In a highly anticipated report that has kept the golf world waiting for a year, the United States Golf Association and the R&A have determined that distance is playing an excessive role in the game and causing the sport to go in an unsustainable direction.
The USGA and R&A, the game’s governing bodies, released their Distance Insights project on Tuesday morning, a 102-page document which includes data and information from 56 different projects.
“This is something that has been swirling for decades,” Mike Davis, the CEO of the USGA, told Golfweek. “But what’s interesting is that when it comes to distance increases, it’s happening to all sectors of the game. People say that it’s really just about the elite game, but it’s not.”
While the report signals potential changes in the equipment rules could come in the next several years, the USGA and R&A are proposing significant time for research and evaluation before acting.
Driving distances keep increasing
Like a lawyer laying the groundwork of a court case, the Distance Insights project tries to methodically piece together a narrative that is convincing and easy to understand for both golfers and people working in the industry.
Citing the Rules of Golf, the report states, “golf is a challenging game in which success should depend on the player’s judgment, skill and abilities.”
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The report makes a compelling argument that the increases in hitting distances and length of golf courses is part of a continuing cycle that is “undesirable and detrimental to golf’s long-term future.” Course lengths have continued to grow with the governing bodies identifying 11 course projects in the last three years that will result in total length above 7,500 yards. This is important because as the USGA and R&A acknowledge, the sport recognizes the need to adapt to environmental and natural resource concerns.
Similarly, data reported by the USGA and R&A shows the distance elite players hit the ball has been increasing for more than a century. From 1900 to the 1930s, elite golfer driving distances rose from a range of 160-200 yards to between 220-260 yards, thanks in large part to the adoption of the rubber-core ball. From the 1930s to the early 1990s, the average driving distance on the PGA Tour increased to 263 yards. But by 2003, as multi-layer balls and larger, titanium drivers were adopted, the average rose to 286 yards.
In 2019, the combined average driving distance on the PGA and European Tours was 294 yards, with the 20 longest hitters averaging 310. The USGA says the upward trend in distance is expected to continue in the future.
Possibility of a Local Rule
As many have argued that distance is a problem, they have called on the USGA and the R&A to roll back the performance of golf balls and dial back the distance of drivers. But the Distance Insights project does not make any recommendations for changes to the Rules of Golf or equipment standards.
It does, however, say that several research topics will be announced in the next 45 days, and different ideas will be explored and researched. This exploratory phase, which is expected to last between nine and 12 months, will look into several different factors that could help limit the effects of distance.
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Among the topics that will be studied is the potential adoption of a Local Rule that could specify the use of equipment that would result in shorter hitting distances, like a ball that flies less as far or drivers that have less springy faces, in certain events or tournaments.
“We put that out there as a concept to assess as part of this next phase,” said Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s senior managing director of governance. Asked if the USGA would consider playing a U.S. Open under a Local Rule that required players to use special equipment, he said, “We don’t even know what that might be. There may not be a Local Rule. It’s just something we want to look at.”
The USGA and R&A also plan to review the specifications that govern current clubs and balls, but the report states, “(The review) 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.”
In other words, the USGA and R&A could work to limit the performance of clubs and balls to the levels where they are now or not make any equipment changes at all. What is clear is the governing bodies are not looking to take golf back to the persimmon era.
“If (the issue of distance) was really just about what has been happening on the PGA Tour, then they could, hypothetically, find courses that work for them,” Davis said. “This is way broader than that. It’s way more than just what’s happened since the Joint Statement of Principles back in 2002.”
In May of 2002, the USGA and R&A’s Joint Statement of Principles outlined how the game’s governing bodies view the relationship between golf, technology and distance. Many critics of the increasing-distance trend have pointed to the nearly 18-year-old document, which states, “Any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable. Whether these increases in distance emanate from advancing equipment technology, greater athleticism of players, improved player coaching, golf course conditioning or a combination of these or other factors, they will have the impact of seriously reducing the challenge of the game.”
The Driving Distance average on the PGA Tour at the end of the 2002 season was 279.5 yards. In 2010 the average rose to 287.3 yards and last season it was 293.9 yards.
“(The Distance Insights project is) a long-term look, and we’re not trying to go back to some bygone era,” Davis said. “We’re saying, ‘Let’s look forward together.'”
Pressure on golf course operators
While players have gained distance over the years, new courses have been getting longer too. In the meantime, many older courses have been lengthened to maintain the shot values and risk/reward elements that are an integral part of the game.
According to the report, the average length of 18-hole courses between 1900 and the 1930s grew from between 5,400-5,500 yards to 6,200-6,300 yards. That range grew to between 6,600-6,700 yards by the 1990s. In the 2010s, the range was up to 6,700-6,800 yards, and the longest courses being constructed were over 7,400 yards.
The Distance Insights project concludes that as elite players continue to hit the ball farther, many golf courses either do not have space nor the resources to expand further. As a result, too many elite golfers can rely on power to hit over fairway bunkers, cut the corner on dogleg holes and take other challenges out of play.
“Eventually, over time, how each hole is designed to be played can be compromised,” Davis said. “You see less variety of shots. One of the things that will happen over time, but not necessarily overnight, is that those golf courses that can’t keep up with distance, there will be a perception among some golfers that it’s not a course they want to play anymore, or it has become obsolete. The data shows this.”
Many pundits and golf fans have been arguing these exact points for years, and they will wonder why the USGA and R&A are only acknowledging this problem now.
“Let me say this, we don’t have an emergency here. We’re not in a crisis,” Davis said. “Frankly, we are just seeing more pressure than we’ve ever seen on golf courses. When you look at the data in the U.S., there are many golf courses that have razor-thin profit margins and anything like having to build new tees, adding water, anything like that (can cause problems).”
Rand Jerris, the USGA’s senior managing director of public service, confirmed that approximately one in four golf facilities in the United States today loses money. The costs associated with water, fertilizers and course maintenance are expected to increase in the years to come, with some regions like the Southwest, Jerris said, likely to be hit harder than others. However, larger courses are inherently more expensive and require more work to maintain.
This is how distance, in the eyes of the USGA and R&A, is setting up an economically unsustainable cycle. If elite golfers continue to hit the ball farther, as the trend implies, it will force courses to spend more significant amounts of money to keep the challenge in the game. A lot of facilities will fail to keep up, and either shut down or be forced to charge more money and make golf even more expensive to play.
Davis and Jerris point out that while most golfers do not play from the back tees, those areas still have to be watered, fertilized and maintained for the few golfers who do. In that way, they argue, every golfer is paying for longer courses with their greens fees or club dues.
Some who read the Distance Insights project likely will be surprised to see that the USGA and R&A place some of the blame for the distance problem on recreational golfers.
“While there is a problem at the long end, with golf courses not being able to keep up with increases in distance, there is a problem at the other end, too,” Davis said. The data revealed to the USGA and R&A that too many golfers play from tee boxes that are too far back based on how far they hit the ball.
Golf facilities also fail to provide tees that are forward enough, and they do a poor job of educating players on the ideal course length for their game.
“Even if they have the tee grounds, there needs to be a discussion with golfers about where you really should play because that’s not only the way the designer of the course designed it to be played, but it’s also a more enjoyable experience.”
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