest of the year is going to be very good.”

 

Forward Press Podcast: Discussing the distance report with the USGA

Episode 32 of Forward Press: Golfweek‘s David Dusek talks with Thomas Pagel, Rand Jerris from the USGA about the Distance Insights Project.

In episode 32 of Forward Press, Golfweek‘s David Dusek talks with Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s senior managing director of governance, and Rand Jerris, the USGA’s senior managing director of public service.

This discussion took place on Tuesday, the day that the USGA and R&A, the game’s governing bodies, released their Distance Insights Project Report, a 102-page document with data and information from 56 different projects examining distance in the game of golf.

Forward Press is a weekly Golfweek podcast. In each episode, you’ll get insight and commentary on all that is golf from David Dusek, Steve DiMeglio, Beth Ann Nichols, Eamon Lynch and Adam Schupak, as well as special guests throughout the industry.

You can download and listen on all of your favorite platforms, including: iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Castbox, Radio Public.

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Distance report findings have PGA Tour players split on key issues for game’s future

PGA Tour players at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am had mixed feelings about the findings of the USGA/R&A Distance Insights Project report.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – As a rule, PGA Tour pros can’t agree on what day of the week it is. On Tuesday, they proved the point yet again when discussing the importance of distance in the game and what the USGA/R&A Distance Insights Project report means to the game’s future.

“I think it would be ignorant not to look at people that play well and say distance isn’t a big issue or a big component of all the good players’ games,” Patrick Cantlay said. “To ignore that or to say it’s not that big of a deal, I think would be a mistake because guys are hitting it farther and the golf courses are suited for that.”

Ever since Padraig Harrington turned pro in 1995, he has witnessed first-hand how the balance of golf’s blend of distance and direction, short and long game, finesse and strength has shifted to become more of a power game.

“When I started out, 280 was a big number, then 290. Today, 300 is just average, 320, you’re a big boy now,” Harrington said. “The best players were always comfortable with their driving. What you see now is a greater depth of players that are long. Davis Love stood out in his day. If he didn’t play well that week, he didn’t win and everyone assumed that you didn’t have to be long to win. Now you have 20 to 30 more Davis Loves. So, you have increased the number of long hitters who could win. Length always gave you an advantage. It’s the same advantage, if not less, because there’s more of them. It’s more of a disadvantage to be a short hitter because of the fact that the courses have to be set up to deal with the long hitters.”

As an example of how length has changed the game, Harrington noted, “You’re never hitting a 4-iron into a par 4 anymore. When I was starting out, you used to hit woods.”

Harrington supports a rollback

Harrington is an ambassador of the R&A and says he shared his views with its executive director Martin Slumbers.

“I’ve told him I 100-percent support a rollback for the golf courses. It’s purely because of the cost to the golf course – the size, the maintenance, the water, all the costs. There are great golf courses that can’t be used. Roll it back and start again,” he said. “My personal opinion is I would set new specifications and the let the manufacturers have another race to the top. If the ball was rolled back 10 percent, we’d all start again and off we’d go.

“I’m with Titleist, which I think has the best ball now, and they’re a big enough company that if they had to start from scratch, they’d be the best ball again. It would be a shock to the system, to the manufacturers, sure. There’s a risk when you have a company like Titleist that has the largest market share. They would like the status quo but I think they are in the best place to produce the next best ball under the new parameters.  Let them compete again. I think Titleist would actually gain from it.”

Jack Nicklaus, who has long maintained the golf ball goes too far, took to Twitter to respond to the report.

“Now that they have clear findings obtained from century of collecting data and its impact on all levels – from golf played at highest level to recreational golf – I look forward to supporting industry’s collaborative effort to find solutions that are in best interest of game’s future,” he wrote.

But not everyone is convinced the ball goes too far.

“Hell no, distance isn’t a problem on our level,” Harold Varner III said. “It’s way firmer out here on Tour. When I go back home, I’m never hitting it over 300. Out here I am.”

Would he be in favor of playing in a tournament that had distance-control measures?

“No,” Varner said. “If you have a God-given talent and worked to be as good as you can be, and in this case, being able to hit the ball far, you should be able to use it. LeBron James is 6-9 and can run over everyone. Is he not allowed to play with them? That’s weak. If I didn’t hit it far enough, I’d get up for the challenge.”

RELATED: Five takeaways from USGA, R&A distance report

No course is too short

“Perfect example is Riv,” Varner said of Riviera Country Club, host of next week’s Genesis Invitational near Los Angeles. “It plays so much longer and it’s right around 7,000 yards. And 10 under or around that wins every year. As far as new courses, all they want to do is make them longer. They don’t want to make the greens smaller, the fairways tighter. The stuff that isn’t very exciting. So, let’s make it 8,000 yards.”

