Ian Poulter’s Take on Distance Debate

[phillyk 489]

Debate time - Why does the golf ball... - Ian James Poulter | Facebook

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Debate time - Why does the golf ball travel so far? Is there an easy fix? Let me know your thoughts...

Interesting idea to potentially introduce a minimum driver loft. Haven’t heard that one before. 

[Vinsk 1,800]

9 minutes ago, phillyk said:

Debate time - Why does the golf ball... - Ian James Poulter | Facebook

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Debate time - Why does the golf ball travel so far? Is there an easy fix? Let me know your thoughts...

Interesting idea to potentially introduce a minimum driver loft. Haven’t heard that one before. 

Asinine. All of it. Let it be. Golf isn’t considered one of the hardest sports in the world just because it’s hard to hit it far. If you have to hit it 320yds to compete at the highest level of the sport then so be it. I wonder how many of these whiney distance people are the same who claim they’d rather hit it straighter than farther? 

[Piz 542]

I agree with everything Ian said.  I do not agree, however, that distance is a problem that needs addressing.  Sure...a long, straight, hole with little in the way of trouble favors the long hitters...but how many of those do we typically encounter?  I'd say it has more to do with course design than it does length off the tee.  

[iacas 9,642]

I'm automatically against anything Ian Poulter says. 🙂

[boogielicious 2,667]

BD didn’t invent the knowledge that swinging up reduces spin. He didn’t develop the training to swing faster either. He has just taken advantage of this knowledge, which is a credit to him. I wish they would stop crediting him with things others came up with. 

[TourSpoon 240]

17 hours ago, iacas said:

I'm automatically against anything Ian Poulter says. 🙂

Exactly, 

But in this case I will give him a pass on having an original idea. 

[CarlSpackler 624]

Shut up and swing faster Ian.

[Bonvivant 261]

19 hours ago, Piz said:

I agree with everything Ian said.  I do not agree, however, that distance is a problem that needs addressing.  Sure...a long, straight, hole with little in the way of trouble favors the long hitters...but how many of those do we typically encounter?  I'd say it has more to do with course design than it does length off the tee.  

BDs win at the US Open kind of goes against this. If he is going to be hitting it as high as he plans on at Augusta there are going to be some crazy lines taken.

My opinion is that the longer player will always have an advantage, no matter what the setup is. Unless you are going to put water for the last 160 yards of every hole before the green, it's something you just can't get around. 

I think that the distance "issue" does need addressing but only because of conservation efforts (water and space). The longest hitters will still have an advantage, but at least you can keep courses true to form. Bifurcation is the only way I see it working, so that casual-amature players can go play the same courses and the courses don't have to keep buying up more land (and using more resources on the space)

[cipher 525]

Pretty interesting response by MC.  

[Double Mocha Man 674]

Crossfield's gotta stop using that wide-angle camera.  But he's always interesting...

Edited October 12 by Double Mocha Man

[DrvFrShow 331]

Isn't the object of the game to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible? BDC said he was going to hit 2000 drives in preparation for the Masters. Come on, you can't ban practice and physical fitness. If someone is obsessed enough to put in extra hours of work you can't penalize them for it. You can't penalize everyone else for what he does. I'm sorry, but if they change the rules, someone like BDC will find a way to exploit a weakness in them. He and his coach are those types of guys. They study physics and stuff like that. This whole thing is funny. 

If anything, Crossfield and Poulter convinced me to try adjusting my driver for less loft and see what happens. I have a 18-19 HC. What have I got to lose?

I don't want to see bifurcation. Where do you draw the line for the bifurcation? It would be bad for the game because elite amateurs compete in "Open" events and that opens a new can of worms. You would regret bifurcation. And you would regret rolling back the equipment or the ball because of a handful of players.

Is BDC winning every week? No.

[TourSpoon 240]

Does anyone regret banning square grooves? Same arguments, same worries, and in the end we don't even think about it. Its kind of funny that since the ban, the average rough on the PGA tour would qualify as first cut at your local muni so that's your way around square grooves.  I don't think rolling the driver back to 8 degrees and 45.5" inches really is going to hurt the average golfer. Maybe we should limit tee length to 2.75" and be done with it. 

[Double Mocha Man 674]

1 minute ago, TourSpoon said:

Does anyone regret banning square grooves? Maybe we should limit tee length to 2.75" and be done with it. 

I'm all in on the 2.75 inch tees, but gimme back my square grooves.

[TourSpoon 240]

3 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

I'm all in on the 2.75 inch tees, but gimme back my square grooves.

I just picture Mark Calcavecchia and his Ping wedges when I hear the term "square grooves", spinning it out of the rough. 

[StuM 51]

We do not tell sprinters to not try to run faster, we do not tell swimmers to not try to swim faster, how about telling tennis players to not work on hitting faster serves.  

[JxQx 59]

I don’t think I’ve heard/read an actual good argument that distance is an issue. It seems like all the people arguing that is a problem, don’t want to come to terms with the fact that par doesn’t matter in tournament golf.  

[Wanzo 91]

I like the idea.  Why limit cor if distance isn’t a problem.  

[chicub15 22]

I disagree with Ian as far as making rules changes for the Tour as a response to BDC and others hitting it longer. I do have firsthand knowledge of how much the angle of attack (hitting up vs hitting down on the ball) affects distance off the tee, it has made a big difference in my game. The average weekend golfer would probably benefit from hitting up on it more.