Golf’s distance fix may not be what the USGA thinks it is. After much backlash, the governing bodies have now decided to work closely with tour pros and revise the standard for all golfers on a single date in January 2030. Enter Sir Nick Faldo, and he provides a solution that will not just end the distance debate but also stop slow play.

Faldo believes golf has focused too narrowly on the ball. The six-time major champion argues that the sport could address distance by combining simpler equipment restrictions, especially limiting golfers to a bag of nine clubs and shorter tees. Yes, you read it right; he wants golfers to use nine clubs. Audacious as it may sound, Faldo has a reason.

“If you only had nine clubs, which would be fabulous for TV because they’d probably arrive at a tournament with 20 clubs and they’d work out which nine they need for that golf course, which is a great story as well to say, ‘Oh, he chucked out this.’ I did it once. The world went nuts when I left the nine iron out of the bag at the PGA Championship. I think I said, ‘Well, I don’t need to hit nine.’ I said, ‘What if you need a nine?’ ‘Well, I’ll hit a little eight, you know.'” Nick Faldo said on Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show.

According to the former Masters winner, asking manufacturers to produce a golf ball that travels shorter distances creates huge commercial and consumer problems. Instead, limiting pros to select only nine clubs will make it more challenging for them to rely on distance alone. Instead, they would start thinking creatively, which would bring art and skill back to the game of golf. But how would it solve the slow play problem?

He pointed out that golfers won’t take much time to decide which club to use for a particular shot if they have limited options. Gone will be the dithering between a 9-iron and an 8-iron, which was the main reason Sam Burns was furious with slow players. Instead, they will have to work out something with what they have in the bag.

This is actually an idea suggested by two-time Masters champion José María Olazábal and fully supported by Sir Nick Faldo. However, the veteran golfer pitched in a few of his own. On top of that, Faldo floated the idea of shorter tees.

Nick Faldo challenged Bryson DeChambeau to hit long with a shorter tee

One solution Nick Faldo pitched was to reduce the tee length by one inch. He has already tried this idea with Bryson DeChambeau and the world long-drive champion Kyle Berkshire. The result was telling.

Both failed to produce similar results with shorter tee lengths. DeChambeau blasted a drive to 360 yards with a regular tee. But when Faldo handed him a shorter tee, DeChambeau’s first response was, “I can’t do that [hit that long].” The first drive he hit was a snap hook, and the second was what Faldo described as “bananas.”

On the other hand, Berkshire failed so miserably that Faldo burst out laughing at him and the situation. The idea is to shift the advantage away from pure power and toward ball-striking and adaptability. Both these solutions reward touch and control.

Rory McIlroy endorsed the idea.

When Nick Faldo met the Northern Irishman while practicing at Royal Birkdale, the Englishman pitched his idea to get feedback.

“Absolutely, I would endorse that,” McIlroy said. “The tee shot I just hit here into the wind was probably off a one-inch tee.”

A lot of time, money, and discussion are going on around golf ball rollback. Many pros are upset about it. Can the solution to fix all of that be this simple? The PGA Tour and the DP World Tour would have to run some trials to find the answer.