Jack Nicklaus is Trying to Speed Up Golf

Jack Nicklaus has never been shy on his feelings for the progression of golf, often criticizing and praising the game in media appearances. Now, Nicklaus is backing up a lot of his talk with some action.

This week, Nicklaus spoke about his ideas for speeding up the game of golf. He claims that there are three easy ways to speed up the game: alter the golf ball, alter the length of courses, and reduce the monetary cost to keep up with the game. Nicklaus has been against some new golf ball tech for a long time, as he believes they are made to travel too far.

Because golf balls travel too far, Nicklaus believes that compounds all of the other problems. “The guy with the golf ball is going longer than the average golfer,” Nicklaus said. “They don’t find half their golf balls. When I was growing up, the best player at the club is the one who kept it down the middle, bumped it up around the green and he’s the guy winning the club championships, and they are playing in about three hours and three hours and ten minutes.”

Jack Nicklaus waves to the crowd on the 18th green after the third…

Jack Nicklaus waves to the crowd on the 18th green after the third round of the PNC Father/Son Challenge at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 16, 2017 in Orlando, Florida. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

And because the golfers are hitting the ball so far, Nicklaus says the money problem comes into play. Courses aren’t able to keep up with fertilizer, grass cutting, etc. and that means that the golfers are losing more balls, spending more time looking for them. The only course that the Golden Bear believes keeps up with this trend well is Augusta National.

Nicklaus also isn’t the only person to hold this opinion, as Tiger Woods holds a similar sentiment. He’s quoted as saying that the ball is going so far now that courses have to be developed at 7,500 yards long, which adds almost two more hours to a typical round. And he’s positive that the 8,000 yard golf course is on its way soon.

Only time will tell if Nicklaus’ concerns will result in the PGA TOUR making any changes but with issues coming from some of golf’s legends, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some reforms.

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