Imagine a fictional three ball featuring top golfers from 1900, 1930 and today. On the first tee our 1900’s golfer is happy to send the ball 180 yards down the fairway, although he’s not so happy when he sees the 1930’s player knock his drive 60 yards further to 240 yards. However, both are down-hearted when our modern-day professional’s ball ends up almost 300 yards down the fairway (294 to be precise). That’s almost 120 yards further than the turn of the twentieth century – practically one yard further for each year.
This data comes from a report by the USGA and R&A, both of whom are getting increasingly worried about how far modern players can hit the ball and what this means for the game. Particularly for golf courses built to test players from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The image below shows the impact of this increase in driving distance among elite male players. Not just looking good with big drives, but longer drives mean easier approach shots and better birdie opportunities.
Average driving distances for elite men in 1900, 1930 and 2019
The jump from 1900 to 1930 was in large part caused by a shift to the wound rubber core gold ball, but across the ages it has been a combination of ball, club and player improvements that have increased average driving size.
So what’s to be done?
There’s little you can do to stop players getting stronger and fitter, so focusing on the technology seems like an obvious answer. However, you get the feeling that you will never really stop technological progress so much as put up a barrier that R&D will eventually find a way around. Golf equipment companies are in competition to sell clubs that make you better and this arms race will inevitably increase how far their clubs can drive whatever ball is put in front of them. So the problem will return again soon enough.
Perhaps another option is to return the player and focus on the mind. One example would be to re-designate Par 5’s as Par 4’s for elite competition. It’s easy to have a go with a big drive on a Par 5 when you know that if your drive is off target you can knock it out sideways and still reach the green in regulation. A professional playing a golf course with three Par 5’s is basically playing with a handicap of 3. Remove these free shots and the mind set changes and you’ve made the game harder without changing any technology.
This won’t reduce how far a player can hit the ball (and the reduction route is unlikely to be a long term viable option anyway), but it will provide some protection for courses without resorting to US Open style rough that completely stymies the excitement of birdie golf. It strikes a balance between risk and reward which is fundamental for good golf course design.
This is probably the most straightforward idea that doesn’t try to manage the technology, or the companies who put a lot of money into the game. It also has the advantage of being easy to test. It may prove to have a negligible effect, but it wouldn’t cost much to find out either way, and it may lead to other experiments that tackle this problem from a less obvious direction.
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