Frustated LPGA Tour member Jenny Shin has suggested an alternative method to golf's alleged plans for a golf-ball rollback.
The USGA and R&A are reportedly set to announce that from 2028 for all professionals and 2030 for everyone else, newly-made golf balls will travel up to 15% less far in a bid to make the sport as a whole more sustainable.
But Shin - who has one LPGA Tour title to her name - feels the change is an unnecessary one for the women's game, with the leading average driving distance on the LPGA Tour in 2023 sitting at 282 yards (Polly Mack) compared to Rory McIlroy’s PGA Tour-leading total of 326.3 yards.
The 31-year-old proposed an alteration to the driver heads men use which would either make the head smaller or simply reduce the giant sweet spots in modern equipment.
On her X (formerly Twitter) account, Shin said: "I finally got my 7iron to fly 152yards, carry, now they want to roll it back. How depressing. Why can't men just have different driver heads[?]"
I finally got my 7iron to fly 152yards, carry, now they want to roll it back. How depressing. Why can't men just have different driver heads.December 4, 2023
Since the initial reports broke, a wide-ranging debate has broken out among the golfing community about how the issue of ever-increasing distance and its adverse effects could best be dealt with so that the game remained fair for everyone.
In a clear and passionate statement on social media, Rory McIlroy argued that bifurcation was the way forward, but "money talks" and a universal golf ball rollback was the next best option.
McIlroy said: "I don’t understand the anger about the golf ball roll back. It will make no difference whatsoever to the average golfer and puts golf back on a path of sustainability.
"The people who are upset about this decision shouldn’t be mad at the governing bodies, they should be mad at elite pros and club/ball manufacturers because they didn’t want bifurcation."
Tiger Woods agreed that a kind of "wood bats and metal bats" approach would have also worked for golf, while broadcaster Brandel Chamblee took aim at the USGA and R&A for their supposed decision - claiming the governing bodies are "out of touch" with 'over 50 million golfers worldwide.'
