"Why change what's working?" - Jon Rahm questions USGA's ball rollback proposal

Jon Rahm feels there is no need to bring change to the size of the golf ball. Last week, the United States Golf Association and R&A proposed a new Model Local Rule that would change the hitting distance of the golf ball in tournaments.

Rahm was speaking at the pre-event press conference of the World Golf Championships Match Play event in Austin, Texas. He asked why sports ruling bodies were looking to reduce driving distance.

He said:

"My biggest question for them to be we're in a golden era of golf where it's exploded since COVID, a lot of people are watching, you have a completely different tour, all these things are happening for the game and it's growing. Why change what's working?"

The current World No. 2 feels there are other ways to increase the difficulty level of the game.

"There's plenty of things you can do to make it more difficult for us, golf course design, course setup, all these great things. Courses like last week at Innisbrook, it's not long, and the score still held up. Colonial for the most part, unless it's a very benign week with the wind, scores are always higher than the average. Hilton Head, same thing. Valderrama, same thing. You can neglect a lot of nowadays' distance with different golf course design."

The Spaniard is one of the longest hitters right now with an average driving distance of 314 yards this season. He doesn't feel that the proposed rule will impact him much.

"As it comes to me, I don't think it's going to matter that much," said Rahm. "I think if you were to roll the ball back, you're going to -- it's going to be more damaging to the shorter hitters on TOUR than it is for people that have distance, because if you're giving me a 7-iron as opposed to a 9- or an 8-iron, that means you're giving somebody a 4- or 5- as opposed to a 7- or a 6.

"I'm still going to be able to stop it in most places with a 7-iron when some people might not. Especially we're talking about missing fairways right now. You're putting those players in a tougher situation."

The proposed rule has stirred a new debate and many golf professionals have shown their apprehension towards it. Bryson DeChambeau called it the "most atrocious thing" to do.

Acushnet CEO David Maher, who owns Titleist, termed the proposal "a solution in search of a problem."

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What's next for Jon Rahm?

Jon Rahm is in Austin, Texas, for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. He had to withdraw from The Players Championship, the PGA Tour's flagship tournament, due to a stomach illness.

Rahm is playing the best golf of his life at the moment and has already won three events this year: the Sentry Tournament of Champions, American Express, and the Genesis Invitational.

The WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play will take place from Wednesday, March 22, to Sunday, March 26, in a round-robin format with 64 best players in the world divided into 16 teams.