Last month at the Masters, Hootie Johnson, the Augusta National club chairman, slipped into his green jacket, sat behind a table and put on his best banker's face. Johnson got the ball rolling on a subject getting dangerously close to changing his demeanor, from coolly genteel to wholly agitated.
Johnson said he hoped somebody would do something about golf balls, mainly because they're simply going too far. And because Augusta National has already had its extreme makeover/Masters edition, there's not much room to push the tees back even more to add distance without buying up some land in, say, South Carolina.
Then on April 11, the day after the Masters ended, the U.S. Golf Assn. sent a letter to 35 golf ball manufacturers, asking them to design two prototype balls, one that flies 15 yards shorter and one 25 yards shorter when hit under current testing procedures. Basically, the USGA is talking about a 5% to 8% rollback in distance.
The USGA sets the rules of golf in the United States, and along with the Royal & Ancient, establishes the standards of the game for everyone.
It wasn't hard to connect Johnson's point of view to the action by the USGA. Fred Ridley, president of the USGA, is a member at Augusta National. Walter Driver, the next president of the USGA, is also a member at Augusta National.
Hootie speaks, the USGA jumps, at least that's the implication, although in this hot-button, big-stakes issue, it's much more complicated than that.
Johnson, who accepted questions by e-mail for an interview recently, said the Masters isn't the only tournament troubled about the technology of the ball.
"We are concerned, as are others, about the golf ball," he said. "I know the USGA and R&A are working hard on this issue. We are willing to wait only a finite time to see what can be done."
Johnson downplayed Augusta National's influence in the process.
"I imagine the USGA will look at many facts and opinions before making any decisions," he said.
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It looks innocent enough, round and white and covered with dimples, about 450 of them, give or take a few.
But now, the question is, how did something so small and simple as the golf ball roll the entire sport into a situation where the rules could be shaken to their foundation, where billions of dollars are at stake, where the future of PGA Tour pros everywhere could be in play, not to mention amateurs at every level and the very golf courses on which they play?
As balls continue to go farther, courses continue to get longer. Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, site of last year's PGA Championship, was 7,514 yards long. That's nearly 1,000 yards longer than the site of the 1971 U.S. Open, Merion Country Club in Pennsylvania. That course, considered a classic by many, is now far too short for a tour event.
Everyday courses are stretching out too. The Fighting Joe Golf Course on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a collection of courses throughout Alabama, is a full 8,072 yards from the back tees.
The golf equipment industry is a $3.2-billion business on the worldwide market, and the golf ball's share of that is $1.1 billion. The newer balls, which started appearing in 2000, feature a thinner, softer cover and lively cores, the combination delivering a ball that the pros can spin better and steer straighter and higher toward targets. Aerodynamically, they're much improved and stay in the air longer.
Three years ago this month, the USGA and R&A came up with a Joint Statement of Principles that addressed the issue of golf ball distance and said there was no need to rein in the ball. However, that prospect is now real, based on a new stance by the USGA and revealed in the letter sent to the manufacturers last month by Dick Rugge, senior technical director of the USGA.
The USGA and R&A asked manufacturers to make prototype golf balls that didn't travel as far and submit them to the USGA for testing.
Rugge said the R&A sent out the same letter, which was intended to be private, and had drawn very little media interest anywhere except the U.S. So far, Rugge said he has heard from eight manufacturers who said they would take up the invitation and from no one who said they would refuse.
"I'm optimistic everyone will participate," he said.
Titleist, Callaway Golf and Nike Golf, three of the most high-profile ball manufacturers, either have reservations about the USGA request or aren't saying anything.
"There are a lot of noises affecting them to make decisions there's no need to make," said Wally Uihlein, chairman and chief executive of Acushnet Co., which makes Titleist balls, the industry leader with 40% of the worldwide market.
"They're talking about a distance rollback without any evidence the game is on the edge of ruination. We've already jumped to the conclusion that something has to be done before we know anything is wrong."
