And Then Mike Davis Told Jack: "We're Going To Get There" On Ball Rollback

With the Honda Classic in town and a role in the tournament, Jack Nicklaus talked to media about a variety of topics, including distance.  Over dinner Sunday night, USGA CEO Mike Davis suggested a solution along the lines of what Nicklaus has long proposed is now on the table.

Golfweek's Dan Kilbridge reports:

“Mike said, ‘We’re getting there. We’re going to get there. I need your help when we get there.'” Nicklaus said. “I said, ‘That’s fine. I’m happy to help you. I’ve only been yelling at you for 40 years.’ 1977 is the first time I went to the USGA.”

Nicklaus said sarcastically he assumed that meant the USGA would be studying the issue for ‘another 10 years or so.’

“(Davis) says, ‘Oh, no, no, no. We’re not going to do that. I think we’re getting closer to agreements with the R&A and be able to do some things and be able to help.’ Because the R&A has been – sort of doesn’t want to do anything. I’m hoping that’s going to happen. I’ve talked to Mike a lot. Mike’s been very optimistic about wanting to get something done but hasn’t been able to get there yet.”

Oh joy, here we go! This is going to get very interesting very fast.

Comments

[Craig]

Don't get too excited, the ball won't be wound back. What will happen is some more stringent limits will be put on for future gains.

[Ivan Morris]

Is it the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?

[Hardy Greaves]

Jack Nicklaus is a good guy for golf. Good guy for his community as well.

[Marmooskapaul]

Will all future tournament wins have an "asterisk" beside them....or all past tournaments have the "asterisk" ???

Jack...you won all of your tournaments with a non-competition ball....could you have won with the same tournaments with the same restricted ball, pro's use these days...lol.

This is definitely going to be a case of the cure is worse than the disease.

[FarHillsFolly]

Mike Davis is still smarting over anchoring, and only moved forward with the ban on anchored strokes because he had strong leadership around him. Moreover, former PGA Tour Chief Tim Finchem warned about taking action on rolling back the ball. We just might be seeing the makings of a further bifurcated game if Davis can muster his own courage.

[KLG]

With no coffee in the system, I first read the opening as "And then Miles Davis told Jack..." Now, that would be interesting.

[Sclaff & Foozle]

What ball does Mike Davis use?

[jjshaka]

Narrator-
"They never got there"

[Soro B]

So Jack claims that the 1977 golf ball went too far? Nicklaus hyperbole? How many different iterations of the golf ball have been manufactured and played on Tour since then? It would be helpful to get some historical background here particularly since this is Geoff's baby.

[digsouth]

Ivan- yes

[steve elling]

Swear to god, Nicklaus launched into this lucid and lengthy discourse on the ball after I asked him a question about ... slow play. I told him that MLB on Monday had instituted some rule changes designed to speed up the game, as has the NBA recently, while golf seemingly gets slower and slower and nobody does anything about it.

He blamed the ball. Huh?

Makes a degree of sense, really, when you think about them as overlapping issues.

Longer courses to walk, tricked-up holes to protect scores from getting out of hand, waiting on par-5s ... because the ball goes too far.

Interesting.

[North Texas Golfer]

Marmooskapaul,

The best players will always win regardless of the equipment. So, yes, Jack would have still dominated his era. Just like Tiger would have still dominated his era.

Jack was/is one of the few who can see the forest for the trees.

[Kentucky Blue Grass]

USGA doesn’t have the juice anymore to get this done. End of story.

[Booyahs]

That’s fresh. Just throw the R&A under the bus: “the R&A has been-sort of doesn’t want to do anything”. So there you have it! It’s
all the R&A’s fault!

[Convert]

Mike just threw the R&A under the bus, but he handed Jack the keys and let him drive the double-decker through the front door of the building sitting behind #1 at the Old Course.

[John]

If the USGA ran a grocery store, it would have let the fatty foods overtake every aisle and then added diet pills to the little shelf at the checkout line. "See! We're acknowledging and addressing the problem!"

[BDF]

I subscribe to @ chico's mantra - make the ball less stable, i.e. 'spinnier'. It can still go 350 yards, but if it starts to go sideways, it really goes sideways...make the players think before swinging all out.

[cmoore]

Marmooskapaul:

Nicklaus used maybe the worst balls of his era to win his 18 majors. If you believe the anecdotes about MacGregor balls, it was in effect a competition ball!

[PGT]

Kinda harsh on the R&A

[Carl Peterson]

It shouldn't be forgotten that one of Davis' defining characteristics is that he always agrees with whomever he's speaking. So, at dinner with Nicklaus he's going to agree with and support whatever Jack says. And, when he sits down with Martin Slumbers he'll agree with him as well without any concern about contradiction.

