[DMoriarty]

Dont think the ball is flying further?   Dont believe the increasing distances threaten golf architecture and the game?

This thread is for you . . .

When he first burst onto the scene and for a long time after, John Daly's towering drives awed us all.  In 1992, he lead the PGA tour in driving distance with an average of 283.4 yds.  

Eleven years later, at the Women's US Open, a thirteen year old girl averaged drives of  281.1 yards.

[Please feel free to contribute your own Amazing Facts,  as I am much too lazy to come up with my own.  I even took the first one from one of my old posts. . . .]

[DMoriarty]

This year, 62 tour players average drives of over 290 yards.

In 1999, 2 golfers averaged over 290 yds.  

[Jeff Fortson]

I switched from a 45" graphite shaft in my driver to a 44" steel shaft and I have gained at least 10 yards distance.  All thanks to...........

P R O  V 1 x

Jeff F.

[Bill_McBride]

Jeff, how does the Pro V1x compare to the original Pro V1 for putting, chipping, pitching?  How about for backspin on approach shots?  Interested to know if there is a trade off for the extra 10 yards.

This is strictly a scientific question as my swing speed yields absolutely no perceptible distance enhancement between any other Titleist and the Pro V1!

[Mike Benham]

I switched from a 45" graphite shaft in my driver to a 44" steel shaft and I have gained at least 10 yards distance.  All thanks to...........

P R O  V 1 x

Jeff - what ball were you using with the 45" graphite shaft?  I assume it is the same driver head?

I played World Woods Pine Barrens last week (what a solid layout it is) with crappy rental clubs provided by the club.  The woods were Titleist DCI Starships with regular steel shafts and amazingly enough, I hit them very well, solid and straight.  The distance was below my norm even though I was using the same ProV1 ... makes me wonder about the shaft issue ... maybe this Tiger guy knows something ...

[Chris Perry]

Well I hit one well over 300 today (hole says it's 515 and I reached the 150 yard marker, but I swear the hole plays way shorter than that yardage), I think the guys in front were a little choked I hit up into them but considering where they were I had no business even reaching them really. Almost canned an 8 iron from there for an Alby, but the eagle helped me break 40 on the back and I still shot an 83.

Moral of the story: Distance means nothing for scoring without skillz and consistency.

Now if you mean is distance ruining the Pro tour, well yes, sure it is, but for the casual player if it allows you to do what I did above on the odd occasion it's actually a pretty good feeling amidst what is generally a futile and frustrating endeavor.

PS, Driver is a 10.5* 975 D, ball was some slightly scuffed up Top Flite XL2000, and yes there was a decent wind at my back as well.    

Pro V's definitely do fly off the face quick, but for how many balls I lose playing I can't justify shelling out for new ones all the time, so I just play whatever ones I can find when husking.

[guesst]

I don't think today's longer drives are *ruining* golf architecture, or Our Game, per se, but the changes do bear discussion on this board.  When designing a new course, for instance, I would think drive lengths would be taken into account for strategic design purposes, if nothing else.  

Allow me to pose a question:

In a reconstruction project where the goal is to recreate a course that has been lost on "new territory," should the architect take modern equipment capabilities into account?  Should the holes be longer than they were originally, and thus keep the strategy more consistent with what it would have been on the original course?  Or should the architect remain as true to the original course and its dimensions as is feasable on the new site?

To further extrapolate, should basketball hoops be raised, the 800 meter dash increased to 1000 meters, or a football field be lengthened to keep the challenge the same now as in prior generations?  

Where were you when the four minute mile was first broken?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Guesst,

Future lengthening was a design consideration by many architects

Elasticity.

A design element incorporated into most courses, and intended for future use.

[DMoriarty]

Madam Guesst

The mention of the four minute mile and other human endeavors would carry a bit more rhetorical impetus if we were discussing throwing stones rather than hitting extensively engineered 4-layer golf balls with scientifically balanced and optimized titanium driver heads and graphite shafts . . .

There may be physical limits to how hard a human can press a gas pedal, but these limits arent necessarily related to how fast the car will go.

As for your question, I for one cant figure out how any reconstruction architect can hope to keep strategy consistent on any course when the long hitters are hitting their drives over twice as long as the short hitters.  

A Pleasure, as Always,

DM

Patrick,

Even elasticity only stretches so far.

[Chris Perry]

I was playing a Noodle sometime yesterday before depositing it into the trees never to be seen again. It's a great ball as well.

[guesst]

Patrick,

You make a couple of excellent points here.  I do realize that, as with the pole vault, equipment is far more involved in the *improvement* than are bigger muscles.  I'm just not sure how to address this issue.  

Perhaps instead of using the current handicap system we should outfit everyone so that we all hit the ball roughly the same distance . . . so you guys would be hitting your old persimmons while I'd be using the latest graphite and titanium whip . . . Sounds like fun to me!    That would make strategy pretty much the same across the board, which it certainly isn't now.  All too often a club just moves the women's tees up a bit . . .

On the other hand, it sure is fun to watch it go - or hit it - a long long way.

As gyro would say, "It's a conundrum."

[DMoriarty]

Madam Guesst,

"Patrick". . . .??  No need to resort to name-calling.

I thought it was great fun to watch John Daly hit the ball in the early '90's, because he swung big and hit it further than everyone else.  If we put the equipment back to that point or any other, it would still be fun for me to watch it go.  But, I can't see far enough to distinguish between a 290 yd drive and a 320 yd drive anyways.  

A Pleasure, as Always,

DM

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