Woods in forefront of settling problem

Long and short of ball issue has to be addressed

TIGER Woods has spoken, adding his influential voice to those of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and the late Arnold Palmer, and now the focus is firmly on the governing bodies.

Will this be the year when something is finally done to fix the ball and, thus, in the eyes of many experts, eradicate so many of golf’s ills?

With Titleist, the giant of the ballmakers, ready to pounce with its legal team, the fear had grown to almost resignation that this particular horse had bolted and long disappeared around the nearest eyestraining dogleg.

For years, the R & A and USGA had denied there was a problem and insisted driving distances had actually levelled off. But then in November, Mike Davis, the USGA executive director, admitted it was, indeed, an issue and confirmed the two bodies were researching how distance restrictions on balls would impact the sport.

“The reality is this is affecting all golfers and in a bad way,” Davis said.

“These courses are expanding and are predicted to continue to expand. All it’s doing is increasing the cost of the game. The impact it has had has been horrible.”

Davis’s departure from the official line came a few weeks after Woods himself had pledged his support for winding back the ball.

“We need to do something,” Woods said. “I just think the ball is going too far. With the game progressing as it is, the 8 000-yard (R7.3km) golf course is not too far away. That’s pretty scary – we don’t have enough property to start designing these types of golf courses.”

Davis dismissed the timing of his and Woods’s declarations as a coincidence, but the movement is clearly gathering traction. The ball is at last being recognised as the main culprit and the charge sheet looks ever more damning. The added cost is only one factor; the price to the environment is even more persuasive.

And then there is what the onedimensional bombers are doing to the game as a spectacle. The rough is grown to ridiculous heights, the greens are shaved way past the brink of absurdity. Where have all the creative players gone? It is obvious.

These are the only defences the authorities have in their quest to ensure the scores do not descend so far as to threaten the integrity of the competition and of the courses. So it becomes a joyless slog. Pace of play is a huge topic of conversation and longer, more difficult layouts inevitably mean longer rounds.

The year 2000 was important, as it was when Titleist introduced the Pro VI. In basic terms, the Pro VI was formed of a solid core (taken from the distance balls), surrounded by a Surlyn “veneer” casing (taken from performance balls).

In financial terms it became the most successful time. The effect was remarkable. A few months later, Phil Mickelson warned rivals not using the Pro VI they were “operating under a distinct disadvantage” and as other ball-makers followed suit, so the craze transformed into the norm.

At the 2000 Masters, 59 of the 95 players used a wound ball – the traditional method of making a ball where a liquid-filled rubber core was wound with rubber thread. At the 2001 Masters, only four did.

By the end of that season, not a single player using a wound ball won on any major tour. Curators had another item for their museums.

It was to be a decade in which legendary layouts, in their pure state, looked too short and were thus “tricked up” and fury duly erupted as the governing bodies sat back and did nothing, claiming there were other factors, not least players being better conditioned.

It will be intriguing to hear what Fred Ridley, the Augusta chairman, has to say in his eve-of-Masters address in April. The word is that since taking over from Billy Payne in August, Ridley has come around to the notion of a rolled-back tournament ball. Even when he assumed control, he mentioned the possibility of the Masters triggering a revolution.

If the Masters said it was considering switching to a tournament ball, then everyone would soon follow suit. That is the long and short of what could be a fascinating season. — The Daily Telegraph golf product of all Tie Break Tens Melbourne at 10.30am on SS7 LIVE WRESTLING WWE SmackDown at 3am on SS4 LIVE