The golf ball rollback has hit a major setback.
Due to ever-increasing distances in modern golf, the golf ball rollback is intended to limit how far players can hit the ball. Originally, this new golf ball was scheduled to be introduced in 2028 for pros and in 2030 for recreational players.
But due to a number of concerns about the rollback raised by players and those within the governing bodies, the USGA announced before the US Open that it would now be implemented in a single date in 2030, to give the bodies more time to develop a more effective golf ball.
This was met with mixed reactions. Everyone wants this to be done properly, but the governing bodies have had years to sort this out, so the fact that they are still floundering for a solution is a little ridiculous.
According to Rex Hoggard, Scottie Scheffler had something to do with the decision to delay the move after what he said in a meeting with the USGA.
Scottie Scheffler helped delay golf ball rollback
During their discussions about the golf ball rollback, the USGA spoke to PGA Tour players, including Scheffler, for their thoughts about the move. Hoggard, on the Golf Channel Podcast, said the world number one was among the most vocal players in these talks.
Hoggard broke down the USGA’s decision to delay the rollback, saying, “Where we were in the game was that they were forging ahead. In 2028, the rollback was going to come into place for elite players.
“We kind of knew they were going to kick the can to 2030, it just made sense to do the elite players at the same time as the amateurs. That probably makes it a bit more clean. In my mind that was not the news.
“The news was going to be that the USGA and R&A are going to work with the other bodies involved. It’s not as if they were not working with them before. There has been a couple of inflection points.
“One of them came two weeks ago at the Memorial, there was a pack meeting with policy board members and at the USGA presented a lot of the data that they had found when they came to the conclusion that this was going to work. This is why the rollback golf ball was going to work and draw a hard line in the sand.
“By and large I have been told pretty much every player in that room pushed back with one of the loudest voices in that room being Scottie Scheffler. This was not contentious. I asked one pack member how he would characterize that meeting and he said eye-opening for the USGA.
“I also asked this particular pack member do you think this led to today’s decision to not only kick the can down the road to 2030 but come up with something more. Because by and large players on the PGA Tour and the manufacturers will tell you this is just a band aid on a wound that cannot be stopped.
“This was not going to do what they thought it was going to do. The primary example here being Cameron Young. We can begin and end the conversation with that. He started using a golf ball that would be deemed conforming at the Wyndham Championship last year.
“He went on to win The Players Championship. He went on to hit the longest drive ever recorded on the 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass. He was the most dominant player through a good stretch of the spring on the PGA Tour with a golf ball that was supposed to be the fix for how far players hit the golf ball.
“That was clearly not the case. So they are going to take a more holistic approach. They are going to look at the size of the driver head and shaft length.”
Overall, it’s a bad look for golf that this rollback has been delayed, but it’s the right call if you ask the players about the new ball. And ultimately, they’re the ones who have to play with the new balls.
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