“I don’t think it’s very smart at all” – Keegan Bradley slams USGA, R&A’s ‘stupid’ Golf ball rollback move
Keegan Bradley has come out to slam the USGA and the R&A’s golf ball rollback. The 2011 PGA Championship victor said that the move to hit the ball shorter is “monstrous” for the amateur world. The 37-year-old golfer further dubbed it “stupid.”
The six-time PGA Tour winner’s comment came on Sunday after players like Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods praised the proposed golf ball rollback. The PGA Tour stars backed the governing bodies for the move, despite heat from the players and fans. Bradley openly slammed the proposed move rumored to be implemented in the coming weeks and said that he “doesn’t think it’s very smart at all.”
Speaking about the golf ball rollback on Sunday at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, Keegan Bradley said, as quoted by The Telegraph:
“Srixon made whatever the USGA was saying, and it was 40, 50 yards (shorter) with my driver. I was a club or two shorter. I think that the USGA … everything that they do is reactionary. They don't think of a solution. They just think we're going to affect a hundred per cent of the population that plays golf.
For the amateur world to hit the ball shorter is monstrous. I can't think of anything more stupid than that. I don't think it's very smart at all, especially when golf's growing in popularity literally coming out of COVID."
It is pertinent to note that Bradley joined the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas in sounding off on the golf ball rollback.
Interestingly, McIlroy, who came out in support of the move last week, had first slammed the same. The golfer had first called the project a "huge waste of time and money," before changing his stance. He is now dubbing it as “innovation” in the sport.
Tiger Woods back the golf ball rollback
Woods, who returned to the golf field last week at the Hero World Challenge, also shared his thoughts on the ball rollback rule. Commenting on the raging topic, the PGA Tour star said that he was in favor of the so-called 'bifurcation' after claiming that there wasn’t “enough property anymore.”
Speaking to reporters at the Albany Golf Course, Tiger Woods said:
"This (the ball rollback rule) has been I guess the talk ever since l've been out on Tour. And then to finally see it come to this point where I think both governing bodies who control the rules around the world are going to come to a collaborative understanding of how far -- we just don’t have enough property anymore.
So I think that understanding that yeah, we've been hammering the ball needs to slow down, but it has kept speeding up my entire time on career and here we are…. As I told you guys, I've always been for bifurcation. I've always said that. Just like wood bats and metal bats."
It is pertinent to note that Woods is still part of the PGA Tour’s policy board. The golfer’s stand on such rule changes carries a lot of weight in the golf world.