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The Second Great Golf Split Is Coming — And It’s About the Ball

+ News, Notes, and weekly favorites

Author

Sean Melia
April 18, 2025

Arthur Hills in Hilton Head, SC

Hey Everyone,

After playing 72 holes in South Carolina last week, I am so ready to start teeing it up and playing some new courses this spring.

We played a few different formats on the trip, which was fun. The two-person scramble was a blast and a good way to squeeze in a second round in the afternoon on Friday without really taxing the body. It was also fun meeting a bunch of new people on the trip and playing with a variety of abilities. The trip was capped off with a playoff hole to decide a winner. So much fun.

Shout-out to The Golf Trip Guys for organizing the event. If you are interested in going on a golf trip, but don’t want to do the planning, they will do all the heavy lifting for you. They also organize trips like what we did last weekend, where people sign up and head to a location to play with other golf sickos for three days.

News and Notes

Pro Golf

🏌️‍♀️ Alexa Pano shot 71 in the first round of the LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club and sits in 81st place.

🏝️ Michael Thorbjornsen is three-under par after 18 holes in the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic. He’s in 51st place.

🌽 The Korn Ferry Tour is in Lakewood Ranch, Florida this week. The LECOM started on Wednesday. Davis Chatfield is T9 after a 63 in the second round. Robbie Oppenheim and Richy Werenski are T52 (-5), and John VanDerLaan missed the cut.

College Golf

🏆️ Ryan Downes and Aidan O’Donovan played some excellent golf in the last couple of weeks and earned some awards. Ryan Downes was named SEC Freshman of the Week after shooting a 61 in the Mason Rudolph on the way to a sixth-place finish, and he tied the Vanderbilt record for the lowest 18-hole total and single-round score vs. par.

O'Donovan was named A-10 Golfer of the Week after he led the Rams to the team title at the Dragon Match Play Invitational, hosted by Drexel. During the two-round stroke play portion of the event, O'Donovan tied for second in the 42-player field, shooting even par over 36 holes. His play paved the way for Rhode Island to finish nine strokes ahead of the rest of the field in stroke play.

🏅 Wondering how local teams and players are doing this spring? Here’s a quick rundown of all the results with links to scoring and recaps.

Amateur Golf

⛳️ The Seagulls Fourball is entering an extra weekend because the weather was so bad last weekend.

Championship Flight Final Four

Match 1: Conor McCormack/Jeff Kinney v. Kyle Van Kleef/Johnny Clancy

Match 2: Ricky Stimets/Kevin Blaser v. Tom Mcentee/Matthew Cornuet

Plugs

Masters Recap: After an insane Masters, Paul Burke joined me to recap what felt like a fever dream for 30 minutes. Listen here.

Robert T. Lynch Master Plan: Put together a video after my visit with Brookline General Manager Justin Lawson last month. You can also read about the visit here.

The Second Great Golf Split Is Coming — And It’s About the Ball

Golf might be heading for another split in the professional game.

Four years ago, LIV Golf poached a handful of golfers, turned the speakers up to an 11, and headed to crappy venues for below-average events that paid out massive amounts of cash.

That was the first split.

So what’s the second split?

It’s all about the golf ball.

On Wednesday, Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley once again stated clearly that Augusta National and The Masters are aligned with the USGA and R&A in the new golf ball regulations that will take effect in 2028.

“Once again, I am here reaffirming our support of the governing bodies and their efforts to address the issue of distance,” Ridley said. “Together, the R&A and the USGA have been deliberative and collaborative on their efforts on this topic to arrive at a decision which was, in fact, announced in 2023.”

On the other hand, the new PGA of America CEO Derek Sprague told Golfweek that he is not a fan of the proposed rollback.

“We have our statement that said we were against the rollback, and then I guess I just happened to be the first one that verbalized it,” Sprague said. “So that's our position, and it's getting stronger now as we get closer.”

The PGA of America runs the PGA Championship.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan shared his thoughts when the USGA and R&A announced the rollback.

“We believe the proposed increase in test clubhead speed to 125 mph is disproportional to the rate of increase we see when analyzing PGA Tour radar data,” Monahan said in a statement.

