By Dan Rapaport
Phil Mickelson is no fan of the United States Golf Association. He’s made that unmistakably clear with his words (he loves to call them “amateurs”) and his actions (putting a moving ball in protest of the course setup at the 2018 U.S. Open).

It will not shock you, then, that Lefty is not a fan of the USGA/R&A’s announcement of a new Model Local Rule that will allow a professional tour or tournament organizing committee to implement a rule limiting driver club-lengths to 46 inches, down two inches from the current maximum of 48. Lefty half-broke news of the new rule back in August, when he took to Twitter to spill the beans on what he deems a “PATHETIC” rule that will incentivise shorter swings. On Tuesday, after things became official, Lefty fired up the USGA insult-o-meter once again.

“‘Stupid is as stupid does.’ Mrs Gump,” Mickelson tweeted. “Really though, are the amateurs trying their best to govern the professional game the stupid ones? Or the professionals for letting them?”

“Stupid is as stupid does.”Mrs Gump

Really though, are the amateurs trying their best to govern the professional game the stupid ones? Or the professionals for letting them? https://t.co/3zt4LyH3UW

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) October 12, 2021

The PGA Tour issued a statement on Tuesday saying that it would adopt the local rule starting Jan. 1, 2022.

A number of players have experimented or put longer drivers in play to increase distance. That includes Bryson DeChambeau, who frequently trains with a 48-inch driver, and Mickelson, who currently games a 47.5-inch one—and did so when he won the PGA Championship in May. However, the number of players on the PGA Tour with drivers exceeding 46 inches is relatively small; most use drivers no longer than 45.5 inches.

Mickelson is not in the field at this week’s CJ Cup but did win the Constellation Furyk & Friends last week on the PGA Tour Champions. It’s the reigning PGA Championship winner’s third victory in four starts on the senior circuit since turning 50 last June.

The post Phil Mickelson cites ‘Forrest Gump’ in harsh response to new USGA/R&A rule on driver length appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Mike Stachua
If you’re looking for definitive conclusions in the massive reports that contributed to the USGA and R&A’s recently released Distance Insights Project, they are quite nearly at every turn and occur so often they can occasionally contradict themselves.

But in that way, it precisely reflects the tumult of the question posed by driving distance in the game today. A case in point is the Global Stakeholder Perspectives Final Report. The report is a summary of a survey of the golf community conducted throughout the fall of 2018 that included nearly 68,000 responses and an additional 232 one-on-one interviews that characterize distance in the game as everything from a dire threat to a growth opportunity. Slog through its 175 pages, and you are just as likely to believe that this is a game struggling to find an answer as it is one struggling with itself. As the report concludes, both obviously and ominously, “Much of the opinion around distance is very divided, with each stakeholder group’s opinion motivated by their own unique standpoint.”

The research, conducted by the trade research firm Sports Marketing Surveys, included opinions from every possible group in 115 countries, ranging from recreational players to top-ranked professionals, and from golf course architects to equipment manufacturers and retailers, and those whose only connections to the game are as spectators.

Among its highlights:

• Nearly nine in 10 golfers agreed that pros are hitting it farther today than they did five years ago, but only 57 percent said recreational golfers were longer than they were across the same period. (According to the 2019 Distance Report, six of the seven professional tour’s driving distance averages have increased since 2014 with an average gain over that time span of around 4.6 yards. Three of the seven tours, however, lost yardage in 2019 compared to 2018. The report also says average driving distance among amateur recreational golfers has increased 16 yards since 1996 to 216 yards.)

• Those who watch golf and said they “regularly” see drives that are “too long” is nearly equal to those who “rarely” or “never” see drives that are too long (36 percent to 34 percent).

• Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed agreed that “recreational golf and professional golf are as different as two different sports.”

• Those who agreed with the statement “Something must be done to stop distance continuing to increase” was slightly higher (36 percent) than those who disagreed (28 percent), but equal to those who said they neither agreed nor disagreed (36 percent). But respondents were less enthused about technology being changed to control distance. Only 26 percent agreed with the need for a technology change, while 38 percent disagreed.

