'No one wants to hit it shorter'
ORLANDO – The new president and the new CEO of the PGA of America both believe golf’s governing bodies should abandon their plan to rollback the maximum distance a conforming golf ball can travel.
In fact, both PGA of America President Don Rea Jr. and newly hired PGA CEO Derek Sprague believe there is no distance problem, and they say they’ve seen no evidence the modern golf ball is making classic courses obsolete.
Their remarks came in a news conference Wednesday at the 2025 PGA Show in Orlando.
“Our PGA professionals do not want the rollback. I do not want the rollback,” said Sprague, the first PGA professional to serve as CEO of the 30,000-member organization. “We’re going to work with the governing bodies, the USGA and the R&A and other stakeholders in the industry. This is not good for the game.”
“The data that I’ve seen in the last, at a high level in the last year or so to me does not support that courses are going to need to be lengthened or whatever,” Sprague said. “What we see on the ground as PGA professionals at our 15,000, 16,000 clubs in this country is people are moving forward, not backwards.”
PGA leadership sees no ndata to support ball rollback
Rea faulted the USGA and the R&A for failing to adequately consult golf course owners and the PGA of America’s 30,000-plus members before they announced their plan to restrict ball distance for tour professionals in 2028 and recreational players in 2030.
“I work at a short course that no one wants to hit shorter and everybody at [Rea’s course] Augusta Ranch doesn’t like this,” Rea said. “And I’m not talking about the professionals that work there. I’m talking about the 10,000 people that play there all the time, around 88 years old to eight.”
Both men said they don’t relish the prospect of local PGA pros being asked to police the use of non-conforming balls. “Do we have to follow you to the second tee and the third tee and beyond to see if you switched out golf balls?” Sprague asked.
Both men said they’ve seen no data that supports a rollback, despite some golf architects complaining that classic courses built by the likes of Donald Ross and Alistair MacKenzie will be made obsolete by continued advances in golf-ball distance.
“We’ve seen every club have to add back tees and lengthen their courses at their own expense,” Tom Marzolf, senior designer for Tom Fazio’s design group, told Alabama Golf News in an interview in March 2023.
“I put in all the back tees in at Winged Foot for the 2006 U.S. Open. I worked for Oakmont and added all the back tees for the 2007 Open. We had one tee at Winged Foot that cost a quarter million dollars because they had to blast into rock. All I’m saying is every architect has done this in their lives, helping clubs get longer. Why? Why do you have to lengthen all these golf courses and why does each club have to pay the bill for lack of regulation?”
Dan Vukelich is the Online Editor of Alabama Golf News.
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Featured image of Don Rea Jr. by Dan Vukelich