Is distance taking strategic elements out of the game because the ball goes too far?

“Depends on the course,” said Paul Casey, who emphasized he hadn’t read the report yet. “Look, the 10th at Riviera is a brilliant golf hole. Now, it’s just a brilliant golf hole with a different golf club in your hand. It’s still a great golf hole. Distance, in a way, exposes golf architecture. The great architecture is still great, the bad architecture is still bad.

“This is what always frustrates me. It’s the chicken-and-the-egg scenario. You hear the golf professionals hit the ball too far. The golf professionals are hitting it 320 yards instead of 300 yards. Why is it all about us? Obviously, there has been an increase in distance, partly because of the golf ball, partly because of the golfer, partly because we’re maximizing perfect launch conditions, other technology. That didn’t come about because the golfers decided to hit the golf ball farther, or golf manufactures decided to make the golf ball go farther. The golf courses got longer.

“There’s an argument for this. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. But the golf courses became longer because the golf developers said if we can make the golf courses longer, we can get four more houses on that hole and two more on that hole, etc. That’s more money. And that’s when the manufactures and the players – including the amateurs – rose to the challenge. They had to start hitting the ball longer. I don’t like us players and the manufactures getting the blame. We’re not the only ones to blame.”

What about the amateurs?

Cantlay says distance isn’t a problem for the amateur player.

“I think all the equipment and all the stuff is great for the amateur golfer,” Cantlay said. “The ball can’t go too far for a 10 handicap.”

Scott Hamilton, a golf instructor for several Tour pros and elite amateur players alike, has seen his students swing with ever-increasing velocity.

“I’ve been at this for a long time and I used to get one college guy who could swing 118 mph. Now they all do. And it is the same with women. I’ve got six girls who can swing it over 100 mph. It’s not all the ball. The average chopper isn’t hitting it farther. Elite players are training better and they’re better athletes.

“Rolling the golf ball back isn’t going to help the grow game at the amateur level. I ran a golf shop for 18 years and never had one golfer ask me, ‘Give me the shortest ball you’ve got.’ ”

Stewart Cink opposes bifurcation

Cink, the 2009 British Open champ, doesn’t see the harm in amateurs hitting the ball longer, but he doesn’t support the potential of a local rule that would allow for different equipment at the elite level in competition.

“That sounds like bifurcation of the rules,” Cink said. “We (the PGA Tour) shouldn’t be in the rule-making business. I think playing by the same set of rules helps our fan base identify with us. They realize when they play the same equipment we do that golf is hard. I’m not saying nothing should be done, but I’m not sure if this reactive way of rolling things back is a real great idea.

“My caddie and I were just discussing this and what would bring it all back is a golf ball that didn’t go as straight, that curved more. Then you’re going to think twice about hitting driver. Hitting the ball straight should be a skill. You can’t deny that power is important, but that’s what makes a sport a sport. Tell me a sport where power isn’t important. Now, is it disproportionately important? That’s the question the ruling bodies have to answer.”

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Distance debate: Don’t blame the amateurs because Tour pros hit the ball too far

It seems everybody is ready to duke it out in the tangled mess that is the modern distance debate.

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In one corner are the rules makers. In another corner, the equipment manufacturers.

Across the octagon cage match are the pros, positioned opposite the amateurs. Course operators, architects, real estate developers, the voices on podcasts, Instagram influencers, the lady in the beverage cart, even the kid selling lost Top Flites from a shoe box in the yard on the side of No. 13 fairway – it seems everybody is ready to duke it out in the tangled mess that is the modern distance debate.

Different perspectives. Different goals. Different priorities, sometimes conflicting. None of them are necessarily wrong, but that doesn’t mean they’re all right, either.

One thing is certain: The vast majority of recreational amateurs – I dare say almost all of them – do not hit a golf ball too far. Except, perhaps, when they skull a bunker shot.

The U.S. Golf Association and the R&A released their Distance Insights Project on Tuesday, possibly laying the groundwork for reducing hitting distance in golf. The report speaks at length about the distance achieved by elite male golfers – mainly touring pros – leaving classic courses obsolete for top-tier championships.

It’s true: Cameron Champ, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and a handful of PGA Tour stars can send a ball unbelievable distances, reducing almost all par 4s and many par 5s to nothing more than a driver and a wedge. Bobby Jones said of a young Jack Nicklaus, “He plays a game with which I am not familiar.” That was 1965. What would the Georgia gentleman say about today’s professional power game?

