Distance on Tour: Ball, Equipment, or Ability?

[longball87]

I was just recently in a conversation with someone that plays golf and he read somewhere that the golf ball is too long for the tour and the tour was contemplating on restricting the ball flight. The article basically talked about how the ball has changed the game so much making the courses to be longer and went on about how the ball has made the tour easier. I viewed it a little bit differently. I agreed to an extent that the ball has changed the game, but you still have to have the athletic ability to hit it far as well. My rebuttal was that i think its the combination of all three;  the ball, equipment and ability. Here's an example; Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Rory and Jason Day are probably the longest hitters on tour today. Ability wise these guys are top notch and i think that if you took away the ball and equipment they still would be the longer hitters on tour. Also, if the tour tomorrow comes out and says okay were no longer allowing you to fully utilize the golf ball to its maximum potential were going to govern the ball and make it a restricted flight golf ball of lets say 75%. The guys that are still the longest on tour, will still be the longest on tour and still will hit it sub 300's or over. If anything, if the tour did consider this and did change this rule the short knockers would be super pissed. Think about, you have a touring pro who on "all out drive" hits it barely 280 is now forced to play with a ball that will knock off yardage on their drives?? Now, i will agree that the courses will be tougher to play with the restricted ball flight because the holes will be longer, but i dont think the restricting the ball flight on tour is going to fix the issue. Here's a suggestion; maybe try watering the fairways more?? If you look at most of the tournaments that are played on tour level, the fairways just run out and roll and roll and roll. You get the picture. I just wanted to post it out there and see what others thought of it. I really believe its a culmination of everything and just how the game is played today. If anything, i think the tour is constantly getting longer each and every year. The only way i see it to be more challenging is to do something drastic like having softer fairways so there is no roll and lengthening the rough to make it a real penalty. Lengthening the course can be costly; but if its a big ticket event like a WGC Tournament or something besides a major that's has a high pay out, i think the revenue covers that and makes it available for the course to adjust to the new tech. Just think will there be 700 yard par 5s now?? 

 

Thanks guys/gals for the read! Take care!

Edited November 10, 2015 by longball87

[iacas]

I don't think the PGA Tour is doing anything regarding a shorter golf ball, nor do I think they should.

[mvmac]

1 hour ago, longball87 said:

I was just recently in a conversation with someone that plays golf and he read somewhere that the golf ball is too long for the tour and the tour was contemplating on restricting the ball flight. The article basically talked about how the ball has changed the game so much making the courses to be longer and went on about how the ball has made the tour easier.

Any idea where he read this? I haven't heard anything like this and don't see it happening. 

[pganapathy]

75% ability, 15% correctly fitted equipment and 10% correctly fitted ball.  All amateurs can get the equipment and ball fitted but the ability is about clubhead speed, correct AoA, correct swing etc.

[saevel25]

8 hours ago, longball87 said:

I was just recently in a conversation with someone that plays golf and he read somewhere that the golf ball is too long for the tour and the tour was contemplating on restricting the ball flight. The article basically talked about how the ball has changed the game so much making the courses to be longer and went on about how the ball has made the tour easier. I viewed it a little bit differently.

It's more to do with club fitting, the development of lower spinning golf balls and golfers changing how they approach hitting the driver. The USGA regulates the impact between the golf ball and the driver. To say that the golf ball is longer is really a false statement since it's a combination of multiple things, one being the golf ball. 

Still the PGA Tour is losing yardage anyways with less than optimal launch conditions. With the average ball speed on tour being 167 MPH they should be averaging 290-295 yards carry. They only average 276 yards of carry. There is still 20 yards of distance out there for a lot of players. 

8 hours ago, longball87 said:

If anything, if the tour did consider this and did change this rule the short knockers would be super pissed. Think about, you have a touring pro who on "all out drive" hits it barely 280 is now forced to play with a ball that will knock off yardage on their drives??

It wouldn't be an equal 75% reduction. Those with faster swing speeds will see a larger drop off. In the end the only way to change the ball speed is to limit how fast it comes off the clubface. This reduces the smash factor. 

Lets say you move the smash factor from 1.5 (optimal) to 1.4. This would mean Rory would see his ball speed drop from 182 to 169. Take a guy like Jeff Maggert with a 105 club head speed. His ball speed would go from 157 to 147. 

Rory would probably lose about 30 yards of distance. Jeff would lose about 20 yards of distance. The reduction helps out the shorter hitters because they actually gain 10 yards on the longer hitters. 

I don't see this changing anytime soon. 
 

1 hour ago, pganapathy said:

75% ability, 15% correctly fitted equipment and 10% correctly fitted ball.  All amateurs can get the equipment and ball fitted but the ability is about clubhead speed, correct AoA, correct swing etc.

Interesting take on the title of the thread.

I would say distance is 90% ability and 10% equipment fitting. 

 

[cristphoto]

I've always said the way to address distance on tour is in the course design. A straight 465 yard par 4 isn't that great a challenge for them. But design more 400-430 yard holes with a dogleg at 250 and then they have to play golf again. (Bubba would probably love it). Plus the amateurs can play the same course since their drives typically wouldn't run through the fairway.