Going Down Swinging
Former World No. 1 amateur raises giant middle finger to rollback with 418-yard drive at the Alfred Dunhill Championship
Well, folks, golf ball rollback, whether you love it or loathe it, is coming. For real this time. On Wednesday, USGA officials confirmed that revised ball testing is set to go into effect for professionals in 2028 before, uh, rolling out to all golfers in 2030. The USGA are implementing the changes to “protect the game’s future and the integrity of golf courses.” They believe this will come at the cost of three-to-five yards off the tee for the average male player and one-to-three for the average female.
Go ahead and debate this until you pop a blood vessel in your eye. That’s not what we’re here to do. What we’re here to do is marvel at the 418-yard nuke Christo Lamprecht launched at the Alfred Dunhill Championship on Thursday. Impeccable timing, Christo!
Depending on which side of the barbed wire-lined rollback fence you sit, this is either the greatest rebuttal or greatest endorsement of the coming rule changes the sport could have possibly delivered. On one hand, just look at this sucker. Lamprecht punches a hole in the sky. All the announcers can do is laugh at the previously unthinkable level of power on display. On the other hand, should an amateur golfer—even a top am like Lamprecht, who is currently second in the world rankings—really be able bomb it 418 off the tee? Is that really going to put their full range of golf skills to the test, which, last time we checked, is what a professional tournament is designed to do?
Big questions still awaiting big answers. We’ll leave those to brighter minds, because for now we’re busy watching golf ball go boom.
