With the USGA and R&A having released the preliminary results of their Distance Insights Project – and concluding that something needs to be done to keep the cycle of distance increases from continuing – it seemed a worthwhile exercise to ask the players responsible for much of the handwringing what it is, exactly, they think needs to be done.
At No.72 in the World Ranking, Phil Mickelson currently has not qualified to play in this year’s US Open at Winged Foot Golf Club, site of one of his record six second-place finishes in the championship.
Since 2003 – the year after the USGA and R&A released the Joint Statement of Principles as a notice that they would be monitoring more closely the effects of advancing equipment technology on the game – distance on the PGA Tour has jumped 7.6 yards.
In August 2018, the USGA and R&A announced an investigation into distance called the Distance Insights Project. In February 2020, the governing bodies will, at long last, relay the findings
Even by their byzantine and bizarre nature, it’s been a rough go for the Rules of Golf in 2019. Still, this story involving Jesper Parnevik and a mulligan not taken puts other oddities to shame.
Brewer says part of the issue is the testing location, a tent on the back of the range, where people not directly involved in the specific testing can walk in-and-out too freely.
Australian Golf Digest
