Golf Ball Rollback Official- How Much Distance Will Be Lost?

Matt Adams discusses the official rollback of golf ball distance that has been finalized by the USGA and R&A, and how it will impact golfers from professionals to amateurs.

The news broke from the usgaa and the RNA that the roll back details are now known they are out there and one of the things that was I think surprising at the very least to many was that it will include recreational golfers this is usj and RNA rollback of

The golf balls details the revised ball testing additions will be as follows 125 mph Club head speed it’s equivalent to 183 mph ball speed a spin rate of 220 RPM in a launch angle of 11° the current conditions which were established 20 years ago are set at 120 miles per hour equivalent to

176 milph ball speed 2520 RPM with a 10 Dee launch agle the analysis of ball speeds among golf’s longest hitters in 202 23 shows that the fastest 10 players had an average ball speed of 186 mph while the average ball speed of the fastest 25 next 25 was

1834 miles per hour with the very fastest average 190 miles per hour okay so the first thing that I want to have happen here is I want for you guys to be able to hear from the USG and the RNA because the usgaa and the RNA have said that the

Impact on distance is going to be far less dramatic than what people maybe previously have thought and I’m not blaming anybody on what their thoughts were before details have been released because how would you know there wasn’t any real there was an argument made that the game was getting too long and I

Think there was Merit to much of that at least at the very elite level in terms of the stated objective that the governing bodies had in terms of 20 years 30 years 40 years 50 years down the road right uh but let’s take a look at this graphic in terms of what

Distances and what impact you can expect depending upon what level you play the game there you can see the very very top in terms of performance relative to distance 9 to 11 yards is what they’re estimating it will impact the best players in the world the best female

Players in the world 5 to seven yards and then the average male they’re saying 3 to 5 yards and the average female one to three yards let’s first start then with Thomas Pagel of the United States Golf Association explaining how they arrived at this solution the average

Club head speed is 115 miles hour on the PGA tour we’d expect the average PGA Tour or average Elite male to have an impact of 9 to 11 yards when we get to those players that achieve that ball speed of 183 or higher they’re going to

Have a greater impact we’re going to see closer to that 13 to 15 yard range um and so yes it’s going to impact golfers differently but but what we also see is based on uh impact based on spin based on these other uh variables around

Hitting a ball by the time you get to your five iron this is even at the elite level we would expect there would be no distance change so this really is about drivers just like the rest of the industry a lot of people like to to suggest or think that it’s the governing

Bodies and we’re sitting back in our offices and we’re just collaborating USG and R it’s a cross industry collaboration we’re having weekly if not daily conversations with manufacturers with with the tours uh with people like Mark BR to better understand the subject and frankly understand all um All Views

All perspectives and make a balanced decision all right so that was Thomas Pagel from the USGA as to the details and how it will impact the game of golf and you specifically when it was announced in December 6th remember it was December 6th 2023 already last year it will take effect in

2028 for the top tier of the game for recreational golfers that will not kick in until 2030 the ball testing limit as mentioned 12 125 miles hour and what needs to be stated there is that this robot testing the ball going from 120 to 125 the distance maximum distance is the exact same

So you can see that if you were up against it at 120 you’re going to push Beyond it at 125 uh the overall distance reduction there is it’s a little bit hard for me to pin It Down based upon the graphic that the USGA sent to us uh

We have heard 5% use which would be a different figure uh We’ve we’ve we’ve heard 15 yards used at the top tier of the game uh we’re waiting for more information on that as as they continue to get more data the governing bodies have said they will continue to monitor

The performance of the drivers and I’m assuming what they’re referring to there is moi which stands for moments of inertia which is stability at the moment of impact particularly on off center hits and the performance that you get in distance that you generate therein I think they’re also referring to size

Obviously they’re referring to Wayward spin so there are things that they’re still looking at in in terms of of the game and then what they’re looking for as well is what they’re phrasing as is long-term stability in the game now Mike Juan is the CEO of the USGA and Mike

Spoke about the very difficult position that golf’s governing bodies are in because you’re going to have people that passionately are on one side of this argument or another and what does the the governing bodies do in order to find a pathway somehow between that we think think this strikes the best balance and

Um and I will say uh there’ll be no doubt that over the next week days years there’ll be alarmist and there’ll be people screaming about distance losses that are just quite frankly unfounded relative to the truth as Martin said this is going to have a zero to five

Yard impact on the driver of of our average recreational golf depending on how much ball speed they can generate I say zero because about a third of the golf ball models that are already on our conforming list today will still be on our conforming list in 2028 so if you’re

