The massive bombs Australian star Min Woo Lee was smashing off the tee on his highly-entertaining house sojourn during the last two weeks might be eradicated after the formal adoption of a brand new rule to restrict how far the golf ball can fly.
Lee’s common 300m-plus drives put him among the many greatest hitter within the recreation with even veteran Adam Scott, at 42, averaging within the top-20 for driving distance on the US PGA tour this yr at 286m.
Amid various levels of suggestions from professionals concerning the change, with Rory McIlroy, the biggest-hitter on the PGA Tour this yr in favour, Lee, who gained the Australian PGA two weeks in the past, apologised for being “a part of the issue”.
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Golf’s ruling our bodies, the R&A and USGA opted in opposition to bifurcation, which might have created one algorithm for professionals and one other for amateurs, which was the desire of Tiger Woods, in addition to any adjustments to drivers, to verify the introduction of apparatus testing to ensure the golf ball goes shorter for each participant.
It got here after a greater than 5 years of intensive research on distance that led them to consider constant positive factors off the tee by professionals over the previous 25 years was detrimental to the sport.
The change just isn’t efficient till 2028 for tour and elite golf, and 2030 for leisure golfers.
“There’s just about no denying that the sport on the highest finish is longer by a protracted shot at the moment than it was 20 years in the past,” Mike Whan, the CEO of the USGA stated.
“From the very starting, we’ve been pushed to do what is true for the sport, with out bias. As we’ve stated, doing nothing just isn’t an possibility – and we might be failing in our duty to guard the sport’s future if we didn’t take applicable motion now.”
Martin Slumbers, CEO of The R&A, stated it was a choice designed to attain a “sustainable future for golf” with an eye fixed to limiting the necessity to construct larger and longer programs and to fulfill the sport’s “environmental obligations”.
McIlroy, who might be most impacted given his standing, not less than statistically, as the largest hitter in golf, was adamant the change would being “sure abilities” again to the sport and would haven’t any affect on native golfers.
“It’s going to make no distinction in anyway to the common golfer and places golf again on a path of sustainability,” McIlroy stated.
“It’s going to additionally assist deliver again sure abilities within the professional recreation which have been eradicated over the previous 2 a long time.”
Golf officers declared they needed to act now earlier than distance bought uncontrolled as expertise improved.
“Some folks will argue, ‘We don’t suppose distance goes farther. The pace these prime guys are hitting it’s the quickest we’re going to see,‘” Whan stated.
“There’s no logical purpose to consider that speeds, and subsequently distances, are coming down.”