DON’T BANK ON A HALT TO THE DRIVE FOR DISTANCE

THE Distance Insight report published by the R&A and USGA last week actually led Sky Sports News at one point, and generated screeds of headlines around the world. Goodness knows why.

Two years in the making, it basically added up to telling us the golf ball travels too far. Well, who knew? It is at least a decade now since the Big Three of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player started waving the red flag telling us as much.

‘It’s never too late to do the right thing,’ the report sheepishly concluded.

Will anything happen? I have my doubts. Can you see the PGA Tour, where the sell-out crowds enjoy standing behind the tee and watching the best players deliver missiles, agreeing to turn back time?

What about the superstars who have become athletic specimens to take advantage of the latest equipment that allows them to swing much harder — are they going to quietly give up their gains?

Do you envisage the equipment manufacturers signing up to trying to sell drivers at £400 each that aren’t as potent as the ones they currently make?

Then there’s the game’s buzzword — bifurcation — with the proposal of one ball for the pros and one for the rest of us. How?

What ball would be used at top amateur events? Where do you draw the line to tell the budding superstar: actually, sonny, it’s time to stop using that ball and start deploying one that will hurt your development. That’s an inspiring message, isn’t it?

I look forward to our guardians proving me wrong, but fear that, yes, it probably is too late to do the right thing.