{"id":1504,"date":"2016-06-09T16:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.golfballs.com\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2024-02-14T16:42:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:42:53","slug":"usga-and-ra-just-fine-with-how-far-the-golf-ball-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/usga-and-ra-just-fine-with-how-far-the-golf-ball-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"USGA and R&A Just Fine with How Far the Golf Ball Flies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"USGA<\/a>

USGA and the R&A Release Joint Report on Driving Distance<\/p><\/div>\n

What\u2019s the old saying – there are lies, damned lies, and statistics? Most human beings have a built-in wariness of statistics, especially when they bang up against one\u2019s experience. So, if statistics say there\u2019s never been a shark attack at a particular beach but you see a dorsal fin on the horizon while you\u2019re swimming, maybe you should get out of the water.<\/p>\n

Which bring us to a recent joint report from the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal & Ancient (R&A) on findings from studies of driving distances<\/a> across seven major professional golf tours (that\u2019s an exhaustive study – can you even name seven professional golf tours?). The conclusion: yes, there has been some increased distance off the tee in the past decade, but it\u2019s been so slight as to be hardly noticeable. The golfing powers that be called it a \u201cslow creep.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Does this Report Jive with Reality?<\/h2>\n

Those findings don\u2019t seem to consort with conventional wisdom. Don\u2019t equipment makers and golf ball manufacturers tell us each year that there is more distance waiting for us on the course by taking advantage of their newfound advances in testing? Aren\u2019t we watching golfers hitting short irons<\/a> into the 18th green at Augusta when Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman were hitting 4-irons back there in the Masters in the 1980s?<\/p>\n

For that matter, didn\u2019t a group of the leading architects compose an open letter to the R&A warning that if equipment advancements weren\u2019t curtailed, then golf courses would become obsolete? Didn\u2019t Nicklaus himself advise golf to \u201cchange the friggin\u2019 ball?\u201d This new report just makes it seem that everyone\u2019s been living in an alternate reality, which really can\u2019t be the case \u2013 can it?<\/p>\n

What the Numbers Say<\/h2>\n

The USGA and R&A brought out charts and numbers from the past thirty-five or so years. In that time the average driving distance on the PGA Tour has ballooned from 255 yards to over 290 yards. But in the past dozen or so years, there\u2019s been almost no change. Similarly, this century has seen little improvement in driver<\/a> distance on the European, Japan Golf, Web.com, Champions, LPGA, and Ladies European tours.<\/p>\n

In addition, launch conditions – such treasured measurements as club head speed, launch angle, ball speed and spin rate – have been pretty much the same for the past ten years. At the same time scoring, even though it has generally tumbled consistently since the study results began in 1980, is also barely nudging down. Taken in total, the scoring average on the PGA Tour has dipped from 72.6 to a shade under 71. Of course, that is a broad aggregate that can\u2019t take into account the changes in venues and the alterations to courses on a yearly basis. But it\u2019s still barely more than a single stroke in 35 years.<\/p>\n

What Does It All Mean?<\/h2>\n

There has been an undercurrent of grumbling among golf fans (and that includes Mr. Nicklaus) that the golf ball is flying too darn far. That the USGA and R&A issued this report in the first place may appear to be a rebuke to that general impression. But in reality it\u2019s just a report of facts that\u2019s prepared on an on-going basis.<\/p>\n

Going forward, this is an indication that there will be no \u201cstandardized distance\u201d golf ball<\/a> in the near future. Even a \u201cslow creep,\u201d however, can result in a significant number of yards over time. So the golfing regulators will continue to monitor these numbers, as they do anyway.<\/p>\n

Manufacturers will also continue to pursue the Holy Grail of increased distance for the recreational player. After all, for professional golfers used to making flush contact on every swing, there\u2019s only so much incremental distance they can squeeze from a driver. But for golfers who are more sweet shot-challenged, there\u2019s always help that will be appreciated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the old saying – there are lies, damned lies, and statistics? Most human beings have a built-in wariness of statistics, especially when they bang up against one\u2019s experience. So, if statistics say there\u2019s...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,4,194],"tags":[606,604,438,605,603,439,607],"class_list":["post-1504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-news","category-pga-tour-2","tag-golf-ball-distance","tag-r-and-a","tag-ra","tag-royal-ancient","tag-united-states-golf-association","tag-usga","tag-usga-ra-joint-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1509,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions\/1509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}