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Distance Out of Control

• TarheelsRule 5,468 Posts

  Thu, Aug 12 2010 4:17 PM

  It is somewhat funny to hear a lot of the players on WGT complain about not being able to hit it 350 off the tee every time. I was watching the PGA today and noted that Tiger hit a 3 wood / 7 iron to a hole playing 508. Bubba Watson played a driver and 56 degree wedge to a par five of 598, granted he cut the corner but the corner was about 350. To attempt to salvage the game, the PGA / USGA have to do something about the distances that the current players are hitting the ball. I would like to see a restricted flight ball, much like the softball players use, which would limit the distance by about 10% or so. If this doeesn't happen in the next few years, many of the great old courses will be rendered useless for the PGA tour. Harbour Town is a great example, par 71 that measures about 7,000 yards and is as long as it can be made. Back in the early 70's this tract played to about 6,800 yards and the winning score was normally 5 to 6 under par. Today the winner can be down to 16 under. I watch players play the most difficult hole on the course #8, a par four of 470 hitting a 3 wood and 8 iron. The big 300 yard bombs are fun to hit on the course but frankly ruining golf. Take a look back at the old Shell's World of Golf, Snead and a player of his era, hitting a driver and 4 wood to a 425 yard par four..that is golf.

• drewsterinone 190 Posts

  Thu, Aug 12 2010 7:04 PM

  i somewhat agree, but kinda dealing with other sports. if they made it so the best  baseball player was only allowed to hit 3 homeruns a season then baseball would go dull. If it came down do say Jiminez hitting off that wall, just cause someone else cant do what he can do, should they not allow him to play off the wall like he did at Saint andies!!! just wondering.

  Just saying, if you got the cabability to do such a thing, i think it should be allowed.  Now having rigged up clubs, thats a different story.

  But if you can do it.......DO IT!!!!! 

   

  drews randomness again

   

   

  DREW

• overthetop2 192 Posts

  Fri, Aug 13 2010 12:48 AM

  Somewhere, a Kiawah executive is laughing his face off, saying something along the lines of "You didn't think we were sane when we built the huge back tees at 7900 yards on our course did you?  Well we aced you idiots didn't we!!!"

  If things keep up like this, we may well see the big back tees being used in future Kiawah majors...

• TarheelsRule 5,468 Posts

  Fri, Aug 13 2010 9:57 AM

  That is true but unfortuantely all the great courses built years ago can't move back any more and will be rendered no good for any tour event. Kiawah has those tees more as a joke than anything else but you are right they may be used one day. I don't think forcing the tour pros to use a restricted ball does anything to disallow what their talents allow them to do, everyone will lose some distance in that case.

• SweetiePie 4,925 Posts

  Sat, Aug 14 2010 7:37 PM

  Clubs & Balls of today are a ruin to the game. At every level. As I watch skinny, tall dudes, bombing balls far and away, with nothing more than a fair golf swing, a fair IQ and the new gear, I don't get impressed, I get bored. I see it at my club all the time. No brainers, knocking it out of the park, hitting fairways with the solf pillow of amazing drivers and ball combinations, hitting par fives in two with irons that will forgive Charlie Manson and then only to come back to my game...still got to putt...little boy.

• TarheelsRule 5,468 Posts

  Mon, Aug 16 2010 8:31 AM

  Even the putting on the greens of today is easier SP.  Better balls that stay round instead of getting lopsided, soft spikes so the greens aren't all spiked up, green mowers that make the green faster and smoother and of course better putters that are much more fogiving.  Try to putt a few times on a green that is mowed close out on the practice range with an old Titleist and a bullseye putter, you will see what it was like years ago to putt. 

• KingOfTheCourse 419 Posts

  Mon, Aug 16 2010 9:06 AM

  Tarheels, you are correct with the driving ditances but that hole was down-wind sunday at the PGA.  You need to look at their average, the average tour pro is 299 yards, Dustin Johnsons averages 318.  And the shortest hitter could be considered Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin at 251.

• neildiamond11790 1,115 Posts

  Mon, Aug 16 2010 9:13 AM

  Its kind of funny, but who won the PGA?  Kaymer, a regular to long hitter, not the really long hitters like Watson and Johnson.  In fact it was the bombing drives of those 2 that lost them the tourney.  The greens are so slick now you can putt off them, and its even harder to get close to them.  i recall Tiger putting off the 13th at the Masters a few years ago.  That would never happen in the days of slow greens. 

  The old courses are at a clear disadvantage but the times have changed.  But in a day like today many players are still able to stay competitive at older ages, like Watson almost winning the british 2 yrs ago, to a couples having success on the senior tour and still playing well on the pga.  Younger players are putting in more time then they ole timers use to, and are working out as well.  So there are a few good things going on today that I can stay positive about.

• TarheelsRule 5,468 Posts

  Mon, Aug 16 2010 9:31 AM

  The fact that Watson can still bomb it out there 300 yards is more of a testiment to the problem. Kaymer isn't a big hitter, but even so he can bomb it out there over 300 when he needs to. Johnson and B Watson can hit it 350 with ease. The PGA this week played at around 7400 yards, until the wind came up on Sunday the pros were making the course look pretty easy. I think that had conditions stayed much as they were earlier in the week, the winning score would have been around 14 under, that on a course with high rough, 1200 bunkers and 7400 yards. The slick greens are not a handicap at all. I have played at Winged Foot, Augusta, Sahalee and a number of courses with green speeds in excess of 12 on the stimp. I can and will always putt better on these than on the greens where the speed in 9 or 10.

• SweetiePie 4,925 Posts

  Mon, Aug 16 2010 12:10 PM

  TarheelsRule:

  Try to putt a few times on a green that is mowed close out on the practice range with an old Titleist and a bullseye putter

   

  Well, I don't have any old Titleist balls, but still use the only putter, (since age 7,15 years ago) which is a 1960's Accushnet, Reuter jr. Bullseye...I have experimented with the new and newest putters, but hate the way they look, and feel. I like simple. My Mizuno MP29 irons are that way...simple...no bells, no whistles, just honesty.