The 2024 US Open Is Designed to Thwart Golf’s Big Hitters

Ever since Tiger Woods and his soaring drives burst onto the country successful 1997, golfers person been driving the shot farther and farther, with courses lengthening their holes to mitigate the advantage—a signifier some financially and environmentally unsustainable. But this week astatine the US Open, the United States Golf Association volition showcase a people successful Pinehurst No. 2 whose steadfast and accelerated conditions, on with slick, domed greens and sizeable magnitude disconnected the tee, purpose to situation the biggest hitters without resorting to much yardage. This, the USGA hopes, volition amusement however courses tin basal the trial of time. The Open could beryllium a cardinal turning constituent successful golf’s arms contention with sports subject and technology.

These tactics, if successful, mightiness bring astir changes good beyond the large championships and PGA tour. The request to combat ever-longer drives goes acold beyond the nonrecreational ranks, says Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s main governance officer. “You person the assemblage game, you person authorities amateur tournaments, you person authorities opens, you person PGA conception events—these play courses each are having to summation magnitude successful bid to support up.” The request to support the athletics sufficiently investigating astatine the apical level “is an contented that impacts thousands of play courses worldwide,” Pagel says.

Pinehurst No. 2 is simply a people with a agelong and storied past. It is besides landlocked, with small quality to outgrow its existent footprint. In fact, the North Carolina people volition play 10 yards shorter than the past clip it hosted the US Open, successful 2014. The USGA has committed to continuing to usage “cathedrals of the game” specified arsenic Pinehurst No. 2—it’s readying to instrumentality to the North Carolina people 4 times successful the adjacent 25 years—but with the shot traveling farther than ever, specified classical venues are successful jeopardy. Over the past decade, mean driving region connected the PGA circuit has ticked up each year, clocking successful astir 10 yards longer since the Open past came to Pinehurst. Compared to the aboriginal 1990s, drives contiguous are 30 yards longer.

Partly this is due to the fact that of the players. Today’s professionals—and elite amateurs—are the representation of fitness, with toned arms and almighty legs that let them to propulsion against the crushed and popular up connected their swings, expanding the region the shot flies. A operation of caller techniques, modeled aft a akin determination successful Woods’ play plaything aboriginal successful his career, person been adopted by men and women alike to execute this effect.

These person coincided with advances successful technology. Launch monitors, which usage doppler radar, the aforesaid tech that’s utilized successful velocity guns, measurement the ball’s carnal characteristics astatine the constituent of interaction to connection players and coaches a scope of data: plaything speed, the ball’s motorboat angle, however accelerated the shot travels, however overmuch it spins, not to notation however acold it flies. These devices springiness golfers the information they request to alteration their method and hone successful their instrumentality to deed the shot farther.

“A batch of region is coming from lowering the rotation of drivers and adjacent irons, but maintaining the launch,” says Chris Voshall, manager of merchandise improvement for the sports marque Mizuno. Voshall says that implicit the past 10 to 15 years, motorboat monitors person helped players recognize the narration “between motorboat angle, rotation rate, and the golfer’s quality to make shot speed.” As good arsenic informing technique, this has led to much diversion players, who question faster swings to impart much unit connected the ball, helium says. On apical of this, these monitoring devices person allowed sports companies to optimize their products for generating region by focusing connected motorboat and spin, helium says.