Golfers of a certain vintage know that the modern golf ball helps us hit the ball farther than we could with a wound golf ball. Jack Nicklaus wants to change all that.
He wants to dial back the ball by twenty percent, not just so the pros won’t hit it so far, but so all of us, you, me, we don’t hit it so far, either. And he thinks that would be a good thing.
Yesterday I watched the David Feherty interview with him. Nicklaus was talking about 17,000 courses that would be brought back into play if the ball were to be contained. Too many courses have to be 7,000 yards. That takes too much land, too much water, too much time to play.
If courses measured 5,600 yards that would get more people on the course, conserve resources, be more fun.
It’s not that Augusta has had to lengthen itself by 500 yards in order for it not to become obsolete, he said. It’s all the courses. What’s wrong with a course that was built for a different age gracefully aging out of competition, somewhat like Nicklaus himself did?
Here’s the question I have for Jack. The very first course I played was Eastmoreland Golf Course, a municipal course in Portland, Oregon. I still play there. It was built in 1928, so it is not a case of using excess land to build a modern course. It’s there, nothing is going to change.
Length from the white tees is 6,106 yards. Not excessive by any means. The second hole, though is par 4, 427 yards. When I was in high school (mid-1960s), it was the same length. I have a scorecard from back then to show it.
Now when I was in high school, I hit my a driver and a 3-wood, and I still wasn’t up to the green. This hole was a three-shotter for me. Now, a drive and a 21-degree hybrid get me on.
Tell me, Jack, how is dialing back my distance so this hole becomes a three-shooter again going to make my golfing experience better?
My best drives go 235 yards. How is cutting that back twenty percent, so I can only drive the ball 188 yards, going to let me have more fun?
Leave our game alone. It’s fine the way it is.
The scary thing, is, though, dialing back the golf ball could well be the USGA’s next itch to scratch.