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Fred Ridley, the former USGA president who now heads Augusta National’s Competition Committee, must be pleased with himself and his club for turning the Masters into a U.S. Open venue.<\/p>\nFred Ridley, the former USGA president who now heads Augusta National’s Competition Committee, must be pleased with himself and his club for turning the Masters into a U.S. Open venue.<\/p>\n
But after watching the train wreck that was this year’s event, it occurred to me that we were seeing more than the result of poor choices by the green jackets. We were seeing a consequence of poor choices by the blue jackets at the USGA who have allowed technological advances to change the game.<\/p>\n
Would the hallowed grounds of Augusta been so bastardized had not club and ball technology forced it? I don’t think so. And that’s why I believe that while technology on some levels has helped the average golfer enjoy the game a bit more, on the whole I think we’ve lost more than we’ve gained. Even freezing equipment specifications where they are today doesn’t take into account the human factor. Golfers are going to get bigger, stronger, and more fit. So with the equipment at hand today we are going to continue to watch courses get longer, more expensive to build and maintain, and thus more difficult and expensive to play.<\/p>\n We’re also going to see more bizarre course setups for events like the Masters and U.S. Open. These are courses that are beyond difficult for the best players in the world and would be impossible for the average golfer to traverse with any satisfaction. In fact, I’m not sure the average player can even relate to or comprehend the degree of difficulty presented by August National this year. I doubt any of us will ever play a course so contrived.<\/p>\n Who Opened the Door?<\/strong> Along the way, I think they’ve also been incredibly shortsighted and inept in setting equipment standards. The standards set for the golf ball never took into account the possible technological advances in materials and construction that now enable the best players to achieve optimum launch conditions and distance while the rest of us see little real improvement. And while the USGA displays much anguish about grooves these days, they ignore the far greater impact of metal woods with a spring-like clubface.<\/p>\n The grievous errors made over the last two decades have changed the game in ways big and small. And few of those changes are for the better.<\/p>\n The Game Then and Now<\/strong> So when Arnie hit that prodigious 260-yard drive on the 18th in the 1960 Masters that we saw replayed Sunday, I could relate at the time knowing I had about the same equipment and probably would have been 20 yards shorter.<\/p>\n Today the world’s best players are using clubs and balls incredibly fine-tuned to their personal specifications. Club manufacturers are offering different clubs for “good” players as opposed to “average” players. Tiger Woods plays a personal ball that while conforming isn’t even available commercially. The performance gains the pros enjoy are completely disproportional to the benefits the average golfer realizes.<\/p>\n What this has done is widen the gap between the game’s elite and the rest of us. And because the USGA and R&A choose to measure the state of the game by the performance of the world’s best, this is leading to things like the ridiculous proposed groove rule that will further separate the equipment of the pros from that the rest of us use.<\/p>\n Thus, I no longer can relate to the play and performance of professional golfers. They are playing a whole different game than golf as I know it on courses that approach carnival funhouse conditions. A connection has been lost and I, for one, am saddened by that.<\/p>\n The Little Things I Miss<\/strong> I’m hitting longer and straighter shots. One ball lasts me an entire round without being cut. But I’m not sure that’s worth the changes to the game as a whole that technology has brought with it. I truly miss the feel of persimmon on balata. I miss the feel of forged iron on balata. I miss having a set of clubs I could come to love over several seasons before they became obsolete.<\/p>\n I also miss watching the Masters for what it has become.<\/p>\n In the End…<\/strong> Player also said that were Tiger sent back in time to play with the equipment and in the conditions of Jack’s era, he would no doubt still excel. Obviously, we would still have enjoyed watching him. And maybe that’s my point. We’ve lost our connection to the past and our connection to the game’s best. Did we really need all this technology to enjoy the game more or are we all just slightly better and enjoying it a lot less?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last 20 years have witnessed a sea change in golf equipment performance. Today we have more and better choices than ever. But is all that a good thing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bag_drop","category-hot_topics"],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nThe Horse is Out of the Barn<\/strong>
\nGary Player in an interview on Monday of Masters week talked about a future where 400 yard drives are not only being hit, as they are occasionally now, but hit regularly. I believe him.<\/p>\n
\nClearly the USGA and R&A had every intention of preserving the game… except they didn’t. As I’ve written before, it’s my opinion that the Ping groove controversy of the 1980s and the subsequent fear of litigation forever compromised the game’s ruling bodies’ ability to manage technology.<\/p>\n
\nBack in the 60s, when I took up the game, clubs and balls were remarkably uniform from average players right up through the pro ranks. There were different ball compressions and shaft weights and flexes, but even a bargain set of irons or woods from Sears Roebuck were essentially the same clubs Arnold Palmer was playing.<\/p>\n
\nThere’s a great old Donald Ross course near me that I get to play once in awhile. Built back in the 20s, it features his extreme mounded greens. But because the members all now can drive the ball 30 yards further than in years past, they’ve felt compelled to speed up the greens to a point where they’re close to unplayable. They’re protecting par, but they’ve lost the real Ross legacy. It’s not a lot of fun to play. I miss that.<\/p>\n
\nIn his press conference at the Masters Gary Player was asked for probably the zillionth time to compare Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. His response was that any comparison is impossible because it’s a different game thanks to the equipment today. He noted something so simple as plastic spikes have changed the character of greens as they’re no longer covered in spike marks. As if to prove the point, he went out and averaged over 260 yard drives in the second round. At 71. And he was the shortest hitter in the field.<\/p>\n