Dustin Johnson sees no reason to roll back the golf ball

It’s easy for Dustin Johnson to say, what with his prodigious average of 315 yards off the tee — second only to Rory McIlroy’s 317 yards last year — but the world No. 1 thinks the game is hard enough without curbing how far players can hit golf balls.

”When was the last time you saw someone make the game too easy?” Johnson told BBC Sport from the Middle East, where he and McIlroy are playing at this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. “I don’t really understand what all the debate is about because it doesn’t matter how far it goes; it is about getting it in the hole.”

DJ, who wowed Brandel Chamblee and the rest of the sporting world with his near ace on the 433-yard, par-4 12th hole at the Tournament of Champions, is one of 43 professionals who averaged more than 300 yards off the tee in 2017.

That eye-popping number has Tiger Woods teaming with Jack Nicklaus (“Change the frigging golf ball”), Mike Davis (the impact of increased distance has had a “horrible” impact on the game, the USGA executive director told the Wall Street Journal), and others who advocate slashing the distance professionals can drive golf balls or face the consequences of more and more venues becoming obsolete.

“We’ve had to lengthen so many golf courses now, and eventually you’re going to run out of property,” Woods said back in November from the Hero World Challenge.

Woods, the inspiration behind “Tiger proofing” courses after he exploded onto the golf scene with unparalleled power and distance, also lobbied for a different ball for amateurs — a curious take on bifurcation, which the overlords of the game have long opposed (see: anchored putting ban).

“Make it fun,” Woods, who lagged behind only John Daly in driving distance in 2000 (301 yards to 298), opined during the joint interview with DJ. “Juice the golf balls up, juice the clubs up and let them have a great time.”

Interestingly, Johnson “kinda” agreed with Woods’ suggestion that pros ought to use reduced-distance balls with the same specifications before apparently altering his views ahead of the Abu Dhabi event.

Take that drive that landed six inches from the 12th hole at Kapalua, for example. Johnson contended that “there was a lot of luck in that,” including hitting downhill onto a hard, fast fairway with a helping 30 mph wind behind him.

“I mean normally I can’t hit that ball that far,” said the 2016 U.S. Open champion, who noted that he would still hit a limited-range ball “much farther than I guess the average tour player.”

Adding that it was “not really a debate for me,” DJ concluded that whatever decision golf’s governing bodies come to “doesn’t really matter,” which is certainly the case for someone who will continue to thump it past most of his opponents, no matter how the golf ball is constituted.