Phil Worried About Losing An Inch-And-A-Half Off His (Driver) Shaft

It’s unclear what set off Phil Mickelson but presumably he’s been informed of possible rule changes involving the length of drivers. And he’s not happy with what he’s hearing:

Word is USGA is soon rolling back driver length to 46inches.This is PATHETIC.1st it promotes a shorter more violent swing (injury prone,) doesn’t allow for length of arc to create speed,and during our 1st golf boom in 40 years,our amateur gov body keeps trying to make it less fun

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) August 27, 2021

I’m not sure this is the vindication he was looking for, but Mickelson received this endorsement from Keegan Bradley:

They have no idea what they’re doing. Sad to watch. https://t.co/UOpQc6EG3V

— Keegan Bradley (@Keegan_Bradley) August 27, 2021

Sad to watch is correct.

Sad that at a time golf is thriving without any sign that an improvement in technology can be attributed to the growth, at a time players are posting absurd scores at the BMW, at a time Mickelson is struggling to make a Ryder Cup team in the year he won the PGA, and at a time his preferred manufacturer’s stock length is under than the possible length in question, thus dispelling the whole injury arguments, this was not his best-timed attack of the USGA.

But there is a positive! Check out the replies and how many people are pushing back at the idea of “hitting bombs” as the soul of the game. Oh there are still plenty of tools looking for his attention and clueless about the topic, but far fewer than we might have seen a few years ago.

The USGA has not commented.

If you need more context on Mickelson’s driver length concerns dating to last fall, Kyle Porter has a summary here.