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When Mark Darbon, the chief executive of the R&A, sat down with reporters Wednesday at Royal Birkdale ahead of the 154th Open Championship, he confirmed something we learned ahead of last month’s U.S. Open: Golf’s governing bodies are considering the idea of using Model Local Rules (MLR) to curb distance at the highest levels of the sport.
That idea should sound familiar, because we’ve heard it before.
The United States Golf Association and the R&A first proposed the idea as a solution to the governing bodies stated distance problem in March, 2023, before abandoning it in favor of the universal golf-ball rollback announced in December of that year.
Now, after conversations with the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and players themselves, the pendulum appears to be swinging back.
“There’s clearly been a bit of change in the position of the PGA Tour and its players, an openness to look at some model local rules,” Darbon said Wednesday.
For golfers who have spent the last three years trying to keep track of robot testing protocols, launch conditions and endless debates about virtues and shortcomings of bifurcation, this latest twist may feel like yet another plot twist in a movie that feels like it’s running too long already. But, it could ultimately reshape professional golf far more than the rollback plan currently scheduled to begin in 2030.
First, it helps to understand what a Model Local Rule actually is.
Model Local Rules have been around for generations, and tournament organizers use them to address everything from preferred lies to out-of-bounds stakes and temporary conditions. In 2022, the USGA and R&A introduced an MLR that allowed tournaments to cap driver length at 46 inches and it was quickly adopted by the PGA Tour and LPGA.
The concept the governing bodies explored and formally proposed in 2023 was much more ambitious. Instead of changing equipment rules for everyone, tournament organizers could require elite players to use equipment tested under different, distance-reducing standards.
At the time, the focus was primarily on golf balls. The governing bodies proposed testing balls at higher swing speeds at more optimized launch conditions, creating a “competition ball” that would fly shorter in the hands of the fastest players. The testing standards for other balls would not change, so equipment used by recreational golfers would be unchanged.
There were also discussions about club regulations. The USGA and R&A researched whether Model Local Rules could be used to reduce the spring-like effect of drivers by lowering Characteristic Time, or CT, and whether driver heads should have lower limits on moment of inertia (MOI), making off-center hits less forgiving.
Then something changed.
In December, 2023, the USGA and R&A abandoned the idea and announced a universal rollback that would alter the Overall Distance Standard (ODS) for golf balls beginning in 2028 for elite players and 2030 for recreational golfers. The governing bodies said they had heard overwhelming support for one set of equipment rules across the game.
But last month, Mike Whan, the CEO of the USGA, revealed on the day before the start of the U.S. Open that the decision to abandon the Model Local Rule solution was driven by something else, too.
“Three years ago, we were told pretty point-blank that MLRs would not be implemented that are distance-related at the PGA Tour level,” Whan said. “Given that, we had a crossroads. Do we keep going down that path if they’re not going to be implemented? That’s a paper exercise then. So, we moved on from some of those.”
In other words, the governing bodies did not necessarily stop believing Model Local Rules could be a good solution to reducing distance at the elite level. They stopped believing anyone would use them.
Now, it appears the resistance to MLRs is changing.
Whan said recent meetings with PGA Tour leadership, DP World Tour officials and members of the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council revealed three things: everyone agrees distance continues to increase at the elite level; there are concerns that the current rollback plan will not do enough to slow that trend; and there is now a “collective willingness” to reconsider ideas that had been shelved.
On Wednesday, Darbon said, “There's been a lot of, I'd say, really transparent and collaborative dialogue with other stakeholders, the tours and more recently with a number of players themselves. It's of no surprise to anyone that not everyone is aligned behind the decision that was made in December 2023, and having heard the feedback from the industry, I think it would be remiss of us not to take some time to explore some of the other alternatives that may exist, particularly given that there's clearly been a bit of change in the position of the PGA Tour and its players, an openness to look at some model local rules.”
If the USGA and the R&A created Model Local Rules that, if adopted, would make players use distance-reducing equipment, what might that world look like?
PGA Tour and DP World Tour players would use a shorter-flying ball, while the rest of us continued teeing up Pro V1s, Chrome Softs, TP5s, Tour B's and Z-Stars and other balls that conform to today’s standards.
