The R&A and USGA’s announced proposal to rollback the golf ball for elite competitions has prompted opinions from everyone who has ever even looked at a golf ball. It’s reached the point that most golf fans are calling for a rollback of rollback opinions. That being said, we came across a particularly funny – albeit, slightly mean – one from a PGA Tour winner.
Greg Chalmers may be 49, but the Aussie is still in his prime when it comes to his Twitter game. If you’re not following him, you’re missing out. Anyway, Chalmers’ proposed solution to curtailing distance on tour was a real blast from the past. Or, rather, a blast at the past:
We could solve this whole equipment issue by having Nike design all of our drivers..they went shorter for sure💩
— Greg Chalmers (@GregChalmersPGA) March 15, 2023
Damn, that’s cold, Greg. Dropping that poo emoji (again, the guy can tweet) as well for effect. Although Chalmers did play a Nike driver at points during his career so if anyone would know, it would be him.
Of course, the apparel giant got into the golf equipment game on the heels of Tiger Woods’ emergence. Nike took some shots through the years, including Phil Mickelson’s famous quote that Tiger was using “inferior equipment”, before the company stopped making clubs and balls in 2016. So Greg’s plan would be tough to implement, even though it seems far simpler than what all the equipment companies are potentially going to have to do to test and develop new tournament golf balls.
Now to be fair to Nike, there were plenty of gear bright spots, from the Slingshot irons to the Method putter that Rory McIlroy and even Tiger used at some points over his trusty Scotty Cameron. But Chalmers’ tweet brought to mind one infamous driver in particular:
Mandatory for anybody inside the top 70. pic.twitter.com/UYvGOs732V
— Byron Lindeque (@TheModelManiac) March 15, 2023
And now we can’t get that awful aluminium-bat sound it produced out of our heads. Sigh.