The Ball, Further Thoughts

It does seem to have everyone's attention, doesn't it?  It may not lead to action...in fact, it likely won't.  Though it does seem that it may be a last chance.

Mike Bamberger pens a column with several interesting observations, though his underlying premise, a separate ball for the majors, seems more likely to set back the cause.  First this:

I don't view the weekly play on the Tour as "entertainment" but as a series of athletic competitions that, cumulatively, help us to identify who are the best players in the game.

In the 1970s, when most Tour golfers used balata balls and most recreational players used rock-hard, long-flying Top-Flites or something like them, there were (effectively) two different games. In terms of competition, and shot-making, I believe the game played by Trevino, Watson, Nicklaus and Co. was superior to today's smash-and-gauge game, but that is of course a subject on which reasonable people will differ. Age is a factor, too.

That's a great reminder of how things have changed....  the new balls have rendered the choice between distance and feel moot, because they spin so much less.  That said, it's always been two different games, even with the same equipment.

Let's let him make his case for a major ball....excuse me, a Major Ball:

For millions of us, the most interesting events of the golf year are the four major professional championships. (The Ryder Cup is a separate category.) What makes these weeks so special is what playing in them, let alone contending or winning, means to the players, and the demanding, interesting and often time-honored courses on which they are played.

It is a wonderful thing for golf that these four events have special status in the game. It is a shame that a course like Merion, all stretched out to nearly 7,000 yards, had to be manipulated almost to the point of being unrecognizable in an effort to provide a challenge to the modern player when the U.S. Open was held there in 2013. It is a shame that Augusta National will likely again lengthen its iconic par-5 13th hole, which now plays like a shortish par-4 for the game's longest players. It is a shame that this year's venue for the U.S. Open, Erin Hills, had a series of long, uphill hikes from green to tee, turning the walking experience into a tedious slog. It is a shame that an iconic hole like the par-4 Road Hole at St. Andrews, with a mere breeze in your face, no longer requires an elite player to hit a driver in play and to try to hold that heinous green with a three-iron.

Well, yes and no....  He bemoans the fact that Merion can no longer hold a U.S. Open, but they stopped going there after the 1981 even (which, ironically, I attended all four days).  And Pebble, a supposedly historic venue, didn't get its first Open until 1972.  In fact, the first waves of the USGA outgrowing venues had as much to do with hospitality tents as driving distance....

More to the point, if we believe that the ball must somehow be "rolled back", is that more likely to happen just for the four majors or for the professional game in toto?  That's been my logic in discussing Augusta National potentially saving us from this mess, and this seems just a variant of that....  If the guys are to be forced to adjust, at least give them the benefit of using it for all tourneys...

Here's where he gets specific:

Each manufacturer could make its own model. I wouldn't pretend to know what you would have to do to create a ball that does not go so far, but the basic starting point would be this: The Dustin Johnson-Justin Thomas-Jon Rahm drive in still conditions that now goes about 360 yards would max out at about 310. Those monsters would keep all the relative advantage they have earned. Length, after all, is an important component of the game. But the 480-yard par-4 would no longer be a hybrid-wedge. The majors would be more interesting and more demanding. They would only be elevated. Maybe the U.S. Open could return to Merion without pulling at every body part.

If Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Mike Davis, Fred Ridley of Augusta National and others would get behind this idea, it would have a chance. But if the ball manufacturers — particularly the biggest of them, Titleist — are not, it will never have a chance.

So, if DJ, JT and JR are hittin' it 310, Luke Donald's gonna be hammerin' it about 240, and still hitting maybe two fairways per round.  Of course, he's uniquely afflicted with that dreadful condition known as Luke Donald Disease....

If you're wondering why that second graph was included, Mike reached out to Wally Uihlein, who had this in response:

"PGA Tour driver club head speeds range from 100-130 mph (approximate range).

PGA Tour ball speed with driver ranges from 150-190 mph (approximate).

PGA Tour launch conditions with driver range from 8 degrees to 13 degrees (approximate).

And USPGA Tour spin rates, with a driver range, from 2000 rpm to 2500 rpm (approximate).

You want Dustin Johnson or Jason Kokrak to play the same spec ball as Brian Gay?

And why? To make the majors more special? Huh?

When you land on the specification, let us know. Because one type player will be favored and one type player will be harmed.

And the ghost of Leonard Decof will have a field day."

Wally, shame on you, I will not allow any Gay-bashing on this site....

But is the range of driver club head speed really that wide?  I'm a decent single-digit player, and my driver moves in the mid-to high nineties....  Can you make a living out there at 100 mph?

You'll have to click through to find out who Leonard Decof, is, but the question seems to be whether a rolled-back spec can be....well, specified, within which the manufacturers can design balls in a range of spin and other parameters.  I'm not smart enough to know the answer to that....