Jon Rahm believes rolling the golf ball back would work in his favour, but has questioned the desire to try and change the sport.
The USGA and R&A recently announced a decision to reduce the distance the ball travels in men’s professional golf, set to come into effect in 2026.
This announcement has come with huge criticism with the likes of Bryson DeChambeau calling it “atrocious”.
And Rahm, who is 5th for driving distance this season on the PGA Tour averaging 314 yards, also thinks it’s a decision that needs reconsidering.
“They’re hyper focused on making professional golf a little bit more difficult than it already is,” said the 2021 U.S. Open Champion.
“I don’t know why. Do I think it’s the right choice? As it comes to me, I don’t think it’s going to matter that much.
“I think if you were to roll the ball back, it’s going to be more damaging to the shorter hitters on Tour than it is for people that have distance.
“If you’re giving me a seven iron as opposed to a nine or an eight iron, that means you’re giving somebody a four or five as opposed to a seven or a six. I’m still going to be able to stop it in most places with a seven when some people might not.”
Golf club technology and advancements in sports science have meant some courses are being played differently to how they were designed.
An example of this is Cameron Smith’s low winning score of -20 at the Open Championship on the Old Course, St Andrews.
However, the Spaniard questioned golf’s governing bodies desire to change something that is currently working.
“My biggest question for them to be we’re in a golden era of golf where it’s exploded since COVID,” added Rahm.
“A lot of people are watching, you have a completely different tour, all these things are happening for the game and it’s growing. Why change what’s working?
“Try to make it better by making it better. There’s plenty of things you can do to make it more difficult for us, golf course design, course setup, all these great things.
“I think there’s other things that can be done than changing the technology of the game to make it more challenging for us. That would be my suggestion to them.
“But we’ll see, I guess, in three years what happens. I don’t think we’re going to get to a point to where we only play both Opens with a different golf ball.
“That would be a little bit silly. It’s going to be an all-out change or no change at all.”
