Oakmont Isn't Famously Long. Yet, the Battle of the Golf Ball Rollback Rages On.

One of the top storylines heading into this year’s U.S. Open has been the challenge that Oakmont will present to competitors. Last time we were here in 2016, only four players finished under par. Deep rough, tight landing areas, lightning fast and undulating greens, and the behemoth that is the 289-yard eighth hole, which claims to be a par-3, lead the list of troubles the field will have to navigate.

But overwhelming length does not top that list. Oakmont is not the longest of courses, at least for the modern pro. The scorecard this week reads 7,372 yards, which is roughly 300 yards less than what players faced at last month’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. The 2025 Masters played to a yardage of 7,555 yards, making Oakmont the shortest of the three major venues to date. Heck, Oakmont doesn't even crack the top-10 longest courses on tour so far this season. Of course, Oakmont pales in comparison to Erin Hills in 2017 (7,845 yards, first round) or Chambers Bay's 7,695 yardage in 2015.

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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays a shot on the third hole in front of the 'Church Pews' bunker during his practice round prior to the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 11, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

And yet, Gil Hanse, as part of his restoration of Oakmont in 2023, added an additional 250 yards to the course to accommodate the exponential distance gains that happen year over year. Players are 12 yards longer in 2025 than what they were in 2016. Length has never been a primary challenge to Oakmont, outside of the eighth hole, but Hanse had no choice but to expand the course.

That reality leads to perhaps the most important storyline of all.

Every year, during U.S. Open week, USGA leadership meets with the media to deliver its 'State of Golf’ address, which is then followed by a press conference. The venues may change and the leaders often do too, but one topic is always brought up: the golf ball and its proposed rollback.

“Governance is hard,” said USGA President Fred Parpall on Wednesday at Oakmont. "These issues around distance, these issues around equipment regulation, they're also issues around the sustainability of our sport. Bigger golf courses mean more expense. It means longer rounds. It literally excludes more people because we cannot afford more time and more dollars in the game.”

For years, Jack Nicklaus has pounded his fist repeatedly, all while saying that something needs to be done about the ball and how it travels too far. The governing bodies need to dial it in, he has said, or, as many golf fans have heard in another way: it needs to be rolled back.

The game's controlled by how far a golf ball goes. -Jack Nicklaus

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“Ninety-nine percent of the clubs in the country don't have any place to go for more yardage,” Jack Nicklaus said at the 2023 Memorial Tournament.

“To me, the game of golf, if you're going to play tournament golf, you really want to test the golfer. If everybody's playing a driver and a wedge into every hole, [and] they never play any more than a 6- or 7-iron, 5-iron on a par-5, you lose your ability to be able to test [their] skills.”

The Golden Bear’s comments came before the USGA and R&A announced a plan to rollback the golf ball in late 2023, which has polarized amateurs, professionals, and fans of the game alike. This new golf ball, which will limit distance gains, will be implemented for pros in 2028 and in 2030 for amateurs.

“We know that distance will continue to increase. We know people will chase it, and quite frankly, it's a game advantage that you should chase if you can accomplish it,” said Mike Whan, the CEO of the USGA, on Wednesday at Oakmont. “But what we have to do is stop the pace, the slope of that curve that it's been on the last 20 to 40 years for the next 20 to 40 [years]. And that's what [the rollback] does.”

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USGA CEO Mike Whan speaks to the media prior to the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

America’s governing body hopes to slow down the remarkable distance gains, which have increased costs and made countless courses obsolete.

But it’s a polarizing subject.

“Not everybody will like it. It'll be high anxiety until we get there,” Whan added. “But nobody is going to die. The game is going to be great. We're going to prove that we can be better for future generations rather than to simply look the other way and know that in 40 or 50 years we'd be handing them something we could have made small adjustments on.

“We are full speed ahead on what we've announced. Those decisions have been made. I'm really excited that the different stakeholders are in the room talking about how and what further things we need to know to do that better. But I won't lie to you; there's anxiety there, and I'm right there on the anxiety list, too. But this is why we're put in this position. We don't have the same conflicts and contracts and biases. This is our job as governance, and it's not a fun one.”

Two of those stakeholders Whan alluded to are the PGA of America and the PGA Tour, both of whom are “vehemently against” this initiative

"I am against the ball rollback both personally and professionally,” said new CEO of PGA of America Derek Sprague in January. Sprague made these comments on Michael Breed’s Sirius XM Radio Show.

“That's something that will be a high-priority item," Sprague said. "Working with the officers on the board and then working with my colleagues with the PGA Tour. I know Commissioner [Jay] Monahan is against it, and the board is as well."

Then last month, Nicklaus pounded his fist again, doing so from the press room at his beloved golf course, Muirfield Village.

"The game's controlled by how far a golf ball goes. If you control it within reason, then we know that a golf course that is here today will still be sufficient 20 years from now," Nicklaus said. "As I understand, the ball [will travel] about 14 yards shorter for the longest of hitters out here, and maybe two or three yards shorter for the average golfer… We can't just keep buying land. You can't just buy the golf course next door. Not many people can afford to do what Augusta did at Augusta Country Club, you just can't do that."

Via USGA

Like the rest of the golf world, PGA Tour players are divided on the issue too, although most tend to lean against the idea of a rollback as opposed to enforcing it.

Scott Langley, who played on tour for 10 years and competed in four U.S. Opens, now serves as the Senior Director of Player Relations for the USGA. He has a big role at Oakmont this week, but he is also on the unpopular side of this issue.