• Is distance a problem in golf? Those who called it a “major problem”: 17 percent; those who said it is a “minor problem”: 31 percent; those who said it is not a problem: 36 percent.

• Are distance increases a threat to the game or an opportunity? An opportunity: 21 percent; A threat: 23 percent; Both: 25 percent; Neither: 31 percent.

• The percentage of those who agreed with the statements “modern technology has made golf more enjoyable” and “too much attention is paid to how far a player drives” was exactly the same (55 percent).

• “Golf should be more about accuracy than distance” was the second most agreed to statement on the survey, trailing only “Golf is a great sport to watch on TV.”

• Distance makes golf more fun: 40 percent agreed, 21 percent disagreed.

• Distance is only a problem for the top players: 38 percent agreed, 28 percent disagreed.

• More than half of all golfers and industry/organizational representatives in every country but Japan agreed with the statement “Advances in technology have not taken away from the true spirit of the game.”

At the end, the report suggests that golf’s rule-makers present “a range of actual propositions for future change” to determine “what the most effective action should be.” Which, not surprisingly, is just what the USGA and R&A have decided to do. In announcing the project’s findings last week, the governing bodies outlined that specific research topics would be announced in the next month, and over the next year that research would lead the rule-makers to announce proposed changes, if any, to the rules. That would then begin another process of notice and comment between the rule-makers and the manufacturers.

Of course, given the diversity of opinions revealed in the survey, there seems little guarantee that any series of proposals won’t provoke the same level of disharmony this survey shows. Indeed, on the very same page of the survey, two administrators weigh in on the subject of distance in a way that shows how close and how far apart two people in the same room can be.

“Some restrictions at the elite level will be needed, as the game is on the borderline of getting out of control,” says one at the top of page 123, while at the bottom of the page, the second offers, “Anything that turns people away from the game is bad. The majority of golfers would like to hit the ball further.”

It remains to be seen whether the final outcome from the ruling bodies will be a majority decision.

The post 11 stats from the USGA/R&A Distance Insights Project that show just how split people are on distance appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Mike Stachura
While golf’s ruling bodies are unclear as to what should happen next, the nearly two-year study of how far the golf ball is flying—known as the Distance Insights Project—is resoundingly clear on one specific conclusion: Distance must be stopped.

On Tuesday, the USGA and the R&A officially released the conclusions of their report, which involved a holistic review of distance’s effect on the game over the last century that included multiple surveys and commissioned research programs.

“We believe that golf will best thrive over the next decades and beyond if this continuing cycle of ever-increasing hitting distances and golf course lengths is brought to an end,” the report’s 16-page “Conclusions” document reads. “Longer distances, longer courses, playing from longer tees and longer times to play are taking golf in the wrong direction and are not necessary to make golf challenging, enjoyable or sustainable in the future. In reaching this conclusion, our focus is forward-looking with a goal of building on the strengths of the game today while taking steps to alter the direction and impacts of hitting distances in the best interests of its long-term future.”

In an exclusive interview with Golf Digest on Monday, USGA CEO Mike Davis and current USGA president Mark Newell said the game had reached what amounts to a tipping point with regard to distance. Davis cited how “almost all golf courses” have been affected by distance over the past 100 years.

“As distance increases, golf courses have either altered themselves or will alter themselves,” he said. Davis also noted the increase in distance has distorted the skill set required to compete at the highest level, and the strategic challenge has been taken away on certain holes.

“We want the cycle of distance increases to stop,” Davis said. “We think distance is relative, and it’s always been relative. This concept of every generation having to hit it farther than the previous generation, we just don’t think when all is said and done that that is good for the game.”

Davis said he didn’t see the current situation as “a crisis, but we clearly have identified a problem that the industry should solve in a collective way.”

Newell said the distance trend extends to many levels of competitive golf down to state and local tournaments. “It isn’t just a sliver of professionals,” he said. “There’s really a pressure that is felt by many golf courses to keep getting longer in order to accommodate that.”

