Changes at the Old Course: Are the world’s two most important golf courses in danger of becoming obsolete?

There are more than 38,000 golf courses in the world, but at the end of the day, only two of them truly matter.

The Old Course at St. Andrews Links and Augusta National Golf Club are the game’s Babylon and its Camelot. Two of golf’s greatest championship venues have become proxies for a long-simmering battle for the future of the game.

This week, the R&A announced a fresh round of changes to The Old Course at St. Andrews, which it termed “enhancements,” to the patch of rumpled links where people have smacked spheres across the turf since before the world recognized the Earth was round. Ahead of the course's turn hosting the 155th Open Championship in 2027, the firm of Mackenzie & Ebert will reposition, modify and add a few bunkers. They are also tacking on 132 yards’ worth of new tees, bringing The Old Course’s championship total to 7,445 yards.

“The project will refine the strategic challenge for elite players in a small number of areas for future championships,” reads the release posted at TheOpen.com, “while restoring traditional features that have evolved over time to improve the everyday playing experience for local and visiting golfers on the world-renowned links.”

The proposed bunker work is neither a surprise nor much of a bother. The Old Course’s array of hazards has evolved over centuries and those stacked-sod pits require adjustments at regular intervals, anyway – even the infamous Road bunker, whose greenside wall is due for subtle recontouring as part of the upcoming edits.

The further stretching of a golf course whose modest footprint is already nearly tapped out is alarming. The Old Course already has multiple championship tee boxes wedged up against the course’s boundary lines. The championship 17^th tee actually sits on the St. Andrews Links Trust’s Jubilee course.

At a certain point, in the face of ever-increasing driving distance (more than 30 yards in the past 25 years), The Old Course cannot get longer. It can only become less relevant as a premier test of golf skill.

The 2022 Open Championship sounded plenty of alarm bells. Cam Smith’s 20-under-par winning score came in extremely firm conditions where the course became a glorified pitch-and-putt test. Even the use of several extreme hole locations could not keep scores from near-record levels.

Even worse, pace of play around The Old Course reached an all-time-frustrating level, with early rounds taking more than 6 hours due to the narrow confines and logistical quirks, including a slew of awkward backtrack walks from greens to following championship tees.

Further stretching The Old Course’s tips will only make future Open rounds slower. A new 605-yard tee on the par-5 5^th hole – technically located not on Old Course property but on St. Andrews’ neiighboring New Course, no less – will mean players will have to walk more than 100 yards backwards off the 4^th green to get there.

This is not progress.

Founded by Bobby Jones and crafted by Alister MacKenzie to invoke the venerable Scottish links in golf’s New World, Augusta National is The Old Course’s American spiritual cousin. Though its property is more expansive than that of its ancestor, it too has begun to run out of room as it’s swelled by more than 500 yards since Tiger Woods’ watershed 1997 Masters victory. In order to lengthen the iconic 13^th hole to preserve its playing characteristics, the club purchased land from neighboring Augusta Country Club in 2017. That such a move was even feasible is a testament to Augusta National’s immense power, but even the world’s most prestigious golf club’s needs come second to the laws of physics. Eventually, there won't be room for it to expand without serious compromises to its excellence as a home of golf history.

Something has to give. The potent combination of contemporary driver and ball is increasingly hostile to the virtues of competitive golf because the game's increase in power has outpaced most courses’ ability to defend themselves as their architects intended. Therefore, the importance of power off the tee as a core golf skill has begun to overwhelm the rest, and the "product" of professional golf has suffered. Unnaturally skinny fairways and draconian rough – the default setup suggestion of golfers who have thought about the problem for precisely two seconds – make for dreary playing and viewing, and only further favor long hitters who can muscle shots out of the hay. There is no compelling argument why 350-yard drives are inherently better than 310-yard drives; there is only pearl-clutching by players and equipment manufacturers, all of whose short-term self interest tends to trump long-term concern for the health of the game. It is an understandable perspective but that doesn’t mean it should win out.

Luckily, the forces behind golf’s two most important courses – the R&A (and its ally, the USGA) and Augusta National – now agree that golf equipment needs to be regulated not just to preserve their respective home venues but the game at large. Thinking long-term is their job, and they need support in executing their initiatives, overdue though they may be.

As it stands today, the 2027 Open at The Old Course will be the final major contested before the USGA and R&A implement new golf ball testing standards that are expected to roll driving distances back a decade or so. These new standards will take effect for pros in 2028 and for all golfers in 2030. While pros have been the main focus of rollback discussions, there is an argument that with more and more athletic but wild swingers of the golf club than ever before in the amateur and recreational ranks, reining their distance in will help solve emerging safety and pace-of-play issues at all golf courses, not just in the competitive game.

While some (myself included) would prefer to see a more aggressive rollback, as well as future regulation of driver head size, the hope is that the new USGA/R&A standards will at least halt current driving distance creep, creating a path towards stability and sustainability in equipment. And while the PGA of America and PGA Tour are not currently on board, the power of Augusta National and the other governing bodies, plus media and other public and private pressure, should eventually coax them into line, too.

Effective regulation of golf equipment is necessary for the game’s long-term survival. Resources like land, water and the myriad materials required to maintain golf courses are becoming more scarce and more expensive each year. Ever-longer driving distance averages and expanding golf courses are incompatible with these realities. If golf is to continue to have a place in the world as an outdoor pursuit, it needs to find ways to optimize the space it currently has. Shrinking the game from a participation standpoint is not desirable - more golfers means a healthier game - but in terms of physical footprint, it may be necessary sooner than later.

As it stands, the day when neither The Old Course nor Augusta National can legitimately challenge the greatest golfers in the world, as they have for a century or more, is approaching. Anyone who wants future generations to enjoy the game needs to work together to ensure that it never arrives. Which side are you on?

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