Equipment trucks would carry competition-ball inventories. Tour reps would spend weeks, probably months, helping players dial in launch windows, spin rates and yardages with the new gear.
The effects would ripple through the professional game. Distances would change and invariably some long hitters might lose more ground than others.
There would also be less need to create longer courses, championship venues would require less water and fewer chemicals to maintain and some layouts would regain some of their original strategic intent.
For recreational golfers, the biggest attraction is obvious: nothing would change.
Your driver would stay legal. Your golf balls would stay legal. The 18-handicapper who struggles to clear a pond wouldn’t suddenly be hitting the ball 5 or 7 yards shorter.
Of course, none of this would come without complications.
Manufacturers would almost certainly resist MLRs and the idea of building a second category of products that many consumers would never buy or use. Designing, testing and producing competition golf balls with different specifications would add cost and complexity to an industry that already spends tens of millions of dollars each year on research and development.
There is also the question of where the line would be drawn.
Would Model Local Rules apply only to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour? The Korn Ferry Tour would likely be included, but what about the PGA Tour Champions and college golfers? And then there is the LPGA.
Someone will have to decide where the cutoff lies.
The debate would inevitably return to the word golf has been arguing about for years: bifurcation.
Critics would argue that forcing professionals to use different equipment than recreational players amounts to bifurcation, regardless of semantics. Back in 2023, however, Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s chief governance officer, disagreed.
“Our view is a single set of playing rules and a single set of equipment rules is one of the great things about the game,” Pagel said at the time. “Model Local Rules have existed forever, and we have Model Local Rules around equipment. This would just be another example of that. We don’t view it as bifurcation.”
Golf’s governing bodies spent years insisting they had moved beyond Model Local Rules. This week at Royal Birkdale, and last month at Shinnecock Hills, they effectively admitted they may be headed right back toward them.
The irony is hard to miss. After years of studies, debates and announcements, the sport may find itself standing once again at the same fork in the road it faced in 2023.
Only now, the PGA Tour appears it might be willing to take a path alongside the game’s governing bodies.
David Dusek is a senior writer at Golfweek covering golf equipment.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: R&A echoes the USGA, says distance solutions are being re-examined
Continue reading...
That idea should sound familiar, because we’ve heard it before.
The United States Golf Association and the R&A first proposed the idea as a solution to the governing bodies stated distance problem in March, 2023, before abandoning it in favor of the universal golf-ball rollback announced in December of that year.
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Now, after conversations with the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and players themselves, the pendulum appears to be swinging back.
“There’s clearly been a bit of change in the position of the PGA Tour and its players, an openness to look at some model local rules,” Darbon said Wednesday.
For golfers who have spent the last three years trying to keep track of robot testing protocols, launch conditions and endless debates about virtues and shortcomings of bifurcation, this latest twist may feel like yet another plot twist in a movie that feels like it’s running too long already. But, it could ultimately reshape professional golf far more than the rollback plan currently scheduled to begin in 2030.
First, it helps to understand what a Model Local Rule actually is.
Model Local Rules have been around for generations, and tournament organizers use them to address everything from preferred lies to out-of-bounds stakes and temporary conditions. In 2022, the USGA and R&A introduced an MLR that allowed tournaments to cap driver length at 46 inches and it was quickly adopted by the PGA Tour and LPGA.
The concept the governing bodies explored and formally proposed in 2023 was much more ambitious. Instead of changing equipment rules for everyone, tournament organizers could require elite players to use equipment tested under different, distance-reducing standards.
At the time, the focus was primarily on golf balls. The governing bodies proposed testing balls at higher swing speeds at more optimized launch conditions, creating a “competition ball” that would fly shorter in the hands of the fastest players. The testing standards for other balls would not change, so equipment used by recreational golfers would be unchanged.
There were also discussions about club regulations. The USGA and R&A researched whether Model Local Rules could be used to reduce the spring-like effect of drivers by lowering Characteristic Time, or CT, and whether driver heads should have lower limits on moment of inertia (MOI), making off-center hits less forgiving.
Then something changed.
