I love so many of the things he says in this article. Lets talk about some of these things too.
“When I talk to architects, for about 40 years, hard equaled good. Now you’re definitely seeing that go in the other direction, where fun equals good. These practices of narrower fairways, higher rough, not encouraging play from the proper tees, it’s no good."
“A lot of innovations have made the game better, but there are some where you would say, ‘I’m not sure that’s really good for the game.’ Like the speed of greens. Today, people equate fast greens with good greens. But fast greens cost more to maintain. Fast greens are more susceptible to disease. Fast greens compromise some of the architectural integrity of great courses. Fast greens have absolutely caused more cases of the yips. And they’ve hurt pace of play. So there’s an innovation where we say, ‘OK, we’ve innovated with new grasses and new mowers, but has that really been innovation?’ It’s like over-seeding. It’s very expensive, and agronomically not good, and dormant Bermuda is a very good playing surface. I hope in the future we see a scenario where there is no over-seeding. Period. The notion that everything has to be perfectly maintained, it’s bad for the game, and bad for enjoyment."
"‘Keep your fairways drier, but longer.’ It’s good, because for the average player, their ball hits and gets a little bit more distance. For the good player, it actually becomes more strategic, because you have to worry about what your ball is going to do after it lands, where is it going to bounce and roll to if it’s drier. The average player can bounce balls into greens."
"‘When I look back at the USGA over the decades, my biggest regret would be what has happened with distance. It’s been the thing, probably more than any, that has been the most harmful to the game. Billions of dollars have been spent to alter golf courses—and for what? If I said in front of a thousand golfers, ‘Who would like to hit the ball shorter?’ would any hands be raised? They’d think I had lost my marbles. Nobody wants to hit the ball shorter. On the other hand, increased distance has had a profoundly negative effect on golf courses. They’ve had to expand, they’ve had to use more resources to maintain. It takes more time to play. It takes more land and construction costs for new golf courses. And in some cases, architectural integrity has been compromised. Are any of these things good?"
These kind of Statements make me glad Mike Davis is at the Helm of the USGA.