It’s Unclear If Solheim’s Ball Proposal Will Fly

When United States Golf Association executive director Mike Davis made like the Three Musketeers with his recent “one for all” statement, it seemed to have implications on a proposal by PING chairman and CEO John Solheim to employ a three-ball system in golf, although Solheim wasn’t mentioned specifically.

You can read James Achenbach’s story in Golfweek about Davis’ comments here.

Solheim’s proposal falls into the growing trend towards bifurcation, or different rules and equipment that would help golfers draw more enjoyment from a game that is failing to draw newcomers. The best in the world would play under one set of equipment rules, while everyone else would play by different equipment standards.

Davis snuffed that suggestion with his recent statement that the USGA endorses continuing with one set of rules for all golfers, which is sure to become a controversial stand, given the perceived lack of action from golf’s governing bodies in drawing newcomers to the game.

“People need to enjoy golf more. How can we give that to them and, at the same time, take care of some of the USGA’s and R&A’s worries about distance?” asked Solheim, when I sat down with him at the recent PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.

Solheim’s answer to that question came in the form of a proposal he submitted to golf’s governing bodies in December in which he suggested three different categories of golf balls, one identical to the ones in play now, one that would go shorter and one that would go longer.

The respective tours and/or events would have the choice of what type of ball would be played at each tournament or round and recreational players could adjust their handicaps to which ball they used in a specific round.

Oddly enough, Davis was part of a presentation in Orlando of Golf 2.0, an initiative that was short on specifics, but big on the ideals of making golf courses a welcoming place for juniors and women, who were part of Solheim’s thought process when he came up with the three-ball proposal.

“You need the longer ball to help the ladies enjoy the game and the seniors enjoy the game and tie it all into the handicap system,” said Solheim.

“If you’re playing in a group, one guy who’s a short hitter can play the (long) ball and he just puts it into his handicap, just like if he was playing the shorter tee and maybe, he can play the same tees as everybody else and feel a little better about it,” he added.

For years, the argument about hot faces and other equipment technologies is that they were beginning to make older golf courses obsolete. That, of course, applied to the pros, specifically the PGA Tour, where the power game has become so important, not the recreational player.

Solheim’s proposal might take the edge off distance as a factor and place more emphasis on other aspects of the game, but will it be seen as a sign of weakness if a tour venue is considered a shotmaker’s course as opposed to a bomber’s course?

“I think the tour will stay with the ball we have today. I don’t know that, but that’s the standard we have today,” said Soheim.

“What I’m hoping with the three-ball system is the balls are not all for the good players to play. The long ball, they should never touch. The short ball, the tour may decide to play it at certain events. That will be a challenge, too. There might be a stigma that goes with playing the short ball that your course may not be up to it,” he said.

Solheim says the initial response at the Presidents Cup in November was positive.

“(PGA Tour commissioner Tim) Finchem was there and he made a comment to me that I had them really talking, so that’s pretty good,” he said.

However, golf has a million different moving parts, wheels and sprockets all moving in different directions and ideas can get chewed up as quickly as they can fly through the machinery.

“You have a lot of different opinions. To come up with things and get everybody to agree is not easy,” admitted Solheim, adding his idea could be tweaked.

“What I wanted to do was stir up the discussion because I think it’s a great idea, but I also think it can be fine-tuned and made better. If everybody puts their thoughts in and then, the USGA and R&A mull through it and come up with what they feel is right, then we can move forward,” he said.

“We may not get it exactly right the first time, but with a system like this, they can make adjustments, but there’s a lot of work to do to get it done because designing those golf balls for what they need to do is going to take time to get it right and they need to do it right,” he said.

Or perhaps, they just won’t do anything, which seemed to be the gist of Davis’ comments about overall bifurcation. We’ll have to see what happens.

Status quo does seem to be the tradition in golf.

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