R&A, USGA, tours plan golf ball rollback amid distance concerns - ESPN

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — The proposed golf ball rollback spearheaded by the United States Golf Association and R&A will now take place as a single-date implementation in January 2030, the two governing bodies announced in a first-ever joint statement about the issue with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour on Wednesday.

«Through a series of formal feedback processes and numerous individual stakeholder meetings, the governing bodies agreed on an across-the-game change in how golf balls are tested via the Overall Distance Standard (ODS),» the joint news release read.

In March, the USGA announced it might not implement a new Overall Distance Standard, which would reduce elite driving distances by 15 yards, until 2030. The USGA and R&A had previously stated the new testing rules would apply to elite players in 2028 before affecting all golfers in 2030.

Now, the governing bodies, along with PGA Tour leadership, DP World Tour leadership and the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council, had «constructive discussions» that yielded three outcomes.

The first is an agreement among the governing bodies — including a first formal acknowledgement by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour — that golf faces a distance issue. The second is that the USGA and R&A are recognizing that both tours have a concern that the updated ODS testing may not achieve the desired result.

At the PGA Championship in May, Cameron Young confirmed that he had been playing a ball that conformed to the rollback changes without seeing any significant loss in distance.

«Obviously, there is no conforming list,» Young said. «I wasn't aware that it would have [conformed]. I suppose I read something that said it passed that test, but I wasn't aware of that until very recently. So, at no point