Peter Williams: Powers that be show some balls to level playing field

The Ohio Golf Association (OGA) is boldly going where no golf body has gone before. It's ordering competitors in one of its tournaments to use a certain ball - although they haven't actually decided which one.

The OGA, which runs the game in the state where Jack Nicklaus was born and raised, says they are taking a stand against the eroding playability of our old courses due to the length of the modern golf ball.

So, when the OGA hosts the Champions Tournament in August, every player will be required to use a lower-compression ball chosen by the tournament committee.

The impact of the long-distance, modern golf ball is one of the hottest discussion points in American golf.

Masters chairman Hootie Johnson, when questioned why his club didn't introduce a Masters ball instead of spending millions making the course longer to combat the modern players' extra distance, said his club didn't want to take the golf ball off the table but were not giving it any serious consideration right now.

Augusta National has the money and, for now, the space to keep lengthening its course and keep asking searching questions of the world's best players. But logic says that, in time, they too will run out of that space - because research and development in the golf ball industry is sure to make the ball keep going further and further.

The R&A and USGA are the only bodies which can legislate against the manufacturers to stop the ball going further. There are already many restrictions on equipment. A ball must be a certain size and weight, driver heads must be no larger than 460cc, while there has to be a certain angle between the club face on an iron and the grooves. So the game's rulers haven't been afraid to put restrictions on equipment, even if they've been sued by manufacturers as a consequence.

But the major reason elite players hit the ball further is the advance in ball technology. The revolution started in 1996 with Spalding's first high-performance two-piece ball, the Top Flite Strata. Manufacturers followed suit with two-piece technology and since equipment companies like Titleist and Callaway put their R&D efforts into ball technology, there's been no stopping increased performance.

But while the elite can hit the ball up to 100m more - 320m par fours on the PGA Tour are now considered driveable - average club players don't get the same advantage.

We only hit it flush about one in five, if we're lucky, and our ability to compress the ball for maximum performance is nowhere near that of a touring pro.

The manufacturers and the two administrative bodies know that 99 per cent of golfers are not elite and the major market is the rank and file hacker. Anything that can make his game better is better for everybody. Ironically, all the technology in the world still hasn't reduced the average player's average handicap. In the last decade it has remained around 17.

But tournament golf is different. It's supposed to require players to exhibit a range of golf shots using all the clubs in his bag. New ball technology has rendered long irons obsolete on many courses, even on par fives. That's why the OGA is doing what it's doing.

Funny thing is, most club players, with their lower swing speed, hit the lower-compression balls further anyway. They're cheaper, too.