Shocker: PGA Tour nixes move to curtail golf ball distance rollback | Golf News

The PGA Tour has refused to back a proposal to cut down the distance travelled by the golf ball by 15 yards. The proposal, formulated by the game‘s governing bodies-the Royal & Ancient, and the United States Golf Association-was expected to take effect from 2026.

Length off the tee has been a major discussion point for the past few years. Advancement in equipment design and tech over the past decade have dramatically
increased the distance a golf ball is capable of travelling. While that may have been great for amateurs and weekend golfers who struggle to hit the ball reasonably long distances, it’s been a hotly debated issue when it comes to professional golf.

The crux of the argument is this: professional players do not struggle with distance. And with players regularly averaging well over 300 yards off the tee, golf courses have been scrambling to add length just to avoid getting decimated by long hitters. More length translates into more resources like water being used-an ecologically unethical practice during a time when golf courses are under a great deal of pressure to be more sustainable.
There’s another more emotive aspect for fans who still love the traditional challenges posed by the game that require players to be creative in their shotmaking and playing strategy. Nowadays it’s common to find that these aspects of golf course design do not come into play simply because players hit the ball a distance (and on a tee-to-green line) that the course designers did not plan or create for.
Taking cognisance of these issues, the governing bodies, the USGA and R&A, had proposed to modify the ball to travel approximately 15 yards shorter than the balls currently in use on the professional tours. The proposal, if accepted, was to take effect from 2026. The PGA Tour’s position presents an interesting turn of events. In case the USGA and R&A decide to go ahead with the change then the PGA Tour players would have to use a different golf ball in the U.S. Open and The (British) Open.
It’s worth mentioning that this change would have applied only to professional golfers and not amateurs. The prospect of different golf balls being used by professionals and Club golfers is unlikely to have gone down well with golf ball manufacturers who rely on player endorsements to promote their products. And players, presumably, aren’t keen to endanger their lucrative sponsorship deals.