While no official equipment-related rule changes were proposed, they are without question on the table. The report acknowledges players’ improving skills and athleticism along with the enhanced course conditions that will only get firmer as water use becomes even more restricted in the coming decades, but the ruling bodies’ plan is to focus on how equipment rules could lead to the desired chilling effect on hitting distances. Those changes could target adjustments in the current rules specifications for clubs and balls, but also would consider the possibility of allowing tournament committees to institute local rules that would require a certain kind of ball or club to be used on that course for that tournament.

That idea naturally leads to questions of whether the game should have separate rules for elite golfers compared to the rest of golf. In a Tuesday press conference announcing the report, Davis remained opposed to two sets of rules, but opened the door for a kind of bifurcation where a local rule might be employed.

“We are steadfast in our belief that one set of rules is in the best interest of the game for everyone,” Davis said. “The concept of the local rule goes back to the 1700s and allows courses or tournament committees to have flexibility where it makes sense.”

Ryan Pierse

The Conclusions document details that the driving distance average for the 20 longest hitters on the PGA Tour and European Tour had reached 310 yards and that the average driving distance overall for the combined tours was 294 yards. Since 2013, the report reads, that average has increased “at a rate of about one yard per year.”

It’s not clear why the report cites 2013. If measured from 2012, the average increase in driving distance on the PGA Tour is less than half a yard per year, or not all that dissimilar to the timeframe of the 1980s and early 1990s. It’s also worth remembering that 2012 marked the retirement of Dick Rugge as the USGA’s senior technical director. Rugge largely oversaw the greatest expansion in distance-related equipment regulation, and when he announced his retirement, he famously remarked about the issue of distance, “The train is not leaving the station. It may not be the station that some want to be in. But it is not leaving.”

That assessment is not currently endorsed, however. Newell told Golf Digest on Monday, “I don’t think anything particular has happened,” he said, referring to the past six or seven years. “It’s a continuation of what’s been happening for a century. We’ve seen that distance is continuing to increase and we believe that it’s going to continue to increase, and our perspective is that over time the cumulative effects of distance increases matter. We’re going to see that continue to put pressure on how the game is played on existing courses and the pressure to keep getting longer.”

Newell also reiterated statements in the report about how current equipment limitations may not be enough. “We think there still is room for innovation within the equipment rules,” he said. “And that can continue to contribute to distance in the future.”

As for the effect of distance on professional golf, it’s worth noting that of those 20 longest hitters on the PGA Tour in 2019, only seven won tournaments. On the European Tour last year, only five of the top 20 in driving distance won.

Still, there is no denying that distance has reached new extremes on the PGA Tour. The percentage of 320-yard-plus drives is a third higher in the last decade than it was from 2001-2010. In the past three full seasons, about 10 percent of all drives on the PGA Tour were 320 yards or longer, almost three times as high as it was in 2002.

‘This concept of every generation having to hit it farther than the previous generation, we just don’t think when all is said and done that that is good for the game.’ —Mike Davis, USGA CEO

In the midst of this concern over driving distance at the elite level, the Conclusions document notes that average golfers still are hitting it too short for the tees they’re playing, and that even the shortest tees at most courses are too long for the shortest hitters.

Again, the report stresses that no rule change proposals are being made, merely that today’s document “provides notice to equipment manufacturers of this overall area of interest under the Equipment Rulemaking Procedures. This means that we are identifying research topics that have the potential to lead to an Equipment Rule change.”

In the report, the ruling bodies announced that in the next 45 days, they would be publishing “a more specific set of research topics” with input taking place over the next year. It could take a significant amount of time to determine whether there should be any kind of equipment rollback or rule adjustments, and any proposed rule changes would then be subject to further review by any and all interested parties—including equipment manufacturers and the professional tours—in the ruling bodies’ traditional notice-and-comment period. For comparison, when the rules were changed regarding grooves on wedges, that process began in 2005 and while it was applied widespread in five years, it still doesn’t require average golfers to change before 2024.

Davis stressed that the next stages of the study of distance and future rule changes would be “collaborative” and there would not be any immediate solutions.

“We’re trying to get the game to fit on golf courses that exist now,” Davis said. “This is a long-term play because this has been a long-term build-up of a problem.

