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Keegan Bradley, who admits he already has a “really weird relationship” with the USGA, isn’t thrilled with the board’s latest proposal.
Introduced in mid-March, this plan would create a rule that would effectively backtrack the golf ball and advance bifurcation, i.e. create a different set of rules for professionals and top amateurs versus the rest of the golf world. Tours and tournaments will have the option to adopt the response to the golf distance problem – it will be local base model — and the USGA, along with the R&A, is currently eliciting feedback.
In that regard, the reception has been stellar at best. According to various reports, representatives from the USGA and R&A met with the PGA Tour’s 16-member Players Advisory Council, Council of Policy and Tour Executives on Tuesday at the Memorial Tournament, and Golf Channel reported That the rollback will not be supported by the players.
Including Bradley, it seems.
As noted, his past with the USGA—or more specifically, its rules—was cloudy. Don’t forget, Bradley played with a belly putter to start his career and played well, winning the 2011 PGA Championship, only for him to be put on a long dive after the club was banned in 2016.
So yeah, even though he wasn’t in the Tuesday meeting, he did consider the last proposal, after 65 on Saturday during the third round of the anniversary.
“Yeah, I have a really weird relationship with the USGA of belly putter,” Bradley said. “I just feel like the USF admits they made mistakes and then punishes the players for it. I don’t feel like it’s our fault they think the ball went too far or that they should have blocked the belly putter. They retrospectively, decades later, try to adapt and then throw it at us.”
Which is, we do this for a living. That’s just the way we live. I don’t think it’s necessarily fair that we pay for their mistakes. That you build all new tees. It’s 7,800 yards long.”
Notably, Muirfield Village, host of the Memorial, has lengthened the 16th and 17th holes ahead of this year’s tournament.
“Yeah, the tee goes up at 17 against the fence,” Bradley said. “If you have it, you should have four or five. So I just, I think the USAF makes a lot of mistakes, and I don’t feel like we, the players, have to pay for it. I mean, I don’t think that’s right.”
However, the proposal is not without supporters.
Including Muirfield Village designer.
“I think what they’re doing with a golf ball, hopefully it’s a good start,” said Jack Nicklaus, who has been advocating running backs for years. “He’ll pull the golf ball back. He’ll probably pull the ball back 14 or 15 yards for McIlroy or a [Justin] Thomas or one of those guys, maybe 10 or 12 yards maybe for the average pro.
“The average golfer, if they’re split now, I think it probably won’t be two years before they’re playing the same ball that the pros are going to play. And all they have to do is move up 4 or 5 yards on the tee because that’s the only difference they’ll get. No.” I think it’s going to be a big problem. The only thing I’ve seen is they keep saying, ‘Oh, why do we need to change it? Golf ball – the game is good. The problem is you don’t have anywhere to play. They say, ‘Well, golf ball only increased 0.82 yards in a year’ “Yeah, that’s fine. Last 10 years, that’s 8.2 yards. What will happen in the next 40 years if they don’t change anything? If they don’t change anything, it’s about another 34 yards. That’s per tee shot. That’s a lot.”
“So they need to go — they have to do something and what they’ve done is, I say, a good start.”
Will the 18-time major winner make any further fight distance changes?
Tuesday added, “I hope they do something with the golf club, to tie it in so that the golf club is a little bit more accurate for playing the golf shot rather than just hitting it anywhere on the clubhead.
“And if you don’t have — and if you have — if you have to hit it somewhere in the club, you’re going to be a little bit more careful how you hit the shot. So that will also curb distance. But you have — not everyone has the ability to buy property on a course. Next golf to add to their golf course. We have nowhere else to go for more yardage. Ninety-nine percent of the clubs in the country have nowhere to go for more yardage. To me, golf, if you’re going to play a game Golf, you really want to test the golfer.That’s in theory what a tournament is about.
“And if everyone is playing driver and chipping every hole, they are no longer playing on a 6 or a 7 iron, a 5 iron on a par 5. You lose your ability to be able to test your skills.”