On Wednesday, the official plans for a rollback were announced by the USGA and R&A.

After the announcement, many LPGA players weren’t happy with the change, considering the problems the driving distance were mostly seen at the professional level in the men’s game, not the women’s.

Brittany Lincicome, who’s one of the longest hitters on the LPGA Tour hit out at the decision which she called “silly.”

“Silly.  We aren’t asking football players to run slower or tennis players to not hit the ball so hard. Just seems silly,”

Lincicome also added that “she hadn’t talked to one person who thinks it’s a good idea”.

World number one, Lilia Vu, said that their courses play plenty long enough already.

“I was a little surprised because I don’t think that golf courses for us play pretty short, in my opinion,” Vu said. “You can see from the majors they’re pretty difficult and in my opinion some of our regular-season events, too, so I wasn’t entirely ready.”

LPGA star Lydia Ko was one of the players who saw the other side of the argument.

“Players are getting more athletic, players are hitting it farther, and sometimes, you know, the maximum length a golf course can play is already what the men or women are already playing, so you might not be able to do other changes.”

The subject will continue to be hotly debated until the rules are implemented.

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With speculation growing regarding Jon Rahm and a move to LIV, rumors have been floated as to what other PGA Tour players may be following the Spaniard to the rival league.

One person who’s been speculated as a strong fit for LIV is Australian star, Jason Day. However, according to Evin Priest of Australian Golf Digest, those rumors are baseless.

There is nothing to the “Jason Day to LIV” speculation. He’ll be on the PGA Tour in 2024

— Evin Priest (@EvinPriest) December 6, 2023

Many commenters on X are quick to point out that Day has been reluctant to travel to other countries to play, which clearly wouldn’t mesh with LIV’s global schedule.

With reports indicating that Rahm’s move to LIV would include a new team being formed, speculation on who could join Rahm should he leave, will likely continue into 2024.

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Last weekend, Rory McIlroy posted his thoughts about the golf ball rollback on X.

“I don’t understand the anger about the golf ball roll back. It will make no difference whatsoever to the average golfer and puts golf back on a path of sustainability. It will also help bring back certain skills in the pro game that have been eradicated over the past 2 decades. The people who are upset about this decision shouldn’t be mad at the governing bodies, they should be mad at elite pros and club/ball manufacturers because they didn’t want bifurcation. The governing bodies presented us with that option earlier this year. Elite pros and ball manufacturers think bifurcation would negatively affect their bottom lines, when in reality, the game is already bifurcated. You think we play the same stuff you do? They put pressure on the governing bodies to roll it back to a lesser degree for everyone. Bifurcation was the logical answer for everyone, but yet again in this game, money talks.”

The opinion from McIlroy seems to be in the minority, with plenty of analysts disagreeing with his statement that the rule changes will “make no difference to the average golfer”.

This week, Rory’s putting coach and close friend, Brad Faxon appeared on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio, and expressed disagreement with his pupil’s comments.

“I think the big question we have to ask the USGA and the R&A is why are you doing this? Why now? What is making you decide that this is the right time when we’re at all-time popularity for the game, on-course, off the course, viewership, you know we’re about to see Tiger come back and play some more,” Faxon said.

“I just think everything about it smells. It doesn’t make sense to me, and the idea that you should do something different, I mean unification has always been a part of this game and as a player, the amateurs that I played with always loved to come back to the tee we were playing from, see the drives we were hitting, see the irons into the greens.

“We’ve been doing that forever under the same set of rules and you might respond to the comments from, say, Rory who said we already have bifurcation and that is a pretty weak argument in my opinion because he might say the higher handicappers play from a shorter tee or that the clubs that the pros get to use are that much different. I don’t think they’re that much different. I mean there aren’t balls the pros are using that are not under the counter really at your pro shop.”

"It doesn't make sense to me"

Brad Faxon and Michael Breed talk about rolling back the golf ball while on A New Breed of Golf.@BradFaxon I @breed' pic.twitter.com/OmtYrt9ykC

— SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) December 6, 2023

Opinions are sure to differ, but it’ll take a few years for the rule changes to start taking shape.

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