3. Mike Clayton - The Ball Goes Too Far

The Sidehill Lie Golf Podcast

Australian golf course architect Mike Clayton joins me. He discusses his background as a professional golfer and how he got into the course design business. He outlines his approach to his work along with the principles of strategic golf course design. Then we dive into the distance debate in professional golf, where strategy has largely been lost due to the increasing distances professional golfers hit the ball. Mike describes the problem, how it has come to be, and how it has made many courses obsolete. He details the solution of rolling back the golf ball, of which he is an outspoken advocate on social media. We conclude with a discussion of the merits of bifurcating the rules.