Langley favors the rollback.

There's pace of play issues and there are safety issues with the golf ball going too far. -Scott Langley

“The game has given me so much of my life. I am really passionate about what it is and our history," Langley said. "And I think when you talk about the golf ball, you're really talking about how there's so many consequences in terms of maintenance and new golf courses that are bigger. There's pace of play issues and there are safety issues with the golf ball going too far."

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At the 1986 Masters, in which Nicklaus claimed his sixth Green Jacket at the age of 46, the length of Augusta National measured 6,905 yards. Since then, the club has extended the course by over 600 yards. At the 2025 Masters, the scorecard listed the total yardage at 7,555. As Nicklaus said, very few courses have the resources to do this, thus making more and more historic venues obsolete.

The big part is that [the rollback] really respects the history of this game and it really values the venues on which our game is played and the nature of playing those places," Langley said. "And not only that, but comparing yourself to the ghosts of the past, I just really feel like it's important to responsibly manage the scale of the game.

Shane Lowry hits from No. 13 at the 2025 Masters. The hole was lengthened from 510 yards to 545 ahead of the 2023 Masters, a 65-yard difference from the original routing of the hole at the first Masters tournament in 1934. Credit: Getty Images

Langley equates this issue to what has transpired in Major League Baseball.

“Let’s say I am a massive Boston Red Sox fan and I grew up going to Fenway Park,” Langley said. “Imagine, if instead of loosening the stitches to the baseball, the Red Sox said, ‘All right, we're going to raise the Green Monster by 30 feet.’ If you're a baseball fan, that's probably not going to be an option that you're willing to consider. And you think about it in golf, we consistently do that all the time.”

There’s a reason why the Majors have never allowed aluminum bats. They speed everything up, make things more dangerous for players and fans, and could also diminish the history and integrity of the game. Major leaguers can only use wooden bats, and have done so since the 19th century. But little leaguers and college players are allowed to use aluminum, since their skills are not as defined as those playing in the MLB.

It’s time for golf to follow the lead of the MLB, according to Langley, who saw first hand the effects of remarkable distance gains.

When the former Illinois standout first joined the PGA Tour, in 2011, Langley could carry his drives roughly 260 yards off the tee. He flighted his ball with a lower trajectory, and thus would often have his tee shots top off well over 300 yards, thanks to a ton of roll. At that point, Langley was right in the middle of all tour pros in terms of length off the tee. During his first few years, when paired up in threesomes, Langley would often have a player who could hit it farther than him. But he also had someone who did not.

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By the time he retired from the professional game in 2021, Langley saw everyone else pass him by. He became one of the shorter hitters on tour, despite gaining 10 yards in total carry since his rookie season.

“I saw it with my own eyes,” Langley said.

“One thing that doesn't get talked about enough, because it's more conceptual: ‘What is the nature of playing the game of golf?’ And, ‘What is the nature of playing a really great, classic golf course?’ To me, even if you play a golf course that hasn't necessarily changed or has been modified over time to accommodate these greater hitting distances, the game is still so different when I can stand up and hit three wood to the same place that all the guys 20 years ago used to hit driver to. The nature of playing that hole is just different.”

And that’s why Augusta National has increased the length of its course so much over the past 40 years. The golf ball goes too far.

Consider this: at the 1935 Masters, when Gene Sarazen made a double-eagle on 15 and went on to win in a playoff, the course played to 6,700 total yards. That’s only 200 yards less than the course Nicklaus, Greg Norman, and Seve Ballesteros played in 1986. And yet, Rory McIlroy just completed the career Grand Slam on a layout that is closer to 8,000 yards than 7,000.

Gene Sarazen putts in front of a gallery of patrons during a playoff at the 1935 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club held APril 4-8, 1935 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Augusta National/Getty Images)

“It's not a popular place to be. It doesn't surprise me that a current player would have an issue with making these adjustments because at the end of the day, they're the ones that have to make the adjustments,” Langley said.

“It's always been my personal belief, believe it or not, since before I joined the USGA. I know it's unpopular, but it's interesting. You look at what the legends of the game have really said on this topic and almost to a player, they get to a certain point in their career and they look back and they realize ‘Wow, the game has really changed.’ And they see that change in identity of what it is to play the game. There's so many legends of our game that say ‘Yeah, you really need to do this.’ It's hard, but you gotta do it.”

Nicklaus is one of those legends Langley alludes to. And considering Nicklaus is the ultimate bridge between early 20th century golf and to where the game is in the 21st century, his point should be well taken. It should not be overlooked that Nicklaus’ first Green Jacket came in 1963, when Sarazen played in his final Masters. And Nicklaus’ final Masters appearance came in 2005, when Tiger Woods won in a playoff.

Tiger Woods has voiced his support of a rolled-back ball, similarly comparing the issue and fix to what the MLB has done with metal bats in baseball. (Photo credit BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

“Could we come across something that would make us feel like our decision needs to be altered? Could. We're definitely going to stay open-minded to that. But we have yet to see anything that would suggest that,” Whan added on Wednesday.

“But we're not not open to new data, something that we would be provided. But it was eight years to that decision point. So I love it when people say, ‘Why the rush? I'm like, ‘Why the rush?’ I mean, ‘How many more years do you think we should have taken?’”

What it ultimately comes down to is this: golf is a game steeped in history and built on integrity. To continue to honor that, as well as the ghosts of the past, the unpopular opinion among tour pros needs to prevail: roll it back.