But to you (pardon me if you’re a Tour pro), me and all the folks we’re likely to find in our weekend foursomes, Brooks Koepka’s overpowering of Erin Hills with a 3-wood in the 2017 U.S. Open means little when we’re on the tee.

The pros play a different game.

The PGA Tour is, at its core, entertainment. A traveling circus, stopping in a new town each week. Pitch the corporate tents and blow the fans’ minds with feats of daring and strength. It’s Cirque du Soleil, minus the feathery costumes. And just like a high-wire act, most of us have no real idea how they do it, or the years of sweat equity involved. We can enjoy it without comprehending the physics involved.

So yes, of course, elite pros might make the shot values of classic courses obsolete, but only for the week those million-dollar-earners are in town. They’ll be on their way to next week’s Tour stop soon enough, and those classic tracks can return to their glory for the most important golfers of all – those who pay the green fees and club dues.

Tour pros are unbelievably talented outliers, 100 yards or more to the right side of the distance bell curve. The USGA and R&A acknowledge that in their Distance Insights Project. The mere use of the word “elite” states the simple case that there just aren’t that many of them. If everybody hit the ball too far with precise control, we all would be elite. And inversely, none of us would be.

The report makes brief mention that recreational golfers have achieved distance gains over the past 100 years. Well, one would hope so. We have YouTube tutorials, online lessons, slow-motion smartphone video for our totally unqualified friends to analyze and 460-cubic-centimeter drivers designed by artificial intelligence. Not to mention golf balls that travel too far, except for when they don’t.

The Distance Insights Project offers that “today’s average drive distances for recreational men are in the range of 185-240 yards.” Those numbers are roughly backed up by Shot Scope, makers of GPS golf apps and shot trackers. Shot Scope reports that players with handicaps of 9 or under drive the ball an average 237 yards. Players with a handicap of 10-17 drive it 216 yards as a group, and players with handicaps of 18 and over average 199 yards.

Based on information on the USGA’s website, only a quarter of golfers have a handicap index lower than 9. That information, combined with Shot Scope’s distance data, means most golfers don’t hit the ball past 216 yards. Not exactly overpowering. Certainly not enough to render a classic golf course obsolete, as most players would be left with an approach shot of 200 yards or more on any par 4 that brushes past 400.

The Distance Insights Project rightly says some courses are too long for many amateurs, even that vast majority who never see the back tees except from the passenger side of the golf cart. As stated in the report, shorter courses offer tangible benefits: a smaller environmental footprint, lower costs to build and maintain, possibly quicker rounds. All very good points and admirable goals, but they do not necessarily mean recreational hitting distances must be reduced. It does not have to be an either/or approach.

Even at a modernly modest 6,400 yards or less, solid and creative golf architecture can withstand just about any amateur effort, especially when considering that most players don’t send the ball screaming past 200 yards off the tee. A few relatively powerful low handicappers might sneak in a couple extra rounds near par, but that hardly would indicate a course’s obsoletion.

The traditionalist in me – I have four old Bulls Eye putters and two persimmon drivers in my bedroom closet at home, so that counts for something – hates to say it, but the best part of the Distance Insights Project might be a proposed solution in the conclusion to the report that would allow tournament committees to enact a local rule requiring shorter-hitting equipment in select events. Such a local rule surely would be used mostly in elite competitions, allowing the rest of us to keep hitting our aerodynamically enhanced golf balls 15 yards short of the target.

That is much favorable compared to the second proposed solution, which would be to implement new equipment standards across the board. The ruling bodies state in the report that they don’t want to go that route if it “would produce substantial reductions in hitting distances at all levels of the game.”

That leaves solution No. 1 as a betting favorite, and it’s bifurcation, pure and simple. For years, that was a scary term that evoked a sense that golf would fall apart if regular players ever learned that Tour pros really are better at golf. But as the USGA presents its suggestion as a local rule, it’s simply two sets of equipment standards rolled into one set of rules.

In reality, as Mr. Jones said in ’65, Tour pros play a game with which we are not familiar. The PGA Tour already enacts a web page’s worth of local rules almost every week, further separating the game they play from the game we play.

Why should equipment standards be any different?

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Lynch: The USGA’s distance report is out, and so begins the battle for golf’s future

The Distance Insights project serves notice to manufacturers who have long resisted action on distance.

To a jaundiced observer, golf debates must have all the obvious relevance of a couple of tweedy academics bickering over the best translation of Beowulf between draws on their pipes. No debate is more fractious than that surrounding distance, which has for years rumbled along like a freight train in the night. During that time friendships have been sundered, garments rended, pearls clutched and block buttons exhausted. To casual fans it must seem like golf esoterica; to those who care, it’s golf in extremis, an existential argument on the very future of the sport.

