Just before ChristmasPING’s CEO John Solheim made his proposal public calling for the USGA to adopt rules mandating three classes of golf balls – one that would go the same distance as today’s, one 30 yards less and one 30 yards more.
Recreational players presumably would have their choice (does anyone think they will pick the 30 yards less ball?) and tournament organizers could specify which was to be played as a “condition of competition.” In particular thePGATour with all those long hitting superstars would use the 30-yards-less-ball in an effort to contain their mighty blows.
Solheim is concerned about the added distance tour professionals and elite amateurs are able to hit the ball, supporting his proposal with the point for the first time thePGATour average driving distance topped 290 yards. Further he comes at it with the evidentially preconceived opinions not only is increased distance a problem but that golf rules makers will eventually do something about it which could further hurt golf.
The latter has been opined about by this author on several occasions as has the former but recapping: Increased distance has always been railed against by those who want to preserve the “traditions of the game,” and they always miss the point. For 150 years golf technology has continued to change.
The “shorter-is-better” proponents argue the increased distance makes “fine old courses obsolete” and that too much land is required for new golf courses to contain that added yardage of today’s ball. Well, for the past three years more courses have been bulldozed than opened, a trend forecast to continue, so the amount of land being used is a non-starter. The “fine old courses” argument also begs the question because operators by this time have either made the decision to adjust layouts for the longer drives or decided to not adjust, leaving one to conclude, “What’s the big deal?”
“Fine old courses” are not an endangered species. They have been under attack by long hitters since the late 1800s when the feathery ball was replaced by the gutta percha ball and subsequently then when the rubber-cored ball became standard. Don’t believe it? Read some of the dire predictions of the game’s imminent demise from back then. The same arguments are being used today and are as wrong now as they were then with the ultimate proof being the game not only survived but became more popular.
Want more proof? Go back to the noisy predictions of irreversible harm some made when steel became the preferred shaft material replacing hickory wood. The crystal balls of the view-with-alarmers must have been cloudy and certainly were cracked since the conversion to steel was a big part in attracting millions of people to golf in the 1920s and 30s. All of a sudden it was easier to get the ball into the air to say nothing of hitting the ball with more efficiency and incidentally a lot further.
Sure the pros, and in fact most everybody who plays, hits the ball further today. Modern technology applied to club design and space age materials have made game-changing changes. Shafts are much lighter since graphite became the predominant material of driver shafts. It is 50-60 grams lighter than steel and the current titanium clubheads totally outclass the previous heads made of persimmon wood. Titanium is both a lot stronger and a lot lighter allowing the club face to produce a trampoline-like effect to spring the ball forward. All this means drivers can be swung faster which of course produces more distance but the shafts of today’s drivers are also much longer (on the order of 2 to 3 inches) giving even more clubhead speed.
In case you think this makes the case of those wanting to curtail the golf ball and that we are on the way to needing 8,000-yard courses, people who know about these things say we’ve seen about all the distance gains from equipment that are possible simply because of the laws of physics.
There will be incremental distance gains for at least the pros and elite amateurs though probably not for the rest of us. Pros and elite amateurs have gotten physically larger with even higher levels of athleticism. (Anecdotally I understand the average shoe size on Tour in the 1960s was 9½ and today it is 13.)
They employ more training (physical, video, etc.) and there is more training at an earlier age. Plus there’s another reason drives on thePGATour are traveling further, one not usually considered by those who want to make us use a shorter ball. Modern technology also produces golf course agronomic conditions not even imagined in previous eras such as firmer fairways that give more roll…well you get the picture.
Fans of professional golf want the excitement of seeing toursters “going low” and if we somehow craft the rules of the professional game to forget the fan we are making a huge mistake. Professional golf is first and foremost entertainment.
There’s a very interesting statistic those who want to rein in distance are not quoting.
Scoring average on thePGATour was higher in 2011 than in 2001, the year the solid-center urethane covered Titleist Pro V1 ball took the golf world by storm. Not much higher to be sure – 68.86 strokes per round versus 68.81 – but the point is scoring hasn’t all of a sudden gotten out of hand. Golf is still a very difficult game even if you hit the ball a long way.
Golf is also a business and the equipment makers such as Solheim’sPINGhave a vested interest in what equipment the USGA will allow or not allow.PINGdoesn’t make golf balls but those companies that do most certainly won’t relish trying to market golf balls in three different performance categories. They no longer would be able to claim theirs is the longest since big brother has decreed otherwise. (Maybe the slogan could be, “We make the longest short ball in golf!”)
Equipment companies are a major part of the golf industry, an industry that is not healthy so why would we want to put up more roadblocks?
And it’s not just the ball. Changing the ball to a shorter ball for professionals as Jack Nicklaus has proposed or using Solheim’s idea does one other very bad thing.
It means one of the great beauties and attractions of golf will be gone; that delicious feeling of comparing yourself to the professionals. It’s as if we are being told, “You’re not good enough, so don’t even think about pounding that tee shot over the water…you can’t do anyway.”
Change the rules and recreational players will lose the some of the charm and mystery of trying to conquer and unconquerable game played with the same rules and with the same equipment as the professionals.
Related posts:
- Sunice Congratulates the U.S. Solheim Cup Team
- In news other than Tiger: Solheim takes Tour off hook
- Antigua Golf Salutes Team USA at the Solheim Cup
