Thanks for posting this. I hadn’t kept up with this recently. It is somewhat surprising. As stated in the article the governing bodies of golf have batted this idea around for years and made it part of their proposed rule changes to golf last March.
This is the first time however that they have indicated that stifling ball flight would be a universal rule applying to all golfers, although it only kicks in for us in 2030. 2028 for the pros. Ball flight will be limited to 317 yards. Make sure you stock up on balls in 2029! 
I think it is a big mistake to makes the rule apply to amateurs, most of whom can’t drive the ball anywhere near 300 yards. Golf is hard enough as it is.
As to the pros, there are pros and cons and good arguments for both sides. In support of the change, as the article states, many great old courses are obsolete and can’t be used for the Tours or the majors because they are too short and they don’t have the land and/or ability to expand like many others such as Augusta have done. Watching pros routinely drive it 350 yards to wedge distance on par 4’s (and even par 5’s) and shooting -25 over 4 rounds isn’t exciting to some and also arguably is against the spirit of golf. There are many complaints about golf no longer being a strategic game and that players no longer have to be creative and do things like shape shots. Just Bryson it up and pound it as far as you can and sort it out from there. You may be in the rough but you are hitting wedge to the green while your opponent is hitting a 5 iron. A huge and usually insurmountable advantage.
This is a big deal and may be the biggest rule change in the history of golf. That is because the most important shot in golf is the tee shot. There has rarely been a more incorrect adage than “drive for show and putt for dough”. It should be the other way around. Even stats like greens in regulation and proximity of approach have a greater correlation to score than putting. Almost all of the best golfers historically were the best drivers of the day and that is still true today. Arnie, Jack, Norman, Tiger, were all among the best drivers of the ball. In fact putting was considered to be the weakest part of Arnie’s, Jack’s and Norman’s game. Today we have Rory, Rahm, Scheffler, Cantlay, DJ, Koepka, Bryson, Justin Thomas and many others who just pound the ball well past their opponents. John Daly won 2 majors only because he could drive it past anyone in his day and was hitting 4 clubs less into many greens.
There are tons of small guys today that pound it as well. They have been trained for distance since they were kids as they and their coaches know that is the most important part of golf and that you can’t be a great player if you bunt it or are too wild off the tee.
Short hitters but great putters of the past were Pavin (1 major), Zach Johnson (2), Brad Faxon (0), Kite (1), Weir (1), Crenshaw (2), Justin Leonard (1) and one of the best putters ever along with Crenshaw, Loren Roberts, who also had one of the best nicknames ever, the “Boss of the Moss”. Alas zero majors for him as well. The only current short hitter possibly still considered among the best in the game is Jordan Speith. And no one would argue that he won because of his putting which is not his strength. He burst on the scene with 4 majors in a short time span in the 2010’s but after he stopped hitting fairways off the tee he won no more. Fifty yards behind and in the rough or worse won’t get it done and your putter can’t save you from that.
Again, thjs rule change is a big deal and will allow many players to compete more closely with the big dogs.
Oh yeah. Arguments against. Many think this rule unfairly penalizes the better players. To me I think it would be similar to limiting the force with which a football or hockey player can hit an opponent or shoot the puck. It appears that this will also remove those exciting risk/reward par 4’s as most won’t be reachable if the ball can travel only 317 yards, rendering them obsolete and eliminating what has become an exciting part of the game, especially in match play.
Although the article doesn’t I should also mention that these rule changes aren’t a fait accompli. There are arguments to be made that such a rule is in restraint of trade. What if Company X comes up with a better golf ball based on some new proprietary engineering or manufacturing process? Who are the USGA and R & A to tell them they can’t sell it or that the average person can’t buy it and use it? Huge damages possible. Now I think it would be harder to make that case for the pros, but certainly that case could be made for the masses. One or more manufacturers could sue and I could even foresee a class action lawsuit on behalf of the masses. It wouldn’t surprise me if the rule is changed at some point so that amateurs are no longer included. That was always the stated intention. Looks like a bait and switch to me.
Stay tuned. For the reasons stated and I am sure several others I wouldn’t be surprised if this rule remained controversial right up to implementation.