“We realize this is a big undertaking. We don’t see this as something where we’re just going to mandate something. Clearly, we may not agree on everything but I think everybody cares about the future of this game.”

The post USGA/R&A declares distance increases must stop in findings from Distance Insights Project appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Mike Stachura
The USGA and R&A’s investigation into the distance topic, the so-named “Distance Insights” project, will now employ an outside market research firm to ask golfers and non-golfers alike around the world what they think about distance.

That outside research firm, Sports Marketing Surveys, is an international group with experience working with golf organisations and even a string of golf equipment companies to provide consumer and market research. What is their mission with golf’s ruling bodies? On one hand, it’s doing the heavy lifting of understanding the global picture of distance in golf, or, according to Monday’s announcement, “how distance in golf has impacted them over their full golf experience, if at all, and its projected impact into the future.”

Of course on the other, using an outside research firm also will at the very least ensure that whatever decision might be made by the ruling bodies is not going to have the appearance of being a foregone conclusion concocted in the halls of Golf House in New Jersey and the R&A clubhouse in St. Andrews. That seems important given that the leaders of both the USGA and R&A have issued statements of fairly pointed concern about driving distance over the last two years.

For now, though, there seems to be a concerted effort from the ruling bodies to get input beyond the numbers produced in its annual Distance Report, which focuses on the professional tours and to a much lesser extent distance at the recreational level. More than hard numbers and yards, this new arm of the Distance Insights project will likely be about opinions. That focus was front and center when the USGA and R&A announced the Distance Insights project in May.

“This is not about a ball rollback,” Rand Jerris, the USGA’s senior managing director of public services, told Golf Digest in May. “We are looking at distance in a very holistic way. I think we see this research resulting in multiple insights, multiple recommendations and multiple solutions. … We need to broaden the discussion, get a variety of perspectives and re-set the conversation about distance.”

Right now, that conversation continues a trend that is a mix of shifting numbers at the professional level and anecdotal disagreements about what those numbers might mean. Currently, the PGA Tour is on pace to set a record for average driving distance at nearly 296 yards. That would be an increase of almost four yards over last year and almost seven yards over the last two years.

That big jump can be viewed in a different context, however. A 296-yard average would only be five yards more than the average in 2011. That means distance is increasing about 0.7 yards a year over the last seven years. That number is perhaps less alarming when viewed against the rate of increase from 1995-2002, which was more than three times greater than what’s been seen recently.

Those turn-of-the-century distance numbers led the ruling bodies back then to release the Joint Statement of Principles on distance. In it, the USGA and R&A made clear “any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable,” although it did not specifically indicate what action might result if such a situation were to occur.

That action could come once the Distance Insights research project is completed, bolstered by the SMS’s global survey of distance in golf. The full report is expected some time next year.

The SMS research will be conducted in multiple languages and countries. Although the specifics of the SMS research project have not been released, a few things are already clear. The ruling bodies identified twelve “stakeholders” that will be the focus of the survey. Each group will be asked similar distance-related questions, as well as questions related to their specific segment.

The twelve stakeholder groups are: The research will focus on 12 stakeholder groups: golf championship committees; course facility professionals/managers; facility maintenance providers, including superintendents/greenkeepers; golf administrative organizations; golf course architects/construction professionals; golf equipment retailers; golf equipment manufacturers; golf professionals/teachers; golfers; media; non-golf stakeholders; and tournament golf spectators.

That’s sure to be a mountainous collection of diverse opinion on the subject and ultimately, sifting through it and learning from it seems in line with USGA Executive Director Mike Davis’s assessment of the distance debate in a meeting with media before June’s U.S. Open.

“People have feelings about what they want to see, but really I think we are just saying, ‘We see some concerns in the game in terms of the future, and shame on us if we don’t start to think about it,’” he said. “That doesn’t mean we have a solution, and that doesn’t mean we’re going to do something. All we’ve committed to do is this project. That’s all we’re going to do, and some time in the future we’ll address what does this all mean and what are the things we need to do.”

The post USGA, R&A announce outside firm to lead global research project on distance appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.