Rory McIlroy drove the green a few times on par 4s last week at the DP World Tour event in Abu Dhabi. On Tuesday in Dubai, he said that should he harder to do.
Asked on Tuesday ahead of this week’s DP World Tour Championship whether a smaller driver head would be a better way to rein in distance than a shorter ball, McIlroy said he was open to changing either. He thinks power has become such an advantage that some of the shots that used to separate the best players from everyone else matter less today.
“Ball, club, I think the equipment at the top level needs to be regulated better than where it is right now,” McIlroy said.
Jon Rahm, who won last week in Abu Dhabi, was asked a similar question no Tuesday. He talked about better equipment, stronger
players and faster swings, and then brought up course set up. Specifically, he mentioned Valderrama. Rahm said he likes how the Spanish course still demands that players put the ball in the right spot. A shot that goes 20 yards farther but winds up on the wrong side of the fairway is usually not ideal because players don’t get a clear shot at the flag.
“I think there’s so much freedom in design in golf that you could make golf courses that are anti-distance,” Rahm said.
Both players agreed distance at the elite level needs to be addressed. McIlroy wants equipment rules that give shot-making more influence over who wins. Rahm is willing to discuss limits on the ball or clubs, but it sounds like he wants to start with how course setup might be part of the solution.
These comments, from two of the best players of the current generation, show how even among people who know about golf at the most elite level, there is not a consensus about what needs to happen in order to deal with distance.
In January, the USGA and R&A announced they were changing the dates of the pending golf ball rollback. The previous plan, laid out in 2023, called for a two-phase rollout that would have made elite competitions transition first to shorter-distance balls beginning in 2028, while recreational golfers would have made the switch in 2030. The idea was to give manufacturers more time to rework product lines and build a fuller catalog of conforming balls for recreational players. Now, everyone changes in 2030.
In June, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour joined the USGA and R&A in acknowledging distance continues to increase at the elite level. However, the tours questioned whether the planned change to the golf ball distance testing would accomplish what the USGA and R&A want.
In September, the governing bodies announced they are exploring three Model Local Rules that elite competitions could adopt as early as 2028. One would tighten the distance limit a ball must meet in testing, another would put a firmer cap on driver-face springiness and a third would cap the maximum length for clubs other than putters. The same notice says the USGA and R&A are still studying driver design features that could make a center strike more rewarding than a mishit.
Adam Scott, the winner of the 2013 Masters and one of the most-respected people when it comes to Tour policy topics, said last week in Abu Dhabi he would like to see the idea of smaller drivers explored. He feels the club that used to be the most challenging to hit (the driver) is now the easiest for top players. Smaller drivers are less forgiving, so mis-hits would be more punishing but well-struck shots would still be rewarded.
McIlroy called himself the “poster child” for how power has changed the game. A week after driving those greens in Abu Dhabi, it sounds like he would be willing to give up some of the yards that got him there if it meant the other things he does well would count for more.
And he sounded pretty sure he’d still be the one waiting for everyone else to hit their second shots.
“The longest guys are still going to be longest guys,” he said.
David Dusek is a senior Golfweek writer covering golf equipment and technology.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm see different fixes for golf’s distance problem
