Justin Thomas, one of the longest hitters on the tour, has spent years pushing back hard against golf’s proposed ball rollback. He has clashed publicly with the USGA, precisely over how the rule was being built. This week, that fight has reached a turning point since the USGA and R&A issued a joint statement. It has reshaped the plan based on real input from players. Thomas’ reaction to that shift says a lot about where the debate stands now.

“It’s great, man,” the golfer said when asked about the collaborative effort between the players in the USGA and the R&A. “I was very excited when I heard. I think that all the players were. I think the players in the USGA have had their differences over the years, but I just think they’d be crazy to think differently after coming into the meeting and talking to us and just realizing what was going on and just understanding that the thought of things potentially needing to be done isn’t incorrect, but just how they were going about it wasn’t fixing it. It wasn’t solving any problems.”

To understand what Justin Thomas means by “wasn’t fixing it,” one needs to know what the USGA and R&A originally proposed in 2023. The government bodies were worried about modern elite players hitting the ball too far for courses made for older championships. To curb that, they suggested testing competition golf balls at a higher swing speed than before, raising the threshold from 120 mph to 125 mph.

In simple terms, manufacturers would need to create a ball that wouldn’t travel as far when struck with such force. In addition to that, they planned to roll the proposal out in two ways: The pros will switch to it first in 2028, and recreational golfers will follow in 2030. However, Thomas was one of the loudest voices against that plan from the start.

At the time, he called the USGA’s decision-making “selfish,” given that it was mostly one-sided, as most players were not in line with it. He even argued the governing body was trying to solve a “problem that doesn’t exist.”

Furthermore, the skepticism around the plan never really went away. Earlier this year, Cameron Young was discovered to be using a ball that already met the new rollback standard and experienced minimal distance loss with it. That undercut the idea that a different ball would actually slow players down.

Around the same time, the PGA Tour surveyed its players on the issue, even asking whether the tour should set its own equipment rules instead of following the USGA.

With that discussion ongoing, this week, for the first time, the USGA, R&A, PGA Tour, and DP World Tour all signed off on the new deal together. Now, the proposed changes are that, rather than handing down a finished rule the way they did in 2023, the bodies now commit to working the problem out as a group. They would be testing approaches with tours and their players before settling on anything.

USGA CEO Mike Whan addressed the announcement at Shinnecock Hills, calling the reset “an opportunity to think bigger” rather than a step backward.

The rollback itself isn’t dead; it is still scheduled to happen, just differently. Instead of Pros moving first in 2028 and everyone else following in 2030, the new plan sets one single date for the entire game: January 2030. And Thomas seems happy with these developments.

“If I hit it so-called 8 to 10 yards shorter overnight, I promise you the first thing I’m going to do when I come out here is hit a driver. I’m actually gonna try to hit it farther because I’m hitting it shorter. So, if anything, in my opinion, it was making the problem worse. It was bringing more drivers into people’s hands,” Justin Thomas added.

Although Justin Thomas and many other players have been against the rule, other players in the game have been stronger supporters of the proposal.

Rory McIlroy, for one, said in 2023 that it would make “no difference whatsoever to the average golfer and would put the sport back on a more sustainable path.”

Gary Player has also been a vocal supporter of the rollback. Tiger Woods, meanwhile, has repeatedly backed the distance regulation, arguing that golf will eventually run out of room to keep extending championship venues.

With opinions still divided, the debate now remains open. Where the issue will ultimately land by 2030 is still uncertain as the proposal continues to evolve.