from today's Chicago Tribune:
UPSETS RAISE EQUIPMENT ISSUES AGAIN
By Ed Sherman
Tribune golf reporter
July 20, 2004, 8:15 PM CDT
Peter Dawson, executive director of the Royal&Ancient Golf Club, took great pains not to demean Todd Hamilton's victory in the British Open. He said the Illinois native was a deserving champion.
However, Dawson, responding to questions, said advances in equipment could be evening the playing field in golf, allowing for long-shot winners such as Hamilton this year and Ben Curtis in 2003.
Dawson disclosed that Tiger Woods and Ernie Els were among the players who approached him before the tournament asking the R&A to do something to curb the technology in the game.
The U.S. Golf Association makes the rules of golf for North America. The R&A sets them for the rest of the world. The two governing bodies do consult on standards for the game.
This isn't the first time players have voiced concern about equipment standards. Hamilton's title, though, raised the issue among the British media, many of whom seemed worried that the Open has become prone to "one-hit wonders."
"It is back to the old question about technology, the balance between the elite level and the players in the game as a whole," Dawson said. "For the first time, we are actually seeing players today at the top of their professions who are saying something needs to be done; not a huge amount, but something. I don't think that was happening 20 or 30 years ago. Clearly, we have to pay attention to this, and our equipment standards committee is doing so."
Dawson noted that when he goes to the practice tee of a British Amateur and watches the top 100 players hit balls, "it is harder to differentiate one from another."
"Larger-headed drivers are easier to hit," Dawson said. "Balls are going farther with less spin and less hooks and slices, and those things undoubtedly have made it more difficult for the top players to differentiate themselves."
Dawson, though, said the issue hasn't reached a crisis point.
"It's not a question of urgency," he said. "It's a question of getting it right. This is not something we're going to tinker with."
Dawson was effusive in his praise for Hamilton. It is hard to say technology was at the core of his victory because he mostly used irons off the tee. At times, he was 70 yards behind his playing partner, Els, who was booming drives in excess of 320 yards off the tee.
"The winner was rigorously tested by being paired with arguably the best player in the world at the moment (Els) and with Phil Mickelson breathing down his neck as well," Dawson said. "He withstood it and all the credit to him. I am sure he will be a worthy champion."
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