Monday Golf musings...

Before we get into some musings about what’s going on in golf and what I’ve noticed scrolling through social media, I have to give a quick shoutout to two professionals with Massachusetts connections who had incredible weekends.

Davis Chatfield (Attleboro, Mass.) finished in second place in the Astara Chile Classic with rounds of 67-64-69-66. It’s his first runner-up finish on the Korn Ferry Tour. He’s only missed one cut in the six events he’s played this year. He’s tallied three top-ten finishes, too.

Jason Caron (S. Yarmouth, Mass.) earned his Champions Tour card last year as a club pro at Mill River Club on Long Island. On Sunday, he lost in a playoff to Steven Alker in the Cologuard Classic this week. It’s his fifth top-five finish, and he’s earned $712,693 in 12 events. Caron is from Cape Cod and is the club

Ok, here are a few things on my mind as we tip-toe towards golf here in Massachusetts.

More Rollback Lunacy

Adam Schupak of Golfweek spoke to some players who were part of a PGA Tour rollback experiment with the first version of a golf ball that isn’t slated to be in play for three more years. Here’s the whole article.

Brian Harman and Lucas Glover, two major champions, sounded off on the rule change which is, again, not happening for three more years.

Interestingly enough, Harman and Glover are next to each other in the PGA Tour driving distance rankings. Glover is ranked 171 (290.7 yards), and Harman is 172 (290.6).

Glover is 45, so he’ll be 48 when the new ball is introduced.

Harman is 38.

“I think it’s a bad idea. I can’t get on board,” Harman said in the article. “There are so many more steps we can take to mitigate distance with golf course setup, driver set up before you force companies to R&D a bunch of things.”

So.. is this about R&D? It seems like Harman might be open to smaller drivers, which would likely impact yardage, too.

“I hit it a lot shorter,” Harman said. "The farther you hit it, the less you are affected by the first version of the golf ball. It’s the first version but that was the finding.”

Oh, I guess it is about Harman wanting to still hit it longer. So much for that “grinder” mentality he embraced at Royal Liverpool when he won the Open Champioship.

He continued…

How’s this for nuanced:

Players were hitting tee shots at Bay Hill over hedges and across roads to add length to the course.

To accommodate the distance explosion, St. Andrews had to hide pins on its massive greens and move tee boxes to other golf courses.

This is also a bad-faith argument because players showed up with their equipment, so freaking out over losing 15 yards is pointless because the drivers will start to shrink that gap.

This isn’t so much a rollback as a pause. The pros hit the ball too far, and I would love to see them challenged a bit more to hit mid and long irons into greens (or else just… make them play with 11 clubs).

In the end, pros in 2028 will probably hit it as far as they did in 2018.

I’d also love to know how far is too far for the ball to go?

Is it 400 yards?

Right now, there are 113 players with a 300+ driving average on the PGA Tour. In 2010 there were 12 players who hit it 300+ on the PGA Tour.

The 12th player on that 2010 list was Rory McIlroy. He’s now fifth at 320 yards. He’s added 20 yards to his own drive in 15 years.

Over those 15 years, the leader has gained 10 yards. Robert Garrigus led the PGA Tour at 315, and now Niklas Norgaard is averaging 325 yards.

Rules in sports change nearly every year. Turn on an NFL game now, and you’ll notice extra points are from farther away. Kickoffs have also changed. Players can’t horse-collar tackle anymore.

One team even asked for the Tush Push to be made illegal.

In 1994, the NBA moved the three-point line up to 22 feet to generate more scoring. It didn’t go well, and three seasons later, they moved it back because they wanted to increase the challenge again.

Lucas Glover was also part of Schupak’s article. The guy who’s game was saved by the long putter has a lot of thoughts about rules and observations about other sports…

Every one of these sports he references has made major changes, implemented drug testing, or limited equipment to keep them competitive.

We’re still a long way from the USGA and R&A implementing the rule for pros in 2028. The balls will improve, and the equipment will match, but that’s another issue for another day.

We’re even farther from when amateurs will have to play a different ball. They won’t feel the impact of the new ball except at the highest levels of amateur golf.

We’ll have two years of bifurcation in golf, and I still wonder if the 2030 amateur rule change might disappear if all the stakeholders realize the world hasn’t been swallowed up into a black hole because pros are using a different golf ball.

Bandon Dunes Lottery

Golf has always been known as an expensive sport. It’s a barrier for many into the sport. As we hit the five-year mark of the start of COVID-19 this week, some signs of the game’s popularity are shining bright.

Over the last couple of months, I have been on the losing side of the new 2026 Bandon Dunes lottery system. They have moved from encouraging people to book a trip 18 months in advance to asking golfers to put their names into a lottery. Bandon Dunes broke the year into three sections and is holding drawings for each section. Golfers can sign up for all three or pick any individual drawing. The first two drawings for January-April and May-September have already happened.

Registration closes for the October-December drawing on April 20.

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