In December, 2023, the USGA and R&A abandoned the idea and announced a universal rollback that would alter the Overall Distance Standard (ODS) for golf balls beginning in 2028 for elite players and 2030 for recreational golfers. The governing bodies said they had heard overwhelming support for one set of equipment rules across the game.
But last month, Mike Whan, the CEO of the USGA, revealed on the day before the start of the U.S. Open that the decision to abandon the Model Local Rule solution was driven by something else, too.
You must be registered for see images attach
“Three years ago, we were told pretty point-blank that MLRs would not be implemented that are distance-related at the PGA Tour level,” Whan said. “Given that, we had a crossroads. Do we keep going down that path if they’re not going to be implemented? That’s a paper exercise then. So, we moved on from some of those.”
In other words, the governing bodies did not necessarily stop believing Model Local Rules could be a good solution to reducing distance at the elite level. They stopped believing anyone would use them.
Now, it appears the resistance to MLRs is changing.
Whan said recent meetings with PGA Tour leadership, DP World Tour officials and members of the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council revealed three things: everyone agrees distance continues to increase at the elite level; there are concerns that the current rollback plan will not do enough to slow that trend; and there is now a “collective willingness” to reconsider ideas that had been shelved.
On Wednesday, Darbon said, “There's been a lot of, I'd say, really transparent and collaborative dialogue with other stakeholders, the tours and more recently with a number of players themselves. It's of no surprise to anyone that not everyone is aligned behind the decision that was made in December 2023, and having heard the feedback from the industry, I think it would be remiss of us not to take some time to explore some of the other alternatives that may exist, particularly given that there's clearly been a bit of change in the position of the PGA Tour and its players, an openness to look at some model local rules.”
What would distance-reducing equipment look like?
If the USGA and the R&A created Model Local Rules that, if adopted, would make players use distance-reducing equipment, what might that world look like?
PGA Tour and DP World Tour players would use a shorter-flying ball, while the rest of us continued teeing up Pro V1s, Chrome Softs, TP5s, Tour B's and Z-Stars and other balls that conform to today’s standards.
Equipment trucks would carry competition-ball inventories. Tour reps would spend weeks, probably months, helping players dial in launch windows, spin rates and yardages with the new gear.
The effects would ripple through the professional game. Distances would change and invariably some long hitters might lose more ground than others.
There would also be less need to create longer courses, championship venues would require less water and fewer chemicals to maintain and some layouts would regain some of their original strategic intent.
For recreational golfers, the biggest attraction is obvious: nothing would change.
Your driver would stay legal. Your golf balls would stay legal. The 18-handicapper who struggles to clear a pond wouldn’t suddenly be hitting the ball 5 or 7 yards shorter.
Of course, none of this would come without complications.
Manufacturers would almost certainly resist MLRs and the idea of building a second category of products that many consumers would never buy or use. Designing, testing and producing competition golf balls with different specifications would add cost and complexity to an industry that already spends tens of millions of dollars each year on research and development.
There is also the question of where the line would be drawn.
Would Model Local Rules apply only to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour? The Korn Ferry Tour would likely be included, but what about the PGA Tour Champions and college golfers? And then there is the LPGA.
Someone will have to decide where the cutoff lies.
The debate would inevitably return to the word golf has been arguing about for years: bifurcation.
Critics would argue that forcing professionals to use different equipment than recreational players amounts to bifurcation, regardless of semantics. Back in 2023, however, Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s chief governance officer, disagreed.
“Our view is a single set of playing rules and a single set of equipment rules is one of the great things about the game,” Pagel said at the time. “Model Local Rules have existed forever, and we have Model Local Rules around equipment. This would just be another example of that. We don’t view it as bifurcation.”
Golf’s governing bodies spent years insisting they had moved beyond Model Local Rules. This week at Royal Birkdale, and last month at Shinnecock Hills, they effectively admitted they may be headed right back toward them.
The irony is hard to miss. After years of studies, debates and announcements, the sport may find itself standing once again at the same fork in the road it faced in 2023.
Only now, the PGA Tour appears it might be willing to take a path alongside the game’s governing bodies.
David Dusek is a senior writer at Golfweek covering golf equipment.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: R&A echoes the USGA, says distance solutions are being re-examined
Continue reading...
