Cameron Young arrives at the PGA Championship having won twice in 2026, posted eight top-25 finishes, and hit the longest recorded drive in ShotLink history. But the conversation at Quail Hollow this week is not just about his golf. The ball he has quietly been using since August 2025 may have just become the rollback debate’s most inconvenient data point.
“Obviously there is no conforming list. I wasn’t aware that it would have – I suppose I read something that said it passed that test, but I wasn’t aware of that until very recently. So at no point was that a consideration. It was just really me trying to optimize my golf, and it’s the ball that seems to work the best for me.” Well, about the distance, he was equally clear: “I think you’d struggle to find a single person that’s playing the ball that goes the farthest. We’re all sacrificing a certain amount of things that we feel are worth it.”
The numbers back that up. Before his win at the 2025 Wyndham Championship, where he switched to the Titleist Pro V1x Double Dot, Young’s driving distance average was 302.7 yards. His average in 2026 remains exactly 302.7 yards. More tellingly, he hit the longest recorded drive in the ShotLink era on the last hole of The PLAYERS Championship this year, a 375-yard bomb. A rollback ball, and he is hitting it harder than ever, at least by that measure.
That is precisely what makes this debate significant. Sources confirmed the Double Dot was tested and conformed to the new standards: raising the testing conditions to a 125-mph clubhead speed and an 11-degree launch angle, up from 120 mph and 10 degrees. The USGA and R&A projected a 13 to 15-yard distance reduction for elite players when the rollback was announced in December 2023. But that drop is not uniform. Players who generate higher spin, like Young, see far less of a reduction than those who spin it less.
Cameron Young is playing with a golf ball that would allegedly be compliant with the new roll back rules that will come into effect in a few years time. He was asked about it ahead of the PGA Championship and he says every player in the game is sacrificing distance for control,… pic.twitter.com/oM0IqkhWab
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) May 13, 2026
That skepticism is shared among players who have tested similar balls. Adam Scott reported only a two-yard distance drop and said plainly: “I just feel like they are not going to achieve what they want to achieve the way they are going about trying to roll back the ball.”
Meanwhile, Lucas Glover was more blunt: “It’s laughable that they think we use the longest golf balls available to us. Nobody hits the ball we can hit the furthest, we use a ball that’s the best all around.”About half a dozen Tour players were already using the Double Dot before Young’s Wyndham win brought wider attention to it, suggesting the distance-for-control trade-off is a calculation most elite players are already making quietly.
Well, Young explained that his switch to the Double Dot was driven entirely by iron and wedge control, not any concern about future regulations.
“For me, the biggest thing is the irons. This ball is easier to control with the irons. It doesn’t spin as much, and it just allows me to be better with my distance control just because it’s more consistent.”
He first came across the ball at a Titleist testing facility about two years ago, liked the flight, tested it at the 2025 Wyndham, and has not looked back. Since that win in August 2025, he has three victories in his last 15 starts and enters PGA Championship week with a T3 at the Masters and a T3 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, also on his 2026 card.
The rollback timeline itself remains uncertain. Originally set for professionals in 2028, implementation may slip to 2030. Tournament organizers could have adopted a bifurcated approach to the rollback locally from January 2026, a model that Tiger Woods publicly supported in 2023, but that was scrapped in favor of a universal standard covering both professionals and amateurs. Young does not feel particularly troubled by any of it, though.
“The manufacturers are so good. They’re going to find their way to make a good golf ball no matter what the restrictions are.” Given what he has already done with a rollback-compliant ball, that is difficult to dispute.
Well, Young’s ball choice has only added fuel to an already burning debate.
Tour players push back on rollback as governing bodies dig in
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has not officially stated the Tour’s position, but players have done it for him. Justin Thomas, a Player Advisory Council member, was direct: “I feel a majority of guys out here are under the same opinion that there isn’t a problem with the golf ball. I don’t know why we’d let a group of amateur golfers decide how we play the game.”
Masters chairman Fred Ridley pushed back in April, reiterating his full support for the governing bodies. “Failure’s not an option,” Ridley said. “We need to continue to work together to come to some agreement.” Mark Darbon of The R&A echoed that, calling the distance trend undeniable and confirming that a finalized position is expected within months.
The Tour’s Player Advisory Council met in Hilton Head ahead of the RBC Heritage, where Harris English confirmed the rollback dominated the discussion. The proposed change raises the test driver’s clubhead speed from 120 mph to 125 mph, with the governing bodies now weighing a single unified rollout date of January 1, 2030, rather than the original staggered approach.
Maverick McNealy, a Tour policy board director, cut to the heart of it. “Golf is in the best place it’s ever been. I don’t know why we’re trying to complicate things for such a small fraction of the golf-playing community. And the way we’ve gone about changing the testing doesn’t actually accomplish what they want.”
Young is okay with it, but the question is whether other pros will find the best for them.
