Golf.com Emergency Confidential: The Distance Debate

The Golf gang has plenty to say about the distance debate and while it is filled with plenty of smart stuff, the divide in what to do mirrors many of the reactions we heard this week.

As always, please hit the link and enjoy the opinions, but this portion of the exchange resonated most with me:

Michael Bamberger, senior writer, GOLF: It’s not the spike. It’s the overall pattern since 1980. All sports evolve. Golf has changed too much.

Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, GOLF (@AlanShipnuck): More monitoring? Oh joy. Haven’t they already been studying this issue for years/decades? I’m exhausted.

Dylan Dethier, associate editor, GOLF.com (@Dylan_Dethier): It concerns me because it pushes the golf world closer to fixing a problem for which there is no clean solution. Change is hard!

Jessica Marksbury, senior editor, GOLF.com (@Jess_Marksbury): Yes, Dylan! It’s obvious something needs to be done, but what? Golf is still hard, no matter how far you hit the ball.

Josh Sens, contributing writer, GOLF: I don’t want to torture an analogy or overstate the importance of the distance issue, but there are elements here that remind me of the climate change debate. Most people looking at facts have known for a long time that it’s a runaway problem. But the official response is mostly just talk. Big financial interests are at stake, of course, further complicating any plan of action. A gloom-and-doomer might take the view that we’re beyond the tipping point, too late to go back.