On another thread we have another professional golfer getting slaughtered for being selfish. So do we do the same with Cantlay for selfishly wanting the ball restricted so he, a professional golfer, can play Cypress Point "the way the designer designed the course to be played" irrespective that it would turn it into a slog for the majority of us ?
Niall
ps. if he truly wanted to play it the way the architect anticipated it would be played should he not just go and buy some equipment from the 1920's ? I'm sure some of you hickory enthusiasts could help him out
My guess is that even 1950s through maybe 1980's clubs and balls would work almost as well. While there was some distance progress, I believe it accelerated the most around 1997 with the intro of the ProV.
But your is an interesting discussion. Rather than spend millions on extending courses, or even rolling back
all ball and club tech, why not just manufacture (or save from closets) a variety of clubs and balls. In essence, it's the implement equivalent to forward and back tees in course design, no? I'm sure the molds for many of those old clubs are still out there, maybe in use for starter sets, etc. And, longer hitters could just use the Noodle or some other soft ball that would not go as far.
Maybe some creative tournament would be played with old clubs and balls, or maybe have all 4 days played with different equipment for variety? Yes, most pros would hate it, and you might get the bottom 100 players who would still play for the check, but would that be any different than some other silly season events, like Father-Son, PGA-LPGA, Skins game, etc.? To me, that would seem interesting to most golf watchers at least once a year.