Should Golf Require Shorter Clubs?

A proposal intended to limit the length of drives by reducing the maximum club length from 48 inches to 46 inches has drawn criticism from professional players. View in browser

Image credits: Jacob Lund/Shutterstock Should Golf Require Shorter Clubs? A proposal intended to limit the length of drives by reducing the maximum club length from 48 inches to 46 inches has drawn criticism from professional players. Peter Gwynne, Contributor September 24, 2021                                                                                                                                                                                (Inside Science) -- Professional golf has a problem: Players are driving the ball too far.   Some prominent professionals have protested loudly about a proposal for mitigating the problem, made by and under study by the sport's rule-makers, the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the United Kingdom's equivalent, the R&A. The new standard would pertain to all clubs except putters and would set the maximum length of the shaft at 46 inches, measured from the end of the grip cap at the top of the club to the ground. The current limit is 48 inches. Drivers, the longest non-putter clubs in golfers' bags, are likely to be the only clubs affected by the decision.   Of course, hitting the ball as far as possible off the tee is a major objective of golf, and longer clubs make this first hit easier. The longer you can drive the ball from the tee, the shorter your next shot to the green needs to be. And the shorter that shot, the better the chance... Read more Copyright 2021 American Institute of Physics. Inside Science syndicates its articles, columns, blogs and videos to news organizations. To initiate syndication, or request permission to republish our content (on a one-time or continuing basis), please contact Inside Science at insidescience@aip.org. News organizations seeking permission to republish Inside Science content must fully credit Inside Science as the original source of the content, include the author byline, and republish the original, unaltered form (excluding content titles, headlines, or sub-headlines). The reprint format can be seen here. Copyright conditions and usage terms are subject to change at any time without consent or any type of prior notice. To unsubscribe from all future mailings from Inside Science please click here. To manage your email subscriptions please click here.

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