Former Open champion Ian Baker Finch recently disapproved of the golf rollback. He said professionals hitting long was one of the reasons for slow play, but the rollback was too late for the damage that was done.

Ian Baker Finch is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour and the 1991 Open Champion. Since retirement, he has taken up broadcasting for nearly three decades.

Recently, in an interview with Golf Monthly, Ian Baker Finch argued that the courses were forced to add back tees due to pros hitting longer distances. As a result, the new courses were becoming longer, and more walking time was resulting in slower play.

“Now the pros walk off the green and backwards 75 yards or more, so it slows the game down,” the former Open Champion said as per Golf Monthly. “The leading players are all walking an extra couple of hundred yards every hole. It’s two miles at the end of the day, which doesn’t help the speed of play.”

“I think the rollback is too little, too late. I think they’ve (the manufacturers) already developed a ball that will go just as far as it does now for when the rollback starts. The governing bodies should have gone 10% at the time, mainly because the ball just goes too far. I’m still a scratch player or better at my club but I’m 65 years old and if I play a scratch player who’s 25, he will hit it 75 yards past me,” he added.

Former Open champion wants rules to stop elite players hitting longer distance

Finch added that many golf bodies didn’t want golf ball bifurcation, but the game was already bifurcated.

“My son-in-law hits it 300 metres and plays off the black tees,” he added. “I play the golds or blues, my buddies my age can play the whites, my wife Jenny plays the greens. We all play different tees, so I don’t understand why they can’t make rules for the elite players to stop them from hitting it so far, because we’re losing the old great courses.”

According to the new rule, a golf ball hit at the robot-controlled speed of 125 mph should not exceed 317 yards to conform. The testing conditions for spin rate will be revised from 2520 rpm to 2200 rpm, and the launch angle will be increased from 10 to 11 degrees.

The golf ball rollback rule was introduced in 2023, but it will come into effect in January 2028.