Titanium, graphite, steel, carbon steel, stainless steel, MOI, CG, grams, 460 CC, stiff, x stiff, double x, shaft lengths, grip diameter, lite, super fast, face thickness, adjustable, on and on and on. Look at all the terms we use to discuss clubs. And we're talking about putters? It all started when Karsten Solheim founded a company called Ping and radically improved and changed the way iron club heads were made. The rest is history. PGA pros hitting Fairway metals 300 plus yards? Are you kidding me? And the problem is on the green? Changes in equipment over the last couple of decades clearly give an edge to the bombers. All of us have benefited from the better equipment. The game is easier to learn and play. But go to a PGA event and take a look at the range, see many body types that resemble Gary Player, Bob Toski, Jerry Barber, or Corey Pavin and Jeff Sluman? The tech gains didn't bother Tiger when he first came on the scene, he's no longer the longest out there and there's a slew of guys that walk past his drive on there way to their ball.
Want to change a rule that directly affects the score? How about mud balls? And how about having to hit a ball out of somebody's divot? You stripe a drive down the middle of the fairway and have to hit the ball out of a hole in the ground.
I watch pros, men and women, miss gimmes on TV every Sunday. It's still the stroke that requires the least amount of co-ordination and input from all the muscle groups and yet it remains the hardest to master. That's why you drive for show and putt for doe.
