A couple weeks ago, the USGA green lit a tournament-style outing for Canadian Tour members to play a golf ball that has been designed as an scaled-back alternative to the hotter, farther flying ball that is on the market today.

Geoff Shackelford did some sneaky and great reporting following the mini tournament, using Facebook to find out who played the ball, or if they knew someone who played it, how they liked it and if they thought it would be a good thing for the USGA to adopt. The USGA made the competitors sign non-disclosure agreements so those who played were not able to discuss what they thought with the media. Shackelford got around it, though and spoke to two players (one under 25, the other over 30) who knew people who played. The responses was pretty interesting. Here are a few I found interesting.

  • The unmarked ball, described by both sources as having a shallow, odd dimple pattern with “a lot of flat surfacing,” typically went about 20 yards shorter with the best hit drives.
  • The ball did not spin much and flew unusually straight, as well as on a lower trajectory according to both sources. The younger Canadian Tour player whose friends also are under-25 types, said his buds described their experience as unenjoyable because the ball did not curve at all and played like a limited flight range ball. One of his peers also said the feel around the greens was “just awful.”
  • My other source, on the other hand, reported distinctly different views. An early 30′s player of accomplishment, called the experience “unreal.” He loved the shotmaking emphasis, the longer irons hit into greens, the overall emphasis on skill despite his misgivings about the straighter flight of the prototype. He also reported that his fellow playing partners were enthusiastic despite some concerns about the ball seemingly wiping away a distance advantage of one longer player in the group while not impacting others as much.
  • The players who enjoyed their experience said their irons flew about one club shorter, which, combined with the distance off the tee lost, meant 2-3 clubs more into greens.He also reported loving shots around the green more and found that he could play all types of shots, both with backspin or of the bump-and-run variety.  “Way better, so fun,” was the feedback.

To tie this whole thing into this weekend’s event at the Deutsche Bank, two of golf greatest icons agree somewhat that the ball should be rolled back.

Arnold Palmer, one of the biggest proponents on scaling back a lot of the technology told Reuters yesterday that the technology, and the golf ball specifically, needs to be scaled back in order to make the golf courses playable.

“Because of technology, the players of today hit it too far,” Palmer said. “That should be one of the major things on our agenda, to slow the golf ball down so that we don’t tilt the scale.

“We have so many great golf courses but, as the players start hitting it so far, they are outdating our golf courses. We need to see if we can’t just keep it in the range that we have known it for so many years.”

The King’s point has not been lost on me. It’s mind-boggling to see the pros going out and playing golf courses that are 7,500 yards. It seems ridiculous, but still the PGA guys go out and shoot 10-under. With a little scaling back of the ball, maybe more of the older courses will be able to be played and put back in major rotations without being completely overhauled.

Arnie’s point was lost on the world’s number 1, either. Asked yesterday about scaling back the ball Tiger said he understands if it would happen.

“It’s just, I can understand them wanting to obviously pull the game back a little bit, because the guys are just becoming more athletic. Here I am 6 foot and I’m considered short. Most of the guys now are 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Just like every other sport, it’s evolved, become more athletic.”

As Ryan Ballengee points out, “understanding” isn’t exactly the same as Arnie’s full support for rolling back the ball.

“Understand” obviously isn’t “fully endorse,” but Woods typically has come down on the side of regulation where appropriate. He vouched for drug testing though later received controversial, albeit totally legal, therapy. Woods had (has?) been on the top tier of the PGA distance charts, but has since scaled back to a degree.

The USGA said earlier this week that the study has been going on for a couple of years now and that even with this significant amount of testing, there is not intent to change up the ball any point soon. It seems like this testing is being done for some cushioning if the rule were to go into effect. I think the USGA is doing all their research and fact-gathering so that if the rule were to change, they would have a significant amount of information to feed the players and the public when the ball stops flying 300 yards.