Ours is a game of byzantine conventions, so it’s unsurprising that many drive-by spectators believe it hasn’t evolved in years, that it remains the domain of those who prefer the way things used to be, regardless of what those things are. The reality is that golf, like an aging Hollywood actress, shows marked change if you know where to look. Only now have we reached a moment when its wheezy statutes begin to catch up.

The Distance Insights project report jointly issued by the USGA and the R&A represents the first draft of a manifesto on what the future of golf should look like. For those among us who wish to preserve the living works of art on which we play, who want to see restored the varied skill requirements that defined generations of legends, and who fear a looming sustainability crisis, it offers hope that the decades-long assault on those values is nearing an end.

In the words of the great Roberto Duran, no más.

There is ample blame to go around for how golf reached this impasse, but no shortage of it rests with the very people in Far Hills and St. Andrews who propose to lead us out of this quagmire. The governing bodies failed to govern diligently, a fact they had the grace to acknowledge in the document summarizing the conclusions of the 102-page report. They acquiesced to an equipment arms race that rendered obsolete some of our greatest courses and robbed elite ballstrikers of a natural advantage over inferior competitors. And the problem with a race that’s well underway is that it’s awfully difficult to call the runners back to the starting line.

Difficult, but not impossible.

RELATED: Gains in distance have golf moving on an unsustainable path

The Distance Insights project frames the debate in terms that any golfer would struggle to rebut: “An enduring foundation of golf is that success in getting a ball from the tee to the hole in the fewest strokes should depend on using many different skills and judgments, rather than be dominated by only one or a few. In our view, it is essential for this to remain true for play at the diverse golf courses across the world, without the need for them to keep getting longer.”

The need to restate that basic principle is a tacit admission that it is significantly eroded. What the USGA and R&A did not state, at least not explicitly, is what precisely they will do to redress the issues caused by distance gains, to restore nuanced skill to the highest level of the game, to protect our finest courses, to ensure golf is sustainable for future generations.

The next steps that are broadly outlined in the report are in keeping with golf’s fondness for deliberate, ruminative processes, and at odds with the modern thirst for flip-switch change. There’ll be a year or so of more research with invitations for input extended to stakeholders, not least equipment manufacturers. Hence this effort at reassuring that hostile constituency: “It is not currently intended to consider revising the overall specifications in a way that would produce substantial reductions in hitting distances at all levels of the game.”

If you’re an equipment company executive, those words “currently” and “all” may as well be flashing neon.

The response from the manufacturing quarter will be as furious as it is predictable, because this report cannot be read as anything other than a revolution foretold, a serving of notice to those who have long resisted action on distance with a combination of bluster, cries about restraint of trade and barely disguised legal threats.

Raising the idea of tackling distance via the introduction of a Local Rule —which tournaments and professional tours can choose to adopt while recreational golfers are free to ignore — is an artful use of parliamentary procedure to undercut those familiar browbeating warnings that Messrs. Davis and Slumbers want to steal distance from short-hitting chops who can hear the ball land. Manufacturers can continue to sell product. Most golfers will simply not be impacted.

It’s bifurcation by another name.

Change is most assuredly coming to the elite ranks. Consider this section of the report: “Notwithstanding the Equipment Rule specifications that seek to limit hitting distance, we believe that there is potential for further increases to occur within the existing rules, such as by using longer shafts, and that club and ball design will continue to evolve in conjunction with improved swing and fitting techniques to generate more hitting distance.”

RELATED: Five key takeaways from USGA, R&A distance report

In short, existing standards won’t prevent a worsening of problems caused by distance gains. That admission makes inevitable new specifications that will seek to roll back equipment and rein in distance, and not simply draw a line in the sand where we stand now.

The distance report is awash with the noble language of consensus building, but make no mistake — the USGA and R&A have fired the first shot in a war for the future of golf. It is both overdue and necessary.

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Five key takeaways from the USGA, R&A distance report

After years of study by the USGA and R&A on the effects of increased hitting distance in golf, the governing bodies are prepared to act.

After years of study by the U.S. Golf Association and R&A on the effects of increased hitting distance in golf with a focus on elite competitive players, it appears the ruling bodies are preparing to act.

When and how are yet to be determined. What is not in doubt is that distance achieved with drivers and other clubs has generally increased at the highest levels of golf.

The release of the ruling bodies’ Distance Insights project on Tuesday provides a few clues as to what’s on their minds. Here are five key takeaways:

Changes are coming

The USGA and R&A have monitored increases in modern hitting distance since their 2002 Joint Statement of Principles without action, but Tuesday’s release of their Distance Insights project seems to pave the way for changes.

