Few understand the need for a golf ball rollback more than Jack Nicklaus.
He’s seen the development of technology in the sport from the 1950s to the modern game, and how it has completely changed the sport.
Holes that were once par fives are now effectively par fours for the modern-day player. The 13th at Augusta was once a one-iron to reach it in two. For Rory McIlroy, it’s now a seven-iron.
There are plans for a golf ball rollback, which would take distance away from the pros. But Nicklaus shares some concerns about this, explaining why he doesn’t think it will be enough.
Jack Nicklaus shares concerns about the golf ball rollback
Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tom Watson, honorary starters at the 2026 Masters, were asked about the future of golf with modern-day distance. They all expressed their worry about how far players are hitting it.
Nicklaus said, “I first went to the USGA in 1977 when the Titleist came out with the big golf ball, I saw it went further. They said, ‘eh, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’
“But in 1995, when they first brought out the composite golf balls — the golf ball from 1930 to about 1995, the golf ball probably increased maybe 5 or 6 yards just through the skill of the manufacturer to make it more consistent and better.
“From 1995 to 2005, the ball increased about 50 yards. That was just through them being able to circumvent the rules and what they are and allow the ball to go further. Now, obviously, what does that do?”
He continued, “The golf ball needs to be reined in. What they’re doing right now is throwing a deck chair off the Titanic, and it’s not getting enough done. It needs to really come back.
“I know a lot of people don’t like that, but I think Gary is absolutely right. It’s land costs, water, fertilization, the cost to play the game of golf, the time it takes to play — all those things are factors in why the golf ball needs to come back.”
“Now, the program that they have, as I understand it, will amount to about 12 yards for maybe a Rory McIlroy. It will amount to you all out there less than a yard. It really isn’t going to affect you very much, but it will affect the pros a little bit. That’s a little bit close to the bifurcation that Gary was talking about.
“My feeling is that they’re never going to bring it back to the level they need to bring it back to. Bobby Jones and his — I don’t know which book it was, one of his last books, he wrote in and he said, the biggest danger we have in the game of golf today is how far the golf ball goes and where it may go.
“Now, that’s back 1930 sometime, and it really hasn’t changed.
So we need to really — it needs to come back just for the sake of the game and preservation. Augusta’s had the ability to be able to go buy part of another golf course to lengthen the 13th hole.”
Gary Player agrees with Jack Nicklaus on golf ball rollback
Nickluas’ old rival, Player, shared these worries. He said that he’s worried that now that there is real money in golf, what happens when someone with LeBron James’ body type decides to play the sport.
He said, “I believe the ball should be cut back 60 yards, only for professional golf. Leave everyone to golf as it is. They’re the heart of the game, but professional golf is not. With regard to professional golf, cut the ball back 60 yards.
“It’s a tragedy. We got away from the concept of golf when it started originally, a par-5, a par-4, and a par-3. There is no such thing as a par-5 in the world today. We saw Rory with a 7-iron last year when he won the Masters, they’re hitting 8-irons and 7-irons to par-5s.
“Now I remember Jack, who’s as long as anybody playing golf today other than DeChambeau, at the 3rd hole is vivid in my mind. He used to hit a driver and a wedge, and now they drive over the green.
“We were in our infancy. We’ve never had a big man play golf of note. Wait until LeBron James comes out, Michael Jordan, and they are because incentivization is so great. There’s so much money that people around the world are exercising and going to the gym, which originally I was criticized and condemned for doing that.
“They’re lifting weights now. They’ll drive the 1st green here very easily. They’re going to be driving many, many par-4s. So where are we going? Here’s the crucial thing. The amount of money that we’re spending around the world probably rates to $100 million. Whatever the figure is, it’s exorbitant.
“They’re putting that money into making golf courses longer. We’re running out of water in the world, fertilization, machinery is so expensive, labor, oil, whatever cost you want to put in there. Where are we going? That money is being wasted, or if they cut the ball back, we don’t have to make these changes.
“Look what they’ve done here. It’s amazing when you think what this golf course used to play and what it plays now. That money could be allocated to African American areas where they need to be able to play golf and encourage them to play golf, for schools, for hospitals. We’re just wasting the money. That’s the crucial thing for me.
“I don’t know where we go. What’s going to happen in 30 years’ time is going to be beyond one’s imagination.”
Change is coming, but will it be too little, too late?
