{"id":831585,"date":"2026-07-28T14:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/831585\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T14:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:58:10","slug":"legend-puts-forward-new-alternative-for-golf-ball-rollback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/831585\/","title":{"rendered":"Legend puts forward new alternative for golf ball rollback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tAlmost everyone involved in the sport has had their two cents on the golf ball rollback. And now a Masters champion and Ryder Cup legend has thrown his idea into the pot\u2026<\/p>\n

The golf world has been divided on the golf ball rollback debate for almost three years now \u2013 and now an idea from Jose Maria Olazabal has been added to the list of alternative solutions.<\/p>\n

The R&A and USGA announced in December 2023 that new Overall Distance Standard testing procedures would be introduced in a bid to rein in how far the golf ball travels at elite level. Originally, professional players were expected to make the change from January 2028, with amateurs following two years later.<\/p>\n

But that particular boat was rocked by Cameron Young who, ahead of the PGA Championship in May, revealed that he has been playing a prototype Titleist Pro V1x that already conforms to the proposed new standards<\/a>. Even more surprisingly, he was actually averaging almost a yard longer since making the switch. The following month, the governing bodies announced plans<\/a> that there would be no changes at all until January 2030 at the earliest. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Elite coach Butch Harmon is among the many who would rather see a reduction in the size of the driver head \u2013 \u201ca smaller head, the length of the club could only be so far, and the velocity the ball comes off the club face can only be so fast\u201d \u2013 though he admits that \u201cunfortunately, we\u2019ve passed the time for that to happen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking as a guest on Smylie Kaufman\u2019s podcast, The Smylie Show<\/a>, Harmon said: \u201cI don\u2019t know what the solution is. I don\u2019t know what the answer is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe manufacturers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing these clubs. The downside is the average guy that\u2019s a 15- or 16-handicap doesn\u2019t have the club head speed to take advantage of it. They think they do, and they\u2019re going to buy them.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Harmon did put forward a \u201cmost interesting idea\u201d from his close friend and two-time Masters champion Olazabal.<\/p>\n

\u201cJose is the best,\u201d Harmon said. \u201cI\u2019ve never met a guy that\u2019s got such a passion for golf. \u2018Butch, I\u2019ll tell you something. Leave the clubs the same. Don\u2019t touch the driver, don\u2019t touch the ball. We go from 14 clubs to nine clubs. Then we\u2019ll find out who can play.\u2019 I\u2019m thinking to myself, \u2018That\u2019s brilliant!\u2019 I don\u2019t know how we got to 14 anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great to see a tournament where you could only use nine clubs? If you\u2019ve got a putter, you\u2019ve only got eight clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jose<\/p>\n

Outspoken tour pro player Michael Kim is on board with the Spaniard\u2019s idea.<\/p>\n

In a post on X<\/a> following June\u2019s announcement, Kim, a winner on both the PGA and DP World Tours, said that \u201cbifurcation is the only way to create the effect the USGA and the roll back crowd wants\u201d and that \u201cthe line is way too thin for them to try and get the best of both worlds\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf they truly want \u2018shot-making\u2019 to be more important, then going to 10 clubs will make that happen instantly. I think the USGA want less bomb-and-gouge, yet the rollback will only make driver and distance even MORE important.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Why Olazabal\u2019s 9-club plan can\u2019t work<\/p>\n

TG\u2018s equipment editor Lewis Daff is in the driver rollback camp<\/a> \u2013 and while he likes Olazabal\u2019s idea, it\u2019s not something that can realistically be implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cOlazabal\u2019s solution is one I\u2019ve not seen before, but I like the thought behind it,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019ve had my own opinion on why the driver is the right solution to the distance debate, but, most importantly, both of our ideas put emphasis back on the ability of the golfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only concerns I have are with the impact this will have on the growth of the game, with a bigger learning curve for new players, and what current players are meant to do with nearly half their bag now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest issue that concerns Lewis, though, is the reaction of the manufacturers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get pushback from brands about the golf ball already, you aren\u2019t prepared for the drama induced by reducing their club sales,\u201d he adds. \u201cIron sets, for example, would likely need to pivot to lofts instead of the current labelling to make blending easier, which will almost immediately end most manufacturers\u2019 abilities to claim increased distances from stronger lofts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not actually a drawback for the golfer \u2013 more honest conversations around clubs are always better \u2013 but good luck trying to get a multi-billion industry to lose out on those sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on the golf ball rollback from our gear experts:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost everyone involved in the sport has had their two cents on the golf ball rollback. And now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-831585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}