NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — It was around this time five years ago that the five families of professional golf — the four major-owned governing bodies and the PGA Tour — started acting like real cousins. They almost unanimously agreed that LIV Golf and the bold investment from Saudi Arabia were a threat to the status quo.
“Some money is better than other money,” then-PGA CEO Seth Waugh said at the 2021 PGA Championship on Kiawah Island. From all angles, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan must have been nodding. Even if this were not the case, his actions would soon match those of his cousins. It took years for the R&A and USGA to provide a specific LIV exemption for the championship. The World Golf Rankings Committee (mainly made up of representatives from these organizations) did not sanction LIV events until earlier this year. Fred Ridley, on behalf of the Masters, said the 2022 action, in which LIV launched with the biggest funding the sport had ever seen, had “detracted from the beauty of the competition”. The antitrust lawsuit brought by LIV players alleges that members of Augusta National threatened to disinvite LIV pros from the Masters.
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Each brand protected its own protocols and regulations, and that was completely their right. But in almost all cases, LIV’s hard-line stance has been beneficial, even temporarily, to their cousin, the PGA Tour. These safeguards have weakened over time, and threats to the status quo of professional golf have rapidly fallen down the priority list, particularly following the recent news that Saudi Arabia’s PIF will no longer fund LIV in the future, as the Tour has decided to also accept Saudi funding.
However, the replacement did not take long. Back in the foreground: the controversial golf ball rollback.
Simply put, the USGA and R&A have determined that the distances that modern professional golfers can hit the ball are not sustainable for the sport in the long term. It affects how tournaments are held, how the course boundaries are manipulated, and how the difficulty of setups struggle against the most talented hitters. In 2023, the USGA and R&A decided that under certain modernized testing conditions, starting in 2028, balls would be able to achieve distances of up to 317 yards.
The problem is that the family has been fighting, albeit quietly, ever since. And frankly, there are more families than ever thought possible.
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Rather than five governing bodies, the rollback issue is much smaller than the LIV issue, but it does highlight that there are at least six, perhaps seven, true families in the sport. Professional golfers are not part of a union, but they are one. They are the talents of this entertainment production, often operating strictly through groupthink. (And the PGA Tour can’t reasonably do that) anything Some equipment manufacturers, or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), like Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist, are competitors but agree that rollbacks would hurt their business.
OEM love The status quo remains the same, but an interesting story emerged this week during the first major of the relaxed LIV era. Cameron Young, one of the best players on the planet, reportedly uses a Titleist ball that meets future standards set by the USGA and R&A. How noble is he who leads the way! And it’s over a year ahead of the deadline! Young has been using a prototype Pro V1x Double Dot ball for some time after first testing it in 2024. He’s one of the longest players in the world, and there doesn’t seem to be any difference in average distance off the tee, which should raise reasonable questions.
Why change anything if a very important combat distance change is ultimately negligible?
There are several plausible reasons. The way Young hits a golf ball may be less affected by these changes than, say, the way Scottie Scheffler hits a ball. Young may be the outlier (several other tour players also use the ball). The testing standards proposed by the USGA may not yet be perfect. It’s also plausible that this story was intentionally released on Tuesday night, since there couldn’t have been a better time, just hours before a scheduled press conference for PGA of America executives. We know what the USGA and R&A are thinking. I needed to get in touch with the PGA of America.
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“We need to understand more,” the PGA’s new CEO Terry Clark said Wednesday. “It’s up to those governing bodies to really say what impact it will have (on the game) and what the next steps are.”
In other words, Family 4 is as non-committal as possible. Fred Ridley reiterated his support for the USGA at the Masters a month ago, saying the modern game is “much more one-dimensional.” But Brian Rolup played coy at the Players Championship two months ago, as if the PGA Tour hadn’t made up his mind yet (despite his predecessor’s vehement opposition).
“I talked to the players” at Sawgrass, Lollup said. “I’ve obviously talked to the governing bodies, I’ve talked to the golf ball manufacturers, I’ve talked to the fans, I’ve talked to everyone. What’s clear to me is that everyone has an opinion, and those opinions are clearly inconsistent…”
what should The issue of transparent science suddenly becomes a battle between carefully worded press conferences. There were two reports Wednesday, one from Young and one from Clark, neither of which were particularly revealing. USGA CEO Mike Wang, who has proven to be forceful on the subject, is expected to make several statements in June. Another couple will follow R&A chief Mark Darbon across the pond in July and August. Those months will be mixed in with Rollup’s press conferences at the Travelers Championship and Q&A sessions with players, the majority of whom are against the rollback and, not coincidentally, sponsored by the manufacturers.
When you compare LIV Golf to the status quo, it feels simple.
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