{"id":437508,"date":"2025-12-01T00:39:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437508"},"modified":"2025-12-01T00:39:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:39:04","slug":"opinions-on-golf-ball-rollback-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/opinions-on-golf-ball-rollback-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinions On Golf Ball Rollback In 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

During 2025, there were a few updates on the golf ball rollback that is to be implemented in the coming years.\u00a0 The move is an effort to keep the sport up to date with modern pros in a simple and cost-effective way, without requiring massive overhauls.\u00a0 The new balls, however, have not been exactly popular, and there has been some pushback this past year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why The Rollback<\/span><\/h2>\n

The reason why the sport is having trouble keeping up with the pros is that they are simply getting too good.\u00a0 Specifically, the courses themselves are feeling too small with the range some of these pros are getting.\u00a0 Aldrich Potgieter is a prime example<\/a> of this; he just joined the PGA this year and was already pushing the limits before he joined.\u00a0 This is what the rollback is trying to solve.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a few options to address this.\u00a0 Either do nothing and risk fans losing interest in anything that isn\u2019t the green, completely overhaul any course that would host a PGA event with costly renovations, or regulate the equipment in a way that limits the range.\u00a0 The rollback is going for the third option.\u00a0 There are courses going through renovations, like St Andrews Old Course.\u00a0 However, the governing bodies of the sport are leaning more towards the equipment regulation angle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Player Opinion On The New Balls<\/span><\/h2>\n

The players who were a part of the tests for the new golf ball<\/a> are not fans of it.\u00a0 Both Ben Griffin and Brian Harman could immediately see and feel the difference with each stroke.\u00a0 The new balls certainly worked for them, but they are doubtful that they can work for harder hitters like Rory McIlroy and the aforementioned Aldrich Potgieter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy doesn\u2019t understand the anger<\/a> towards the new balls.\u00a0 He believes that the sport will only benefit from the golfball rollback by reintroducing pros to skills that were used decades before.\u00a0 That it will keep the courses from needing to outgrow their spaces, and keep the sport interesting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns Outside Of The Pro Circuits<\/span><\/h2>\n

A concern that comes up when talking about the golfball rollback is how it will impact amateurs and recreational golfers.\u00a0 Derek Sprague with the PGA of America expressed this concer<\/a>n to GolfDigest back in May.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know one recreational golfer that wants to hit it shorter.\u201d Derek Spraugh said, \u201cWe\u2019re really concerned about the 28 million golfers in this country, and since I took that stance back in January, a number of people have reached out, a number of amateur golfers, recreational golfers have reached out and have the same concerns that we do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another concern has been the bifurcation of the sport between pro and casual games.\u00a0 McIlroy comes in again with the opinion that the sport already is bifurcated.\u00a0 He argues that it\u2019s just fine to have this pro-casual split.\u00a0 In fact, McIlroy argues that it\u2019s beneficial to have that split.\u00a0 Nearly every other sport has it anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Golf Ball Rollback Is Still Coming<\/span><\/h2>\n

Despite protests, the golf ball rollback is set to fully kick in by 2030.\u00a0 The pro players tend not to be a fan of the new balls, but the alternative can be far more costly.\u00a0 As 2030 draws closer, golf ball rollback will come up more and more often.\u00a0 The concerns surrounding it will also become louder and louder.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Michael Madrid-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During 2025, there were a few updates on the golf ball rollback that is to be implemented in the coming years.\u00a0 The move is an effort to keep the sport up to date with modern pros in a simple and cost-effective way, without requiring massive overhauls.\u00a0 The new balls, however, have not been exactly popular, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":434759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[8076,346,34],"class_list":["post-437508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-ben-griffin","tag-brian-harman","tag-rory-mcilroy"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437509,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437508\/revisions\/437509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}