"I therefore decided to solicit any audio golfing experiences this most experienced body of golfers would care to relate. The crisply struck iron striking the flagstick; the tight thwack of a flushly hit wood; hearing a ball strike the green when unsure whether it has really carried the hazard that produce the thrill otherwise lacking form a solely visual assessment. And does the potential variety of these once again, in the mind of the committed , differentiate golf as a infinitely expansive source of novel experience compared with other sporting venues available to the modern Man. "
Ward:
In my opinon, some of the audial feedback of golf may not differentiate it from the audial feeback of other games, but MAN ALIVE, it does make a HUGE difference if you don't have it or can't hear it. Iffin' you don't believe me, try putting on earphones and music sometimes that's loud enough that you cannot hear the sound of the ball hitting the club anymore. You may not realize it for the first stroke or two but after a while you'll say to yourself: "My GOD what in the world has happened here?"
I totally guarantee it. Or else just try to imagine or even experience sometimes what it's really like to be totally deaf.
Now, look Ward, this is just a question and answer and experiment on audial feedback and deafness and such but here's hoping you never have to actually deal with real deafness but if you ever do please see me because my great Aunt, Katherine Drexel, got canonized as the fourth American saint in 2000. I'm no Catholic and I don't even buy into religion that much but to pass muster to get canonized as a Saint, one does have to go through the tradtional "Devil's Advocacy" process and that includes independent research from disinterested lay medical people for some medical opinion on so-called "Miracles". With Saint Drexel there were over 5,000 reported Miracles but the necessary two that passed the independent medical test both were about hearing loss returned. Even more bizarre to me was both of the people who experienced those hearing Miracles were in Rome in 2000 and I spoke to both of them without even shouting and they both heard me loud and clear!
One of them heard me so well she actually told me I was full of shit and that in her opinion there was no way in hell, Catholic Hell or otherwise, that Merion's #3 should be considered a redan.