19th Hole

Distance increases “horrible” for all golfers, says USGA’s Mike Davis

Published

6 years ago

Nov 20, 2017

From Tiger Woods, to tour heads, to company executives, everyone seems to be talking about rolling back the golf ball lately.

In a Saturday piece for the Wall Street Journal, Brian Costa talked to USGA chief executive, Mike Davis, and he offered his strongest statement yet about the need for variable-distance golf balls.

“You can’t say you don’t care about distance, because guess what? These courses are expanding and are predicted to continue to expand,” Davis said. “The impact it has had has been horrible…The reality is this is affecting all golfers and affecting them in a bad way. All it’s doing is increasing the cost of the game.”

There are a couple of avenues of approach to the “increasing the cost of the game” comment, but it’s difficult to argue with Davis; the trickle down to golfers of the lengthening and quickening of courses is lighter wallets.

Davis, understanding the delicate position the USGA is in, seems inclined to make strong suggestions and leave decision making (i.e. how “rolled back” golf balls are) to specific tours, events, amateur organizations, etc.

But as Geoff Shackelford writes in his breakdown of the WSJ piece, we’re at a tricky impasse.

“Every party involved has some incentive not to force the issue. If the governing bodies tried to mandate a more restrictive ball for all golfers, they would face a massive fight from equipment companies. Those companies thrive by making a hard game easier, not harder. The PGA Tour relies on eye-popping distance numbers to highlight the skill and athleticism of its stars, which isn’t always apparent to the naked eye.”

We can probably add that the most casual of fans like to see birdies and pin-seeking approach shots, the possibility of anything that reduces those quantities has to be anxiety provoking for a sport struggling with ratings.

That said, a consensus opinion delivered jointly by governing bodies, tours, and equipment would seem to be the most sensible (if unlikely) way forward.

What do you think about Davis’ comments, WRX members? If we’re going to see a limiting of the golf ball, what’s the best way to roll out the rollback?

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19th Hole

PGA Tour pro takes to social media during round after being left unhappy with ruling

Published

1 hour ago

May 13, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

During the of the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic on the PGA Tour, Alejandro Tosti found himself in a precarious position around a bunker on the 7th hole on Sunday.

The Argentine was well out of contention, but when he approached his ball, he found it was wedged into the lip of the bunker. Feeling as though the ball was embedded, Tosti called over a rules official.

To his surprise, his request for relief for the embedded ball was denied.

Tosti took to his social media to post a video of the situation that he was able to record during the actual round!

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this. Alejandro Tosti got a ruling about an embedded ball he didn’t like yesterday in Myrtle Beach. He took out his phone and recorded the situation and lie
I’m not good with rules, but it looks like he has a point to me, it looks outside of bunker. pic.twitter.com/6ycXiAWMEp

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) May 12, 2024

The video was found on Tosti’s Instagram by Ryan French of “Monday Q Info” on X.

Tosti was able to salvage a bogey on the hole, but shot a final round 74 (+3) to finish in a tie for 63rd.

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19th Hole

Swing coach reveals why he recently told Brooks Koepka to ‘stop whinging’

Published

1 hour ago

May 13, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

At last month’s Masters Tournament, Brooks Koepka put forth a disappointing performance by his lofty standards.

The five-time major champion finished T45 a year after contending deep into Sunday of the 2023 Masters.

After the letdown, Koepka went to swing coach Pete Cowen, who he’s worked with for a decade, to ger him back on track.

Cowen spoke with The Telegraph, revealing what he said to the reigning PGA Champion.

“I gave him one of my old-fashioned b******ings when he was moaning to me about his putting. I told him to stop whinging and to just get to work on the issue. Again, that’s the sort of thing that triggers him. I gave him a b******ing before he won his first Major (the US Open) seven years ago.”

“He’s put in the hours and turned it around on the greens since then and with Valhalla being a big boys’ course, I can see him, at the very least, contending. If he wins, he’ll join (Sir Nick) Faldo and (Phil) Mickelson on six Majors and at his age that would be exciting. They’d probably still go on under-rating him, though.”

After the pep talk from Cowen, Koepka went on to win LIV Singapore.

As we enter the PGA Championship, three of the best players in the world, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka will all be coming off a victory in their previous start.

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19th Hole

Brandel Chamblee has a surprising new take on the PGA Tour-LIV stand-off

Published

3 days ago

May 10, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

One of the more outspoken analysts throughout the LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour saga has been Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee.

This week, Chamblee reversed course, saying he believes the PGA Tour should strike a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF).

Golf Channel Brandel Chamblee in his biggest about-face since the Framework Agreement on June 6, now says that making a deal with the PIF "is the better end of the bargain."

He says:

"The PGA Tour is in this pickle like it or not, but, do you want to compete with someone (LIV… pic.twitter.com/XDZaC1I6B8

— JCAGOLFReport (@JCAGOLFReport) May 10, 2024

“The PGA Tour is in this pickle like it or not, but, do you want to compete with someone who’s not going to go away, who can outspend you”.

“Every move they make that makes their tour better deletes your tour and causes more division within the tour. So the time is now, to Rory’s point about making a deal, I wouldn’t have said that a year ago… but it is the better end of the bargain.”

Chamblee’s new stance seems to be in line with that of Rory McIlroy, who reportedly wanted to rejoin the PGA Tour board with hopes of pushing a deal with the PIF closer to the finish line.

Chamblee will be in the booth for next week’s PGA Championship which has 16 LIV players in the field.