OGA Story By Rubenstein

It turns out that Lorne Rubenstein revealed the Ohio Golf Association's competition ball idea in a December 31, 2005 column. A few of the more interesting passages:

The Ohio Golf Association has been discussing during the past four years the inordinate advantages that a golfer who can swing the driver at, say, 120 miles (193 kilometres) an hour, gains over somebody who can't get higher than 110 mph, and on down the line. (The majority of golfers, by the way, don't swing much more than 90 mph.) The benchmark until hot golf balls came along in the past few years was an increase in distance of three yards for every mile an hour of swing speed.

The golfer who swung at 112 mph, for instance, might drive the ball 270 yards, and somebody who reached 120 would hit it 294. But the latter golfer is up to about 310 to 315 yards now, according to tour professionals who notice these things.

The cutoff point where the incremental distance is beyond three yards for a mile an hour is about 114 to 115 mph. Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and other golfers who swing at the higher speeds gain a tremendous advantage, beyond the traditional benchmark.

And...

[Alan] Fadel wouldn't indicate the manufacturer, whose name won't appear on the ball. The point, he said, “is that we want the ball to react equitably for different swing speeds, not exponentially, but equitably. We're not drawing the ball back, but we think it's necessary to bring equity back in.”

Fadel was speaking publicly about the subject for the first time yesterday. He'll be doing more during the new year.

“The USGA is very interested in what we're doing,” he said. “But they can't really do something like this [at the U.S. Open or Amateur, for instance]. They have assets and are exposed, and they're involved in so many areas of the game. We don't have legal liabilities, so it makes sense for us to do this.”

Fadel explained that the material used for the ball and, perhaps, its dimple pattern, will help generate the equitable differences in distance.