I freely admit to playing a fanatic of the great game of golf as well as a lifelong fan of the professional game. I for the first time since the pro circuit when Arnold Palmer broke on the scene like a swashbuckling D'Artagnan. I quickly fell in love with the nearly poetic beauty of the game and became fascinated by his bold adventure Palmer.
From today's perspective, we look back to the days, the days of early television feeble attempts for a gameover many acres, and realize that what was then called "fast" greens were, in reality, excruciatingly slow and bumpy. And that is tied to conditions, ragged for the most part. Note that some of the repetitions of the All Star Golf and the early Shell's Wonderful World of Golf on the Golf Channel and you'll see what I mean.
It only makes all the more remarkable the achievements of the great men of this day and the days long before them. Like, for example, under these conditions, was Byron Nelsoncapable of an incredible scoring average, for decades until Tiger Woods (who would otherwise stand) set broke it in 2000. But the record was broken on courses to a degree that Nelson could only dreamed of in his best-kept.
All of which brings us to the current day and what's wrong with this great game. Although today's players are bigger, stronger and better than any air conditioning, which has gone before. And true, their talent level is higher as a whole - after all, they have had amazingRole models from whom to learn. They've also had the benefit of an unprecedented amount of research and electronic analysis that are not absent during the time of their predecessors.
It is normal and even beneficial that the overall level of talent and general knowledge is maintained and improved that any records on a fairly regular basis as Father Time marches on. But what we have seen over the last ten to twenty years is too much.
Players on the Champions Tour are the ball further thanas they ever in their prime on the regular tour. The average driving distance on the regular tour is increasing geometrically. Architects are forced to stretch classic courses to inconceivable length courses now regularly measure an incredible 7,500 meters - and I think the general health of the game is suffering.
It is in some ways similar to what happens in basketball over the years. Once a fascinating game of finesse, it has become nothing more than a group ofextremely tall people dashing madly up and down the court and lay tucked the ball angrily into the basket. What used to be fouls are ignored - traveling and become palms the ball is now routine. Almost anything goes in today's world of Full Contact Basketball. By the complicated interplay, is that once the game a joy.
Golf is in danger of going through the same type of injury. With the incredible advances in club and ball technology that have gone largely unchecked by the USGA andR & A, great courses are obsolete, records are fodder for the shredder and the game is finesse, except in the case of some modern players such as Woods and Michelson disappear at an alarming rate. It will be a 'slam it hard and find it "game.
When did you last saw a pro gently cut a long iron - and I have a 1 or 2 iron - into the target talking about? Today's ball is harder to curve and fewer and fewer pros master the art of handling the ball.
I liked JackNicklaus 'idea a few years ago - his suggestion of a "standard ball', if you will. Strictly regulate the distance the ball can go under normal circumstances, to maintain the integrity of our great courses. Let's make talent the determining factor, not attack, who happens to read the latest technology.
A great story is told of Sam Snead playing Pinehurst # 2. When he was in his prime, he used a 1 iron on one of the longer par 3 holes on the golf course. Many years later, plays on theSenior Tour, he used a 3 iron. He was well into his 50s at the time.
The classic picture of Ben Hogan at Merion in 1950 hitting a 1 iron to the 18th Green is another example. Years later when I visited the Green Party and was closely monitored in the same place Jack Nicklaus with a 5 iron.
We need to get the game under control. The big players are still the great players - Tiger Woods would be a force of nature in the past few days have been, as it is today - but the big winnerswould be the classic courses like Merion, which extend no more room to have today's super boomers space, the environment, since less area would be needed, and requires less maintenance, and the history and integrity of the game.
Copyright 2008 Jim Nettleton
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