Geoffrey/JimK/Bill;
I very much appreciate all of your sincere efforts to move me out of the "golfing Luddite" category. Perhaps, as Charles P. argues, I'm simply crazy.
Lord knows I'm not playing well enough or often enough to use the blades as effectively as I used to, and although I used to be considered a fairly long driver, I'm finding myself more and more often standing in stark amazement at how far past me I see the drives of my playing partners coming to rest.
Perhaps my game has just gone to crap (the highest percentage theory) and I've now become some type of JakaB caricature of a fading middle-aging golfer.
Still, I'd rather chalk it up to this insane passion for really looking at and studying golf course architecture while I'm out there, instead of actually playing the game to shoot a score. It's sort of ironic; in my younger years I was fiercely competitive and had the temperament of Steve Pate. I could be playing the coolest course in the world and if I wasn't playing to what I saw as my potential, I'd be insufferably miserable. Now, I can hack it around, but if I see some things worth seeing, and gain an understanding of what the architect intended and find it unique or interesting, and most importantly, if I have some like-minded companions who don't mind watching me chunk or blade wedge shots, then life is good.
Perhaps I'll give into technology when I start slowing down the game.