"I wrote an article a few years ago on how to design clubs that ignore the Rules of Golf. Sure we know how to do that. But do we want to?”

Larry Dorman profiles Barney Adams and the Tee It Forward initiative.

He determined that a pro would have to play a course measuring 8,100 yards in order to use the same clubs on approaches as an amateur who drives the ball 230 yards on a 6,700-yard course.

From that, he arrived at the converse: for an amateur who averages 230 yards off the tee to hit the same clubs into greens as a pro does on a 7,300-yard layout, the amateur would have to play no more than 6,200 yards.

After analyst Casey Alexander talks about golf courses needing to "get better capacity utilization" through non-traditional versions of golf, Adams responds with this.

What Adams is doing has the backing of the U.S.G.A. and the P.G.A. of America precisely because nothing in it violates the Rules of Golf, and Adams said he was not ready to concede that the game was ready for radical departures.

“O.K., we have Frisbee golf, too,” he said. “We can invent all kinds of different games. I wrote an article a few years ago on how to design clubs that ignore the Rules of Golf. Sure we know how to do that. But do we want to?”

So apparently there is only one thing stopping manufacturers from making whatever they want to make and sell: themselves.

But they must sense (or have data suggesting) golfers would reject playing something outside of the Rules of Golf even though they blame the USGA for not allowing them to innovate.

I have a solution!

Why not then tighten up a few equipment rules for the pros so that everyday golfers do not have to "Tee It Forward" to experience hitting wedges into most par-4s just like the pros!

Win, win baby.