If they were right, does that mean we are wrong?
The answer is a great big yes. I base my comment upon the simple fact that we are and have been driven for nearly half a century by technology with the ever increasing desire to let the equipment development substitute for the underlines skills of the modern players.
We forget that in the early days of the modern game equipment was still being designed and perfected to allow the game to play i.e. to have a ball that was affordable, kept its shape, and simply roll. The Clubs too went through their own development phase to perform on the new courses then designed rather than a simple adaption of Nature. Just look at the old clubs and compare them with the tremendous range we have today from the Drivers through to Irons, not forgetting putters.
By the introduction of the Haskell the range of basic clubs where more or less set, the Haskell completed the full set. Yes they did offer in their own right a performance benefit, but unlike today the intention was to equip the player with the tools to play the game. The days were passing for the misshapen ball, the ability of the ball to shatter, of a limited set of clubs to undertake a large function of shots. The equipment was then able to offer the Golfer the peace of mind to play the game time after time without some technical mishap or breakage (out of no fault of the players) to ruin a round or a game.
Instead of maintaining the status quo, the equipment has been allowed to out strip all aspects of the game, course design and quite frankly the skill levels of the average golfer. The technology now employed in the production of the equipment is now far outstripped the technology ability of the player, the game and the course, making the gifted play more gifted that perhaps they really are. Equipment is no longer being developed for its reliability but for advancement of the player that can use the said clubs/ball. Its big money, its selling the player the dream of lower scores not achievable by his/her skill level alone but assisted by technology.
If they were right, does that mean we are wrong, again IMHO yes because we KNOW that today it’s all TECHNOLOGY driven, we know that player and owners want easy courses. Gone are many of the great traps that were found on the earlier courses because we look at golf today as not being a penal game believing that strategic is the real way forward. Deep pot bunkers, blind Holes, fairway bunkers have all been reduced in numbers and difficulty. The desire to pamper to the modern owner who wants to make money out of his course, yet no slowdown in equipment technology to combat the easier courses is the way the modern game regrettably has gone.
IMHO we need to review the game, its reliance on technology and perhaps seriously look at a rollback not on just the ball but clubs as well. In fact I believe it would be good for the game to roll back to the time of the introduction of the Haskell ball, after all it that not the basis of Hickory Golf, which by the way is attracting so many new faces to that more skilled game of golf, taking many from the current game due to its reliance on the technology.
My fear is just where will it take the game if allowed to continue as it is? We already have the R&A admitting that they see no problem and that rolling back the ball is not required, yet our great courses including those of the early 20th Century and late 19th Century are have to be modified, missing the real quality of their original design and how they once were intended to play facing the skill of those past great designers.
We are wrong thanks to a host of things, the main one being that golf needs to be made easy, how can a game based on the premise of offering a challenging be seen to be anything but penal. To challenge or to raise a challenge does there not have to be something to first test and raise the player to want to compete, knowing that failure will result in some form of penalty i.e., lost ball, lower score or the knowledge that one’s skill levels are just not yet up to the task. IF not what is the purpose of the game of Golf, why would anyone bother to go to the expense of buying the equipment paying the Green Fees and playing the game?
Are we wrong, boy are we wrong!
Melvyn