So, we have the organizers of the U.S. Open (USGA), The Masters, and The Open Championship (R&A) in one corner and the PGA of America and the PGA Tour on the other side of things.

This isn’t just a difference in philosophy. It’s a second great divide.

It’s not great!

In last year’s press conference, Ridley said, “I’ve said in the past that I hope we will not play the Masters at 8,000 yards. But that is likely to happen in the not-too-distant future under current standards.”

In 1997, when Tiger Woods won, Augusta National played 6,925 yards. This year, it was 7,555 yards.

Augusta National has had to buy up land to build new tee boxes, most famously on the 13th hole.

Even with all the added length over the last 28 years, Ridley is worried it is never enough.

“What we found, though, over the years is that we lengthen the golf course, everybody says, ‘it’s really long’, and then two or three years later it’s not so really long,” Ridley said in 2024.

In 1975, Jack Nicklaus hit a 1-iron into the 15th green.

In 2025, Rory McIlroy hit his historic shot on 15 with a 7 iron.

In addition, Greg Norman stood on the 18th fairway in 1986 with 200 yards left to the green. He hit a horrendous 4-iron into the crowd. He would bogey, and 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus would win his sixth green jacket and final major.

On Sunday, McIlroy had 124 yards into the 18th green. He hit a gap wedge into the bunker on the 18th, made bogey, and then won a playoff.

Now, the governing bodies of the four majors and the biggest professional tour in the world are at loggerheads over what kind of golf ball their competitors should use.

Imagine, for a moment, that players would go from the Valero Texas Open with one golf ball to The Masters with a rolled back ball, and then they hit the road for Harbour Town and use the same ball they used at the Texas Open.

Sports don’t do well when rules and expectations differ from event to event.

Look at boxing.

There are five championship belts in boxing: World Boxing Association, World Boxing Council, International Boxing Federation, World Boxing Organization. In addition, the boxing magazine The Ring awards its own belt.

It’s alarming that so many stakeholders in professional golf are on different pages and don’t seem interested in changing their positions.

Some of the players have even started grumbling about the prototype balls they’ve tested.

“I think it’s a bad idea. I can’t get on board,” Brian Harman told Golfweek at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “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.”

Lucas Glover also sounded off in that Golfweek article, too.

"It’s not a way to grow the game to have people hit it shorter. It’s stupid and reactive like everything else,” he said. “The (USGA and R&A) never get ahead of anything, and then they need to do something drastic on the back end to make up for it.”

The idea of using different golf balls in different events could very well become a reality in 2028 if these organizations cannot find common ground.

In some respects, it would be fascinating to watch players use different golf balls in different events. I’d imagine they would adjust quickly, just like they do playing at altitude. They are the best in the world, and they have launch monitors and club manufacturers to make the transition easier.

However, the optics of the different governing bodies not agreeing on this rule change don’t bode well for the sport's future, particularly at the professional level.

The USGA is trying to protect the game for the future, and Fred Ridley doesn’t want The Masters to stretch to 8,000 yards (which could happen in 2050 if the trend continues).

“Implementation is the next challenge, as we all knew it would be. It is critical for the good of the game that all stakeholders work together as this issue evolves,” Fred Ridley said on Wednesday. “I’m encouraged by the constructive and positive discussions that are aimed at successfully implementing this important change.”

It’s going to be an interesting two years as more prototype golf balls are tested and the 2028 deadline grows closer.

There are only two more Masters and eleven total majors before the USGA puts the rule into place.

Can the game get on the same page before the rulebook starts reading like a Choose Your Own Adventure?

WORMBURNER COMICS

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When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

I’m listening to…

  • This is such a cool concept: Sounds of The Masters from No Laying Up

  • Trevor Immelman is so great to listen to. He joined Andy Johnson on The Fried Egg Podcast to recap The Masters.

  • I’m enjoying Bon Iver’s new album SABLE, fABLE.

I’m eating…

  • Had an insane Peach Cobbler Cheesecake down in South Carolina.

  • Committee in the Seaport has incredible zucchini chips.

  • Tiff discovered Lakrids by Bulow. They’re delicious chocolate-covered licorice bites.

I’m watching…

  • The Residence on Netflix is a good watch.

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