Rolling back the ball, Butch Harmon says, isn\u2019t the answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And reeling in the driver might be too late.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, I think we passed the time for that to happen,\u201d Harmon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe manufacturers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing these clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there may be another thought to solve golf\u2019s distance issue, the GOLF Top 100 Teacher hall of famer said<\/a>. And it came from Jose Maria Olazabal<\/a>, a two-time Masters winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n Appearing on the most recent episode of \u201cThe Smylie Show\u201d podcast \u2014 which you can watch in full here<\/a> \u2014 Harmon had been asked by host Smylie Kaufman where he stood on potential distance-curbing changes, a subject that saw some news<\/a> two weeks ago at the U.S. Open. There, four of golf\u2019s governing bodies \u2014 the USGA, the R&A, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour \u2014 said that instead of a ball rollback arriving in phases \u2014 2028 for pros and 2030 for other golfers \u2014 a single-date implementation of January 2030 would be in place. The groups also said changes beyond the ball could be made.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s what Harmon heard from Olazabal.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said you don\u2019t have to adjust the ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n Or the driver.\u00a0<\/p>\n Or any of the clubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just cut the number of them in play \u2014 from 14 to nine.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, Olazabal said, you would learn \u201cwho can play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I\u2019m thinking to myself, well, I don\u2019t know how we ever got to 14 anyway,\u201d Harmon said on the podcast. \u201cI don\u2019t know where that came from. Wouldn\u2019t it be great to be a tournament where you could only use nine clubs? And if you got a putter and now you only got eight clubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd like he says, \u201cOh, you have to hit golf shots. You can\u2019t bomb the thing out there and wedge it out of the \u2014 you have to play golf.\u2019 It would be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n Could it work? Maybe. Of course, club sales would decrease with lighter bags. Still, players would have to control trajectories better and shape the ball, said Kaufman<\/a>, himself a PGA Tour winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThink about this, Smylie, and you know this,\u201d Hamon said on the podcast. \u201cYou\u2019ll have a guy who\u2019ll go out and shoot 62 or [6]3. And they\u2019ll say every yardage was perfect; I had stock yardages. And then the next day he shoots 73. \u2018Oh, I was in between yardages.\u2019 Well, imagine if you only got eight clubs to pick from. You\u2019re always going to have an in-between yardage.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to just see one tournament played like that just for the heck of it. Just to see what the scenario would be and what they would choose and how they would do it. It would be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n