A golfer who’s already playing that front te and you’re using a ball to kind of help you get as much as your game as you can that ball is more than likely to still be approved in 2028 and so we would see Zero impact but even if you go

To something different we’re talking about something less than uh you know less than five yards on your driver and we see no impact from five iron down no matter what level player we’re seeing so I just don’t want the alarmist to take over the day um we’ve been from the very

Beginning and Martin’s been the loudest to his credit from every time every every meeting every call every proposal if it had an impact on the on the recreational game that we thought could reduce the either the excitement The Joy or the desire to play this game it’s

Been off the table inevitably this is a balance and inevitably half the people will think we’ve not done enough and half the people will think we’ve done too much but I think the USG and the RNA have listened We have dealt with our responsibilities um in regards to this

And we we’re totally focused on the future of golf and the long-term health of uh our sport we don’t have ball contracts I don’t have a club deal um I’m not I don’t have members with a retirement account I’m trying to address we are put in these positions so that we

Can govern without bias look at the game long term and do what we think could really be great for the game knowing that everybody else has to look through a different lens when it comes to change and as Martin said I use the term a lot governance is hard tonight we’ll both go

Open up our computers and we’ll have thousands of emails from people saying I can’t believe you did that and we’ll have the same number of emails from people saying I can’t believe that’s all you did and they’ll both be written with the same level of passion um and they’ll

Both be right I understand that but this is this us about finding the finding a great balance so that our kids and our kids kids uh inherit a game that is at least as good as the game we inherited so all of that sound that you just heard

Was courtesy of Golf Channel when the announcement was made I think it’s too early to put any kind of judgment on this harsh or otherwise because we just don’t know I mean you just heard Mike the CEO of the USGA say that the impact on the average recreational golfer is

Going to be between zero to five yards which is different than the graphic that we saw and I’m not saying that as a point of criticism I’m saying that as a point of we just don’t know yet between now in 2028 I think one of the things that I

Anticipate is going to happen is they’re going to start to Salt the proposed ball or the definitive ball I’m not even sure what the status is on that out into the marketplace so people can actually get data about what’s happening and maybe they’ll modify the ball there is a lot

Of talk you know many of the manufacturers have come out and said that they’re not in favor of this rule because what’s the number one reason that most people buy golf balls I’m not talking about people that don’t pay for the golf balls I’m talking about you

Guys what’s the number one reason that you buy most golf balls and distance is either number one or it’s close to number one the better players want a little bit more control so it may Edge above it but vast majority is distant so that’s why the manufacturers are saying

I don’t think they’re thinking this all the way through yet uh distance is an important factor here but what they’re saying is is they think that they have a combination technically in a golf ball where for the vast majority of amateur golfers and I assume it’s because you’re

Not generating enough Club Ed speed to compress the ball to a point that it makes a difference will not see a discernable difference in the distance that they hit versus the distance that they hit it with the so-called new ball my sense is is that the more power that

You have the more speed that you have the more it will be impacted uh adversely in terms of where you are currently so I think part of this is data driven part of this is getting more information uh part of this which I think is also important to realize here

Is is that as people are starting to draw lines as to where they feel what side they feel that they’re on with this issue I think it’s important for people to realize that I think it’s important for people to realize that when they say that the

You know a person is on a side of a manufacturer not on the side of the manufacturer or on the side side of rolling back distance for the game overall I think it’s critically important that people realize that ultimately manufacturers with whatever happens here and the governing bodies

Are Resolute this is the rule this is the direction that they are going what what I’m not convinced on is that they have all the data yet to determine exactly what the ball will be that will fit within the confines maybe they do and I look forward to learning more

About that because if it is the ball that they’re saying where it says it has a minimal impact on on the the golfers who were out there you know playing once or twice a week okay but they want to slow down the very very best players in

The world for the long-term uh health of the game all right I don’t I don’t know too many people that could arant argue with that however when people have the argument of diminishing someone’s perspective because they say wow they’re only going to shield for the manufacturers perspective on this yeah

Have to remember folks the manufacturers are not going to suffer the manufacturers are concerned about what you do surely but think about it from a manufacturer’s perspective as the clock ticks closer to these deadlines how many golf balls you think they’re going to sell how many are you going to stack up

On of the so-called old golf ball right and then once you get past that line will you be losing less golf balls because the golf ball may be slightly less efficient if you somehow pick up a tremendous amount of Club head speed so what I’m saying is the

Manufacturers are going to be okay the question that remains with all of this simply comes down to in reality and based upon actual performance have have they found the golf ball to fit the formula that they want to have they seem confident that they’ve done it and from

That perspective from from for the good I guess to say for everyone I hope that’s the case