AUGUSTA, Ga. — Even at this year’s Masters Tournament, there are debates beyond LIV Golf, and there may not be one more inflamed than the conflagration over the future of the golf ball.
Last month, worn down by gaudy statistics, the R&A and the U.S. Golf Association made a proposal: Within a few years, elite players should use a ball that does not fly quite so far.
It did not sit well.
“Let us be athletic,” Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters winner, said in an interview on the day of the announcement. “Let us try to come up with new ways to hit the ball better, straighter, farther.”
Justin Thomas, the winner of two P.G.A. Championships, was even more pointed about the idea, which supporters estimated would cut the tee shots of top golfers by about 15 yards.
“They’re basing it off the top 0.1 percent of all golfers. You know what I mean?” he said. “I don’t know how many of y’all consistently play golf in here, but I promise none of you have come in from the golf course and said, you know, I’m hitting it so far and straight today that golf’s just not even fun anymore.”
But it was not until Tuesday that the world heard from Tiger Woods, one of Thomas’s closest friends in golf.
“The guys are going to become more athletic,” Woods said. “Everyone is going to get bigger, stronger, faster as the generations go on.”
A change “should have happened a long time ago,” Woods said. A few moments later, he added: “The amateurs should be able to have fun and still hit the golf ball far, but we can be regulated about how far we hit it.”
Part of Woods’s concern traces to the limits of courses. Augusta National Golf Club had the resources and enough space to add 35 yards to the 13th hole. Not every course — not even every great course — does. Besides, Woods suggested, an altered ball might make for a better, more sophisticated sport.
“On tour, it’s exciting to see Rory McIlroy hit it 340 yards on every hole,” Woods said. “But does it challenge us and separate the guys who can really hit the ball in the middle of the face and control their shots? I think if you roll the ball back a little bit, you’ll see that the better ball-strikers will have more of an advantage over the guys who miss it a little bit.”
If the governing bodies proceed with the change — a decision is still many months away — the burden will shift to golf ball manufacturers to come up with products for professionals that comply with the rule, which would generally ban balls that travel more than 317 yards when struck at 127 miles per hour.
The companies are already registering worries but thinking through how they will react.
“We’re going to be looking at it and researching it and understanding what we would do and how we would respond to it,” Dan Murphy, the president and chief executive of Bridgestone Golf, said in an interview by the Augusta National clubhouse Tuesday afternoon. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
Like many other manufacturers, Murphy worries about the risk of confusing consumers with a new variety of equipment options. But Bridgestone expects that Woods, who uses its products, will play a role in designing any new equipment, helping the company to refine aerodynamics, trajectory, feel and spin.
“He has a longstanding catalog of the golf ball: He’s seen it change from balata to the solid-core technology in the early 2000s that he played so well with, so from that standpoint, we would definitely rely on him to give us feedback,” said Adam Rehberg, a Bridgestone official who works on research and design. “We still have to make sure the ball can do everything they need.”
If, of course, they ultimately need it.
The groupings are out. Plan accordingly.
Tournament play will begin on Thursday at 8 a.m. Eastern time, when Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, and Kevin Na, a LIV Golf team captain, will tee off at No. 1. But most of the other players Thursday and Friday will be in groups of three. Here are the most eye-catching groups (All times Eastern):
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9:36 a.m.: Mackenzie Hughes, Shane Lowry and Thomas Pieters (12:48 p.m. Friday)
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10:18 a.m.: Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele and Tiger Woods (1:24 p.m. Friday)
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10:42 a.m.: Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Cameron Young (1:48 p.m. Friday)
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10:54 a.m.: Sungjae Im, Hideki Matsuyama and Cameron Smith (2 p.m. Friday)
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11:54 a.m.: Brooks Koepka, Danny Willett and Gary Woodland (8:48 a.m. Friday)
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12:24 p.m.: Tom Hoge, Si Woo Kim and Phil Mickelson (9:12 a.m. Friday)
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1:12 p.m.: Corey Conners, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose (10:06 a.m. Friday)
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1:24 p.m.: Matt Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa and Will Zalatoris (10:18 a.m. Friday)
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1:36 p.m.: Sam Bennett, Max Homa and Scottie Scheffler (10:30 a.m. Friday)
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1:48 p.m.: Sam Burns, Tom Kim and Rory McIlroy (10:42 a.m. Friday)
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2 p.m.: Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Spieth (10:54 a.m. Friday).
ESPN will broadcast the Thursday and Friday rounds beginning at 3 p.m. The Masters Tournament’s website will also stream coverage from Augusta National.
The weather is looking like a big problem.
If you are planning to watch the tournament all day Saturday, it might be time to consider a backup plan now that the forecast has gone from bad to worse.
Thursday, Augusta National’s official forecast says, has a 40 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Friday will bring a 70 percent chance of precipitation, including isolated thunderstorms.
Then there is Saturday: “Cloudy, colder and breezy with a 90 percent chance of rain. Rain could be heavy at times.” And winds could gust up to 25 miles per hour.
Also, the predicted high is 52 degrees.
Spring!
The par-3 course got a face-lift.
No. 13 on Augusta National’s primary course has gotten most of the attention this week as players have sized up a hole that is 35 yards longer this year. (Asked on Monday what he made of the hole, Fred Couples replied: “Well, if I were 30, I’d probably be excited about it. At 63, I think it’s an incredible hole. I won’t go for it.”)
But on Wednesday afternoon, the nine-hole, par-3 course, tucked away in a corner of Augusta National, will take center stage. The course’s informal Wednesday contest, first held in 1960, is a Masters ritual and popular with players and fans alike. The course is playing differently this year, though, after some off-season changes, including a rerouting of the first five holes and new putting surfaces. Augusta National said the refurbished greens, which now have a different kind of bentgrass, will be a “testing ground,” perhaps foreshadowing changes to the primary course.
Augusta National also said it had installed a new irrigation system and expanded the complex for restrooms and sales of concessions and merchandise.
“It was unbelievable,” Watson said in an interview last month after he saw the redesigned area.
“How did they do it in 150 days?” Watson, who now plays on the LIV Golf circuit, asked later. “I don’t know. It’s money and manpower, that’s how they do it.”
On that much, LIV and PGA Tour players might agree.
They might also agree that anyone who wants to win the 2023 Masters should perhaps try to finish second on Wednesday: No par-3 contest victor has gone on to win the green jacket in the same year.