Mike Davis is as spineless as they come.

[Geoff]

Not sure I agree on the harsh-on-the-R&A comments, though with all things governing bodies you never know which side drives what (I still can't say for sure who drove the anchoring discussion). But from everything I've seen, the R&A has made the discussion more difficult to have in the last decade than the USGA.

[Paul]

Spot on John. USGA inept and their organizational chart is not the way most successful businesses are structured.

Regardless, the USGA is the problem, so slow to decisions and terrible ones at that (look at the handicap revision - joke) which is typical to poorly run organizations.

When is everyone going to say enough and turn the tide on USGA and get an efficient and productive leadership or organization in place?

[thebigdad]

Don't care about the ball distances. It's the size of the clubheads, increased MOI, AND the lowered spin rates from driver strikes, for the most part, that have impacted the distance. That and the lessened curvature. This ball ship has sailed with the Strata, Pro V1, but the BIG Bertha was the main culprit that was ignored by the USGA. What happened to tennis happened to golf but only for the very most skilled does is matter. Bifurcation is now the answer. Sort it out,

[FC]

cmoore,FYI MacGregor Tourney article (Golfweek '09).

http://golfweek.com/2009/11/25/looking-back-macgregors-golf-balls/

Jack's ultimatum for a longer ball is interesting.

[chico]

@ North Texas Golfer- +10

[Marmooskapaul]

@ NTG , cmoore and u2 chico

Gee wis guys/gals....my humor must have missed my intention...I know Jack would still have been as great...but we all know some "golf journalist" will ask that question...like a hundred times...if they change the ball.
We all know the best players are going to win...so why change anything!!

[Matt H.]

I like the idea of a lighter ball, to make it react more to spin (or would it?). The pros have really dialed it in with the launch angle and spin rates. Make them have to focus a little more on control and little less on smash.



Even better, make the ball light enough to float. A boon for hackers.

Matt

[Sclaff & Foozle]

I like the idea of an exploding ball. Jesus ... let's move on to something else.

[hardy Greaves]

Matt H.

In 1931 the USGA changed the weight of the ball from 1.62 oz to 1.55. The pros called it the floater. They hated it and the USGA relented in 1932 and went back to 1.62 ounces.

Maybe they should try 1.60 or 1.58 - that might work.

Whatever they do to change the ball, Dusting Johnson will still be longer than Jack Nicklaus in his prime. As he should be.

[Jeremy]

Jack Nicklaus - the man who has his own companies that made long golf balls and long and challenging courses that eat up the precious resources he cares about - should have taken the lead himself and made a shorter ball and shorter courses. Instead, he is waiting for the USGA and the PGA Tour and the R&A to force the golf world to change. Why hasn't Jack done what he thinks is best in the first place before chiding others for not forcing him to do what he thinks should be done?

[North Texas Golfer]

Jeremy,

Okay, you're Jack Nicklaus and in charge of running his company. Would you have done what you suggested he should have done?

[Roger]

"Kinda harsh on the R&A"

The R&A always seemed more lax on equipment. They allowed a smaller (longer ball), didn't care much for COR limits, etc. So maybe the USGA has been pushing on things but didn't want to split with the R&A like they did on the ball decades ago.

[44]

"It can still go 350 yards, but if it starts to go sideways, it really goes sideways...make the players think before swinging all out."

Yeah that will speed things up.

[Confused]

@44 -

The idea is that ... most guys would end up dialing back, to keep their ball on the planet. :) Except for a few that can guide the clubface while swinging out of their shoes. :)

[P Thomas]

North Texas,
I wouldn't run my business into the ground to do that.

If I were Jack, I would take my pulpit, complain about the ball thats that continually beat my company in market share,
complain about clubs that beat my club company regularly,
and try to change the game from the courses I polluted the world with, so my company can get redesign jobs to bring them back in to line with the equipment I helped get reduced!!

[Middling Tom]

Slow play will not be stamped out by changes on the PGA Tour or a golf ball rollback. Slow play will only be stamped out by changes at the local level.

The good news is these changes could take effect immediately if course owners, or the board of directors in the case of private clubs, decide they want to eliminate slow play.

If your club has a slow play problem, take a look in the mirror, don't blame others.

Here's the entirety of the pace-of-play policy at an excellent daily fee course in Southern California:

"Terms and Conditions: You are required to play in under 4 hours and 15 minutes if you are teeing off before 8 a.m.. If you cannot maintain a reasonable pace you will be asked to skip holes until you are in position. Early times are a privilege and must be treated as such."

That's it. Thoughts?