Golf chief doubles down on rule change ahead of U.S. Open: "Nobody is going to die"

USGA chief executive Mike Whan says the governing body remains committed to limiting how far the golf ball will travel. 

Golf's rule makers, the USGA and R&A, announced their rollback proposals in March 2023. 

The governing bodies want to protect courses that are not long enough to cope with drives that fly further than 350 yards. 

The changes will come into effect for elite competitions from 2028 and amateurs will follow two years later.   

The PGA Tour, multiple high-profile golfers and many equipment manufacturers have been extremely critical of the proposals. 

The PGA of America, which oversees the PGA Championship, are also 'vehemently against' the rollback. 

USGA boss Whan told reporters on the eve of the 2025 U.S. Open that 'nobody is going to die'. 

"Listen, I get this isn't easy and everybody has got their own constituents," Whan said. "I'll just say what I said yesterday again. 

"As an industry we have to be able to make small adjustments that are in the best interest of the game long-term, that we all know would be better 40 years from now if we were smart enough to make them today.

"We'll make those. Not everybody will like it. It'll be high anxiety until we get there. But nobody is going to die. 

"The game is going to be great. We're going to prove that we can be better for future generations rather than to simply look the other way and know that in 40 or 50 years we'd be handing them something we could have made small adjustments on.

Whan said the USGA is 'full-speed ahead' on what has been announced. 

"Those decisions have been made," he said.  

"I'm really excited that the different stakeholders are in the room talking about the how to and what further things we need to know to do that better. 

"But I won't lie to you; there's anxiety there, and I'm right there on the anxiety list, too.

"But this is why we're put in this position. We don't have the same conflicts and contracts and biases. 

"This is our job as governance, and it's not a fun one. If you look over the 130-year history, we're not new to this and we've had to do these things before that feel like 'oh, my gosh' when they happen, and you look back 10 years later and go, 'Whatever happened to the...'

"But I think as an industry we've got to be able to do this both for ourselves and for the future generations that want to inherit this game, and we will."

Masters champion Rory McIlroy is perhaps the biggest name who is in favour of the rollback. 

McIlroy said he did not understand the anger. 

"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," he previously said. 

"Elite pros and ball manufacturers think bifurcation would negatively affect their bottom lines, when, in reality, the game is already bifurcated.

"You think we play the same stuff you do?

"They put pressure on the governing bodies to roll it back to a lesser degree for everyone. 

"Bifurcation was the logical answer for everyone, but, yet again in this game, money talks."