Regarding the ball, it seems to me that perhaps it is not the main reason for the increased distance players are getting. Those who began golf with wooden drivers remember you had to hit them perfectly for max distance. Off center hits suffered greatly in both distance and direction. With the advent of the metal heads and increased MOI leading to more forgiveness, it was possible to go all out with the swing. And if you hit a bit off center, the loss of distance and direction was reduced.
That's why you will see some comments about reducing the size of heads, at least on the PGA Tour. I don't think that will happen, though, because there is so much marketing devoted to buying the same driver the pros use. If the tour limits the size of drivers to, let's say, 350cc, and manufacturers change over to that size completely, imagine the complaints from amateurs who only see lost distance and forgiveness with the smaller heads. So the manufacturers would then have to decide whether to make two sizes and try to market them even though they are not like the ones the pros use, or risk losing market share by only selling the smaller heads. Sounds like a lose-lose proposition to me.
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