Back in the day, before colour was invented and smiling was still being trialled, the celebrated St Andrian, Allan Robertson, lamented the march of technological advance in the Royal & Ancient game.
A ball-maker by trade, Robertson favoured the featherie ba’ and was left particularly scunnered when the cheaper and superior gutta percha came on the scene, effectively rendering his own business obsolete.
“It’s nae gowff,” he whined.
Goodness knows what Robertson would have made of the current debates surrounding this little dimpled sphere.
The issue of distance and the vast lengths a ball can travel is a bit like golf’s equivalent of having a stone in your shoe. You can shoogle it into a little crannie but it will eventually return to generate even more cursing and muttering.
After years of essentially burying their heads in the sand, officials at the R&A and the USGA have now conceded that a line in the sand has been crossed.
The discussion surrounding reining back the ball at the top end of tournament golf continues to grow in volume.
Many of the game’s heavyweights have flung their tuppence worth into the pot and if Jack Nicklaus is to believed, then something could be getting teed-up sooner rather than later. “I had dinner with Mike Davis [chief executive of the USGA] on Sunday night and Mike said, ‘we’re getting there, we’re going to get there and I need your help when we get there’.
“I said, ‘that’s fine. I’m happy to help you, I’ve only been yelling at you for 40 years’. I said, ‘I assume you’re going to study for another ten years or so, though?’ and he [Davis] says ‘oh, no, no, no, we’re not going to do that as I think we’re getting closer to agreements with the R&A’.
“I’m hoping that’s going to happen. I’ve talked to Mike a lot and he’s been very optimistic about wanting to get something done.”
Whatever is done, it won’t be done easily. Taking on the big manufacturers could see golf course concerns become court room battles.
When the R&A and USGA were in the process of eradicating the anchored putter, Mark King, the then chief executive of equipment giant Taylor Made, delivered a withering assessment of the governing bodies while stating that a limit on innovation would “kill the industry”.
Nicklaus maintains the manufacturers should have nothing to fear. “I don’t understand why Titleist would be against it [a restricted ball],” he added.
“They make probably the best product and if they make the best product, whether it’s 20 per cent shorter, then what difference would it make?”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here