Peter
Just what have the R&A done?
They dithered over the ball issues, they allowed distance and carts to contaminate the game, as serious a disease as The Black Death (IMHO) and see no need to roll back the ball or control technology.
The Grim Riper has not succeeded as well as the R&A over the last 150 years. Alas all is not down to making any decision, by grasping the problem around the neck and getting results, but more akin to bungling and staggering from compromise to another.
The latest being that there is no problem as they are just too busy counting their money.
IMHO they have let down golfer from the very start, but then why should they care after all they are part of THE R&A. If only they had balls to match the size of their ambitions, we still might have a great game.
Would I become a Member, - no but other Members of my family have been, but no not I, as I would make sweeping changes. There is a great lacking in honest discussion, or actually getting down to the point – who runs Golf, the equipment manufacturers of course, not the Governing Body thanks to their own weakness over the years.
Melvyn