Golf's First World Distance Debate Seems Silly In A Very Different Way

I opened up Mike Stachura’s Golf Digest story titled, “The distance resistance”, and couldn’t help but notice the editor’s note: “This article appeared in our latest issue, which went to print in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.”

In light of thousands of tragic deaths in just weeks, the specter of a massive economic downturn, and uncertainty about what tomorrow will bring, worrying about driving distance seems so…silly.

But more than the absurdity, reading some pre-March 2020 concerns you feel teh undercurrent of distrust of authorities (even if the R&A and USGA are seen as thinking of golf’s long-term viability). The story also hints at the marketplace’s determination to protect the right to spend $600 to pick up 6-yards, no matter the damage done.

That’s why it was a shrewd editor’s note.

Whenever a form of normalcy returns, the excessive weight given to views on distance will all seem so insignificant. Just as there will be a heightened expectation for authorities and companies to be better prepared in the future, it’s not unreasonable to think a similar sentiment will persist in sports.

While there will always be golfers eager to spend $600 on a driver merely to keep up with someone else, even more will find all of that to be of such secondary importance.

Stachura writes:

That future will be about this push and pull between maintaining a connection to golf’s past and embracing the realities of its future participants. The questions we need to ask now are: Would 400-yard drives at a tour event be a tragedy? Would this signal that golf’s connection with its historic championship venues had been severed? Will the cartoonish swing speeds of today’s long-drive competitors become the standard for tomorrow’s PGA Tour players? Would the bond between golf’s elite players and its paying customers be broken or heightened by extraordinary driving distances?

The days of worrying about the answers already seems long gone.

Shrewd editor’s note.

The “authorities” in all sectors will be expected to do what’s best for the long term good. Including in sports and in golf.

Just a few weeks time, certain values held up as vital to golf’s future now seem trivial, particularly the idea that people play golf to see how far they can hit the ball or watch golf for the distance chases.

Given that every golfer current deprived of golf just wants to be out playing again, how far their drives fly seems like an excess of negligible importance. The short and long term viability of courses was, is and will be all that matters.