A PGA Tour player nears the first tee. A Darrell Survey employee checks his bag -- what kind of driver, irons, wedges, putter? She even dutifully records the brand of cleats in his shoes, all so manufacturers know for certain which professionals use their products. But one thing she doesn't check is his golf ball.
This isn't reality … yet. PGA Tour professionals choose the golf ball they want for distance, spin and quality. But could the implementation of a single uniform ball ever be used to combat ever-increasing distance off the tee?
After a much-hyped revamping of Augusta National again this year, Masters chairman Hootie Johnson did not completely eliminate the idea, but suggested that there were additional ways to change the course before going to that extreme.
"We don't want to take the golf ball off the table but we don't have any serious … we're not giving that any serious consideration right now," Johnson said. "But as far as the golf course is concerned, we'll have to continue to evaluate that."
All equipment, not just the golf ball, contributes to the longer drives that PGA Tour professionals are recording. Johnson indicated the issue is one for the U.S. Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club to deal with, not a single tournament.
"The club head gets bigger, the ball goes farther," he said. "And, like Jack Nicklaus said, I don't know that anyone has the answer. I hope the governing bodies, they are addressing it."
The USGA actually does put limits on how far the golf ball can go -- distance has been regulated since 1976. According to Dick Rugge, the USGA's Senior Technical Director, the testing method was last updated less than two years ago to reflect the equipment used by PGA Tour professionals today.
And yes, the USGA does make pros the focus of its testing.
"The test method employed by the USGA, using a 120 miles-per-hour swing speed, is representative of the swing conditions used by the longer PGA Tour professionals," Rugge said in an e-mail. "The USGA tests balls like the PGA Tour pros hit balls."
Simply by addressing concerns about the golf ball's performance in the e-mail, which was sent to media and posted on USGA.org and in last week's Wire, the association shows it's aware of the controversy. Still, from the eight myths and one truth described in the e-mail, USGA officials don't believe that golf ball distance is too high.
Some of the other myths include: Faster swing speeds get greater distance from new golf balls, PGA Tour driving distance is increasing rapidly, and the average distance for 5-irons on tour is more than 200 yards.
As far as the truth goes, accuracy off the tee really isn't as important as it used to be on tour. That explains why the tour's top three golfers -- Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh -- rank 13th, 17th and 55th, respectively, in driving distance but only 138th, 92nd and 135th in driving accuracy percentage.
"During the '80s driving accuracy was almost as strong a predictor of money-winning as putting. Today it has fallen to the lowest level ever," Rugge said.
As accuracy takes a backseat to distance, other pundits have made suggestions to limit golf equipment. Recently, former USGA technical director Frank Thomas wrote a column in The New York Times suggesting that maybe tour pros should have to use four fewer clubs than amateurs do. After all, he argues, once players could carry as many clubs as they liked for every possible situation, until the Rules of Golf were changed to a 14-club limit in 1938.
That would certainly put the brakes on Mickelson's successful use of two drivers, but it might also return the spotlight to shot making, a skill that hasn't been around as much in the age of the 300-plus-yard drive.
Certainly that would allow each golfer more autonomy over their choices than a one-size-fits-all golf ball.
