Why ball rollback is ‘nothingburger’ for average golfers, USGA chief says

A golf-ball rollback is coming — but, no, it’s still not that close and the vast majority of recreational players will hardly even notice, USGA CEO Mike Whan reiterated on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar podcast.

But first, let’s catch you up.

A rollback was officially announced in December 2023 and will take effect in January 2028 for the professional game and January 2030 for recreational golfers. The rationale behind this, the governing bodies say, is to preserve the long-term stability of the sport. (You can read more on the topic here.)

Since the announcement, some recreational players have read headlines and feared they are destined to lose mega yards, but Whan said there’s no reason for those golfers to worry. He said the simplest way to put it is the USGA has been testing golf balls to set parameters around how far a ball can fly coming off the face of a club for 50 years.

“We’ve been doing it essentially the same way, meaning we hit a ball against a face, the ball comes off the face at a certain speed and then the total distance a ball can fly off that speed is how we regulate manufacturers,” he said. “We’ve updated it a couple of times because we try to set that test to replicate the fastest speeds, meaning the fastest speeds that can be generated off the face.”

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That last update, however, was in 2004 (with a ball coming off the face at 176 mph ball speed), and the game has changed since then.

“You don’t have to watch too much golf on TV to realize that 176 mph ball speed is no longer the high end,” Whan said. “In fact it’s getting closer and closer to what’s average on Tour or what’s average in college. And when you are really talking about high-end speed it’s really 190-plus.”

Under the new testing conditions, balls will be tested at 183 mph ball speed. That number won’t represent the fastest on Tour — 174 mph is the current Tour average — because the USGA does not want to create major changes for the recreational game.

Players who swing faster will see more of an impact, but that’s a small fraction of golfers, especially at the rec level, Whan stressed.

“For the average player out there, we are talking about 5 yards or less off a driver and virtually no distance [change] 4-iron down through your bag because you just aren’t generating enough ball speed off those clubs,” Whan said. “So as I have said many times, it’s kind of a huge nothingburger for the recreational game. … What we are really trying to make sure is for the fastest speeds in the game, which is the highest level of the game — quite frankly what’s coming in the youth, cause it’s faster what’s coming — to make sure we have some tee space over the next 10 or 15 years, otherwise we are going to keep buying subdivisions and buying houses and expanding plots to keep up.

“For the average golfer, I would just say, for someone who plays a lot of golf like myself, if I’m 3 yards difference off the tee I wouldn’t know it unless you told me,” he continued. “And if you want to move my tee markers 5 or 6 yards [forward] and more than offset it, that’s fine.”

Additionally, Whan added that about one-third of golf balls that are approved today will still be legal in 2028 and 2030.

“If you are using the right ball for your swing speed and your game — if you are somebody who needs a ball that stays in the air and kind of gets there longer — that ball is still going to be on the marketplace,” he said.

You can listen to Whan’s complete Subpar interview here, or watch the YouTube video below.