NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – It was about this time five years ago that the five families of golf professionals, as they are known – the four major governing bodies and the PGA Tour – started behaving like the cousins they really are. They agreed on something in almost absolute unison: that LIV Golf and bold investments from Saudi Arabia were a threat to the status quo.
“Some money is better than other money,” then-PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said at Kiawah Island at the 2021 PGA Championship. From wherever PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was watching, he had to nod along. And if he wasn’t, his and his cousins’ actions soon fell into line. It took years for the R&A and USGA to offer specific exemptions from LIV in their championships. The World Golf Ranking Board – made up mostly of representatives from these bodies – does not sanction the events of LIV until the beginning of this year. Fred Ridley, in the name of the Masterssaid the actions of 2022, when LIV launched with the biggest purses the sport has ever seen, “diminished the virtues of the game”. An anti-trust lawsuit filed by LIV players alleged that members of Augusta National threatened to expel LIV professionals from the Masters.
Each brand protected its own protocols and regulations, which was entirely their right. But in almost every case, any tough LIV weaponry, if only temporary, was beneficial to their cousin, the PGA Tour. These defenses softened over time—especially as Tour decided to accept Saudi money as well – but with the recent news that the Saudi PIF will no longer fund LIV in the future, the threat it poses to the status quo of golf professionals has quickly dropped down the list of priorities.
But it didn’t take long to replace it. Back in the spotlight: the controversial comeback of the golf ball.
Simply put, the USGA and R&A have determined that the distances professional golfers can hit the ball these days are unsustainable for the sport in the long run. It affects how tournaments are organized, how course boundaries are manipulated, how difficulty setups struggle to match the most talented players. In 2023, the USGA and R&A decreed that, under specific, modernized testing conditions, balls, starting in 2028, must be able to fly a maximum distance of 317 yards.
The problem is that the families have been fighting, if only quietly in the background, ever since. And frankly, there are more families than previously thought.
Instead of five governing bodies, the reinstatement issue — much less the LIV issue — underscores how there are at least six, possibly seven real families in the sport. Professional players, although not collectively united, are one. They are the talent of this entertainment product, who often operate strictly through group think. (And the PGA Tour can’t reasonably do that everything without their support.) There are also equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, such as Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist, who are competitors but agree that a rollback would hurt their business.
OEM’s love the status quo, but a curious story was born this weekduring this first major in the diminished era-LIV. Cameron Young, one of the best players on the planet, has reportedly used a Titleist ball that will conform to those future standards set by the USGA and R&A. How noble of him to lead the way! And more than a year ahead of schedule! Young has been using the ball — a prototype Pro V1x Double Dot — for a while, too, having first tested it in 2024. He’s one of the tallest players in the world, and apparently isn’t seeing any change in the distance he averages off the tee, which should prompt a rational question:
Why change anything if the difference in combat distance that is so important is ultimately negligible?
There are several plausible reasons. The way Young hits a golf ball may be affected to a lesser degree by these changes than the way, say, Scottie Scheffler hits a ball. Young may be an anomaly (a handful of other Tour players are using the ball as well). It is possible that the USGA’s suggested testing standards are not yet perfect. It’s also believable that the story would deliberately arrive on Tuesday night because there was never a better time, just hours before PGA of America executives were scheduled for a press conference. We know what the USGA and R&A think. PGA of America, we needed to hear.
“We need to understand more,” new PGA CEO Terry Clark said Wednesday. “It’s up to those governing bodies to really say how (the game) impacts and what the next step is.”
In other words, as noncommittal as the Family 4 can get. Fred Ridley, a month ago at the Masters, reiterated his support for the USGA and called the modern game “much more one-dimensional.” But Brian Rolapp, two months ago at the Players Championship, coyly acted as if the PGA Tour hadn’t made the decision (even though his predecessor vehemently disputed it).
“I talked to the players,” Rolapp said at Sawgrass. “I’ve talked, obviously, to the governing bodies; I’ve talked to the golf ball manufacturers; I’ve talked to the fans; I’ve talked to everybody. What’s clear to me is, everybody has an opinion, and those opinions are clearly not consistent…”
What MUST to be a matter of transparent science is suddenly a battle fought in carefully worded press conferences. On Wednesday there were two, one from Young and another from Clark, neither of which were particularly revealing. There will be plenty in June from USGA CEO Mike Whan, who has proven compelling on the subject. Another pair will follow in July and August from R&A chief Mark Darbon, across the pond. Interspersed throughout these months will be Rolapp’s press conference at the Travelers Championship and any number of question-and-answer sessions for his players, most of whom are anti-recovery and not-so-coincidentally sponsored by the manufacturers.
LIV Golf vs. Status Quo seems simple by comparison.
