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The world of golf has been discussing an initiative to ‘roll the ball back’ for the past two years, more or less. It picked up in earnest when the USGA announced a new rule proposed to take effect in 2026, but one that would not impact weekend warriors like ourselves.
Speaking with professional golfers like Colin Montgomerie, I became convinced the PGA Tour, R&A, and USGA would ‘roll the ball back’ in order to preserve the game’s most historic courses which are physically limited by space and unable to expand and keep up with the Tour’s longest hitters. In an interview published in May, Colin Montgomerie told me he believed the ball would be rolled back and outlined why.
Flash forward to this week and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has announced the Tour does not intend to go along with the current proposal. He released this in a statement to players and Tour partners. The meme read:
“As you know, we have spent the last two years undertaking a comprehensive analysis of distance on the PGA Tour and its impact. Although there has been some level of support for limiting future increases, there is widespread and significant belief the proposed Modified Local Rule is not warranted and is not in the best interest of the game.”
“Following a discussion on the topic at a recent [players advisory committee] meeting, we have notified the USGA and The R&A that while the PGA Tour is committed to collaborating with them – and all industry partners – to arrive at a solution that will best serve our players, our fans and the game at all levels, we are not able to support the MLR as proposed.”
This should certainly make Bryson DeChambeau happy. He was an outspoken critic of the proposal.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach was quick to connect Jay Monahan’s statement about rolling the ball back to statements last week at the Open Championship by R&A CEO Martin Slumbers. Slumbers said “”All I really will say at this stage is that I would echo [USGA CEO] Mike Whan’s sentiments when I say that doing nothing is not an option.”
Interestingly, it wasn’t only the ‘rolling the ball back’ initiative that Jay Monahan spoke about in his memo to players. He also discussed a Player Benefit Program to fairly compensate PGA Tour players who stayed loyal to the Tour and didn’t jump ship for LIV Golf.
Monahan also discussed ‘Player Discipline’ for the LIV Golf players who did jump ship for a huge payday. Joel Beall of Golf Digest wrote about a potential ‘task force’ that is being formed to come up with appropriate penalties for the LIV Golf players seeking PGA Tour reinstatement.
Of course, the latter is entirely contingent on the PGA Tour-LIV Golf-Saudi investment merger being approved.