Has technology taken from the skill of playing golf?

[turtleback]

Just get one of these and be done with it.

 

http://www.neatorama.com/2010/04/10/swingless-golf-club/

[natureboy]

On 10/26/2015, 12:19:46, newtogolf said:

I've been reading the responses and questioning my responses to the poll (yes, yes, no).  I think to some degree the answers are relative.

If I grew up in Hogan's era I'd have learned to hit the clubs he did and my performance relative to him would likely be no different than my performance today relative to Jordan Spieth or Tiger Woods.   Anyone using clubs from Hogan's era would likely perform worse than if they used modern clubs.

This was my thought too. Also the golfing population's abilities relative to the courses. What was a challenging track in the 30's has been tamed by the modern distances so the whole bell curve of distance for the whole population of HCPs has been shifted longer relative to yesterday's golf population. So a scratch player will average well under par on many of these courses where in the past par or slightly above would have been expected and so on up the chain of HCPs.

[sirhacksalot]

Reading through the replies I think the question is a lil too vague.  If we are comparing hickories to the brand new clubs yes much easier.  But to different eras of clubs I don't believe it as much.  For an experiment I bought some Jack Nickalaus Muirfield Blades, circa '82 same ( as me) after i read what was the best blade etc thread.  I found some pretty cheaply. And for some reason I hit them better than the MX-25's, the weaker lofts seem somehow to go just as far if not a bit further than the stronger lofts of the mizunos. The feel is unexplainable, and as long as I am not hitting super fat I don't seem to be punished too too much for off hits.  However i don't think that comparing a new driver to an original TM burner ,the tiny steel one, would be and accurate comparison.  

[Rainmaker]

I voted no, no and yes.  I definitely believe modern equipment makes it easier but I also believe that golf courses have become longer in-step with these improvements.  For example, when I started playing "metal woods" were just gaining traction and 200 yard par 3's were something I saw only on TV.