When Tiger Woods addressed the media at Augusta National on Tuesday, he covered a lot of topics: his health, his future, his thoughts on the recent course changes, and perhaps most notably, his take on the USGA’s ball-rollback proposal, which he said he supports.
“I think this should have happened a long time ago,” he said. “That’s what Jack was saying, the 384 was going too far. This is back in the ’80s. But still, that was my take on it; that the amateurs should be able to have fun and still hit the golf ball far but we can be regulated about how far we hit it.”
While Tiger admitted that the changes to the ball may not be relevant to him as he prepares for “buggy” golf on the PGA Tour Champions (the rollback is slated to go into effect in 2026, when Woods will be 50 years old), his next revelation made it clear that he’s perhaps thinking about what a reduction in distance might look like for him off the tee.
Woods said that, during a round at Medalist, his home club in Hobe Sound, Fla., he used a persimmon driver.
“Last week, I was at home playing at Medalist and I had my old persimmon driver and I was able to still carry the ball 290 yards,” Woods said. “Now, when I missed it, no, it did not go very far. But the ability to hit the ball in the middle of the face was rewarded.”
While persimmon clubs have nothing to do with the ball rollback proposal, Woods’ comments about his distance with a persimmon driver appear to underscore the point of his support for the rollback: He believes quality ballstriking off the tee should be rewarded, which is essentially one of the goals the rollback is hoping to achieve.
Woods’ affection for throwback equipment resulted in another appearance at Augusta National this week. Woods said he brought some old balata balls to the putting green to show his fellow ball-rollback ally, Rory McIlroy.
“Yesterday I brought a couple balata balls up here with me and threw them over to him and had him hit a couple putts with them, and he said, ‘Oh, my God.’ I said, ‘Yes, exactly.’ This is — we’re not going to roll the ball back that far, but it’s kind of neat to be able to see the golf ball do different things.”
Whether or not Woods will ever compete with a rolled-back ball remains to be seen. But if we know one thing about Woods, it’s this: never say never.
