TomD:
This is what you said in the first post;
"I had an interesting dinner discussion last night about technology, and one of the people at the table said that if things really got out of hand a simple rule change would stem the tide ...
No more tee pegs. Just place the ball on the grass and try to hit it from there with your 7-degree driver.
It would make superintendents' lives a bit harder, but it would undoubtedly eliminate most of the 350-yard drives I've seen this week."
Is this person at the Dunhill Cup who made that recommendation, be it Dawson or not, seriously proposing this Rule change for all golfers or just tour pros or golfers who are capable of hitting 350 yard drives off tee pegs, or whatever?
If they're proposing it as a rule change for all golfers it's one of the most impractical things I've ever heard---and if they're just proposing it as rule change for just such as tour pros and 350 yard drivers it's even more impractical. Have you ever watched little old men and ladies try to hit something like a 3 wood off the deck? Well, most of the time they don't have much fun doing that. And now you want to make them do it with their driver off the deck on tee boxes? Jeeesus Christ, what a dumb idea---and for what?
Is it any wonder that the USGA and the R&A often seem so aloof to some? Wouldn't you be aloof too if you had to deal with 100 suggestions every other day from people like this that their own little pet solution is the salvation for golf?
Why not ban golf gloves, or grips on clubs, or maybe make a rule that no one can play golf with golf shoes on? Why not ban ball washers, or even tee boxes altogether? Golf seemed to gain popularity about two hundred years ago when the rules required the golfer to play his drive on the next hole from within a clublength to the previous hole's cup, or......