Jack Thinks The USGA Is Close To Rolling Back The Ball

Kathy Bissell attended the National Golf Course Owners Association dinner and reports that award recipient Jack Nicklaus believes “the USGA is close to making a change to roll back the golf ball distance.”

I don’t think they are close to such a move since we're in at least year eleven of the announced "ball study" which is apparently conducted behind the walls of Hotel California. It's checked but it's not leaving!

But we’ll ask today at the USGA Annual Meeting. From Bissell:

"I don't think the rules are right about the golf ball," he said. He pointed the finger at the ball manufacturers who lobby for length.  

The ball, Nicklaus said, is making almost all courses obsolete.

According to Nicklaus, Augusta National is the only property that can spend what is needed to continue lengthening their course. "Nobody else has that kind of money," he added.   

He's not just talking about courses like Merion GC, which was thought to be too short to host a U.S. Open but did in 2013.  

"The game has changed so much because of the golf ball. If they would switch back, all of the 17,000 courses that are obsolete would be championship courses again," he suggested.