Rolling back the pro game

[IanM]

Spookily last week there was a Tour Event where landing in the rough had an appropriate level of risk attached.

More of this and Darwin will kick in!

 

[irip]

I like seeing the guys hitting bombs off the tee and wouldn’t want to take that away.
The punishment for missing the fairway needs to be harsher than it currently is.

The courses that seem to trouble the players currently seem to have greens that are not watered as much so they are fairly solid.
Trying to control the ball out of the rough becomes harder then for the top players so finding the fairway is paramount but obviously longer on the fairway is better than shorter on the fairway.

I liked the set up of the players for me it got the balance right between rewarding good shots and punishing bad shots.

 

[Imurg]

There's a lot of potential issues with Rollback
Reducing the distance the ball goes benefits the long hitter.
Instead of hitting a 9 iron he's hitting 8
But the shorter guy who's hitting 8 iron now has to hit 7 or more so the long hitter is still 1 up.
Grow the rough....long hitters may find the rough more than short hitters but, I suspect, not by much
So your short hitter is disadvantaged when he misses the short stuff...which they do frequently.
Make the greens harder and faster....again, the shorter hitter coming in with a 7 iron isn't going to get the stop that the 8 iron bomber is going to get.
So it's not an easy thing to pin down.
As to what the answer is.....well, it's a long way above my pay grade...

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

There's a lot of potential issues with Rollback
Reducing the distance the ball goes benefits the long hitter.
Instead of hitting a 9 iron he's hitting 8
But the shorter guy who's hitting 8 iron now has to hit 7 or more so the long hitter is still 1 up.
Grow the rough....long hitters may find the rough more than short hitters but, I suspect, not by much
So your short hitter is disadvantaged when he misses the short stuff...which they do frequently.
Make the greens harder and faster....again, the shorter hitter coming in with a 7 iron isn't going to get the stop that the 8 iron bomber is going to get.
So it's not an easy thing to pin down.
As to what the answer is.....well, it's a long way above my pay grade...

This sums it up perfectly roll back doesn’t work because the longer hitters are still longer than the rest. I’ve said it for years it’s all to do with course set up but that doesn’t seem to sit the same with everyone clamouring for the old days.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

This sums it up perfectly roll back doesn’t work because the longer hitters are still longer than the rest. I’ve said it for years it’s all to do with course set up but that doesn’t seem to sit the same with everyone clamouring for the old days.

That assumes that rollback is just about restricting driver length to bring the players closer together. It isn't, imo. It's about protecting existing courses on the tours, keeping them relevant still. We don't just want stadium courses and 600yd par 5's.

I'm happy for the longer drivers to be the longest still, same as the best iron, wedge and putters being rewarded. It's about courses, not players.

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

That assumes that rollback is just about restricting driver length to bring the players closer together. It isn't, imo. It's about protecting existing courses on the tours, keeping them relevant still. We don't just want stadium courses and 600yd par 5's.

I'm happy for the longer drivers to be the longest still, same as the best iron, wedge and putters being rewarded. It's about courses, not players.

Surely that point still stands! The advantage is still with the longer hitter regardless of protecting the courses.

You’re not suddenly going to get deeper fields and shorter hitters winning more it’s not going to make a great deal of difference to scoring as the big boys go from hit a 52° wedge to hitting a normal wedge.

Courses can have their set up tweaked make them more penal you don’t just need length to make a course harder or roll a ball back to make a shorter course relevant.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Surely that point still stands! The advantage is still with the longer hitter regardless of protecting the courses.

You’re not suddenly going to get deeper fields and shorter hitters winning more it’s not going to make a great deal of difference to scoring as the big boys go from hit a 52° wedge to hitting a normal wedge.

Courses can have their set up tweaked make them more penal you don’t just need length to make a course harder or roll a ball back to make a shorter course relevant.

Maybe we are at cross wires here. I'm not looking for shorter hitters suddenly to win more. I want to see interesting courses being used still, not big, long courses because they are the only ones that challenge pro's.

I get the argument about rough and hard greens but will courses really want to penalise their memebers for 2 months whilst the course gets toughened up just for the pro tournament? Take 20-30yds off the ball for everyone, job done. Pro's and elite tournaments only, leave the club player alone as this does not affect them.