The Distance Insights project states that “this continuing cycle of increases is undesirable and detrimental to golf’s long-term future” and that “golf will best thrive over the next decades and beyond if this continuing cycle of ever-increasing hitting distances and golf course length is brought to an end.”

RELATED: Gains in distance have golf moving on an unsustainable path

The ruling bodies then state their next steps are to evaluate solutions in forming an objective to restrict any future distance gains. They discuss two possible methods of implementing solutions.

The report also “provides notice to equipment manufacturers of this overall area of interest under the Equipment Rulemaking Procedures.” Expect the wheels to start turning.

A Shotlink volunteer measures yardages during the first round of the Sony Open In Hawaii in 2019 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Bifurcation through local rules

Bifurcation – separate sets of rules or equipment standards for professionals and recreational amateurs – always has been a complicated suggestion. The Distance Insights project states that the ruling bodies’ goal is to have all players compete under one set of rules.

But under the first suggested possible solution, the Distance Insights project discusses creating a local rule that essentially is bifurcation. The solution introduces the concept of local rules “that would specify use of clubs and/or balls intended to result in shorter hitting distances” and “allow committees that conduct golf competitions or oversee individual courses to choose, by Local Rule authorized under the Rules of Golf, whether and when to require that such equipment be used.”

That opens the door for restricting distance gains and even rolling back current distance at the discretion of such tournament committees as those on the PGA Tour or at select events such as the Masters or U.S. Open.

Local rules are prevalent on the PGA Tour and in other major championships, usually a nod to the fact that tournament golf at the highest level is in many ways different than a simple recreational match between friends. Such a local rule also might be the fastest and perhaps easiest solution to implement any necessary distance restrictions, as it would focus on those players who have generated the greatest distance concerns (male tour pros) while not effecting the less-studied recreational amateur game.

Rollback of all equipment is possible but unlikely

The second possible solution is to roll back equipment standards – “conformance specifications for both clubs and balls” – across the board, but the intent is not to revise “the overall specifications in a way that would produce substantial reductions in hitting distances at all levels of the game.”

Many proponents of decreasing hitting distance have focused on reducing the distance that golf balls can travel at various swing speeds, including those speeds typically achieved by recreational players. But with the ruling bodies’ statement that it doesn’t intend to substantially reduce distance at all levels of the game, that approach seems unlikely.

That doesn’t mean testing and conformance won’t change. The USGA has for years maintained a maximum travel distance for golf balls when tested under current methods, yet incremental distance gains undoubtedly have occurred. It’s reasonable to expect the ruling bodies to revamp their testing standards and conformance requirements to hamper equipment-based distance gains without further restricting distance expectations for recreational players.

The focus is elite male players

The Distance Insights project mentions distance gains by men, women, amateurs and pros that have occurred for more than a century. But the focus is on elite males, for whom the most comprehensive distance data is available. Much less studied is the overall effect of distance on the recreational amateur level.

While the Distance Insights project mentions a wide range of driving distances for amateur men – “185-240 yards as compared to a typical range of 130-180 yards around 1930” – the ruling bodies have not released any information on deep dives about recreational distance. The ruling bodies’ 2017 Distance Report said the groups had conducted studies at only six courses for men and eight for women, all in the United Kingdom. That report said that amateur distance was slightly up among that small sample captured on one day at each course per year.

It is unclear if any comprehensive studies of the recreational amateur game have been conducted since or if any are planned.

Golf courses are too long for amateurs

Bolstering the possibility that bifurcation through local rules might be on the horizon, the Distance Insights project states that while male pros have rendered many classic courses too short for elite competitions, most recreational golfers are playing courses that are too long.

Course lengths have been extended for decades in response to chasing “championship” lengths, regardless of whether any particular course might host elite competitions. The ruling bodies say the 90th percentile of courses, as expressed by longest courses, has increased from about 6,100 yards at the start of the 1900s to 7,200 yards today.

Besides increased costs to build and support longer courses, the report states that such courses are simply too long because even forward tee boxes have been pushed back. Even for players who use forward tee boxes, “many golfers using these tees may have little chance to reach various greens in regulation even with their longest and best drives and approach shots, and therefore are not offered the same type of playing experience as others on the same hole.”

While it might appear to be an apparent contradiction in the Distance Insights project that golf balls are flying too far for some players yet courses are too long for others, that information simply highlights the disparity between elite male hitting distances and those achieved by recreational players.

Anecdotal speculation has for years suggested that the greatest proportional distance gains have been seen among elite players swinging in excess of 110 mph. Bifurcation by the use of local rules might address such disparities.

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