OT - Dustin Johnson hits Jack's 1 iron and Persimmon Driver (ball not disclosed)

[Kalen Braley]

Agree with Sean wholeheartedly on his last post, very well said. There's really nothing left to fight, its futile.


P.S.  i'm curious, is there any other sport when the ruling bodies are more or less controlled by fear of what equipment makers will do in response to rule changes.  I can't think of any, but who knows.

[Peter Pallotta]

A factor not often mentioned is this: televised sport is dying, for demographic and technological reasons both. NFL numbers are down, year after year, as are baseball's. And the numbers for weekly golf on the networks have always been low, broadcasts long being propped-up by luxury brands selling to older rich people. So the PGA Tour is scrambling to stay relevant/interesting week-in-and-week out: a shorter schedule, monthly majors, new FedEx format etc. And they are doubling down on 'these guys are good', by which they mean 'they hit it far', ie doing everything possible to 'inflate' those driving distance numbers even more than technology already (and actually) has. Hard, fast, tightly mowed fairways for sure, but when I check the stats on the senior tour and every week there are at least a dozen guys even *there* averaging over 300 yards, then I know there must be other tricks going on too, eg some wind-assisted, downhill tee shots being measured.
All of which is to say: the PGA Tour (and the USGA, and most manufacturers, and the major networks, and the magazines) are all fighting for their lives right now -- and not Jordan nor Brooks nor Ryder Cups nor FedEx playoffs nor Shinnecock nor one-length irons will save any of them; and so they're praying that 'distance' will.
It won't.
But they're not going to let go of that lifeline, or even think about trying/trading it for another. 

[Sean_A]

Bifurcation
The ruling bodies make the rules for the game.  The tours choose to play by those rules
The professional golf tours would have to choose to follow a separate set of rules that slowed the distance down.  I certainly could see the tour and the players saying no.

So, I guess the ruling bodies could say we are playing our championships under whatever equipment rules they wanted, but the tour could still simply say, we are sticking with the rules everyone else plays by in our events.  Would be a heck of a power struggle

Would this be a terrible outcome for golf?  I can imagine many more classic course clubs becoming more interested in hosting high profile USGA events if their courses weren't altered.  And, it doesn't really matter what the tours do as it relates to rules.  If the USGA/R&A gets Augusta on board the tours will have to knuckle under or accept their players will be using different balls for 3 of the 4 premier events.  Even if that happpened, it wouldn't bother me me...indeed, it may add a bit of excitement to what is generally a very boring product. I can even imagine different tours using different balls.  In the end though, I think the tours would get eventually get behind bifurcation. Who knows, bifurcation could be a step toward a complete roll back.  What we do know is the current situation is unsustainable.

Ciao