I like statistics, but this article had so many “bad” uses of them that I can’t get behind it at all.
Distance increased 15% but scoring decreased “only” 2.7%? It’s not like everything else was held constant, Brandel.
And Tour players hit “only” 2.4 more greens per round!? Umm, there are only 18 holes in a round. Hitting 2.4 more of them is 13%. That’s not a small number.
His suggestions boil down to:
- Taller rough
- Taller fairways
- Slower greens
Meh.
I still think I’d love to see golf courses played much firmer. I’m way behind on listening to the Fried Egg podcast, but I’m listening to one now and the guy maintained the courts at Wimbledon for a year, and he said they were like concrete. We obviously don’t need to get to anything near that firm, but firmer courses like at the Presidents Cup will lead to more interesting golf with less emphasis on distance.
The problem (not that problem) with this is similar to the same thing the rollback fans want: the PGA Tour wouldn’t go for it (firm, fast conditions). And the weather may or may not cooperate for much of the PGA Tour’s schedule, as the soils in many of the more northern courses have a tough time playing firm.