[Dan King]

Wew, just read through this thread. Lots of stuff here.

Rich Goodale writes:
2.  The players invited to the Master's would spend a significant amount of time practicing with the new ball and probably play it exclusively in at least the 2-4 weeks before the tournament.

Only if they are completely nuts.

There isn't  player in the world that would play a ball significantly shorter at the Players Championship, Bay Hill or any other PGA Tour® event by choice. While some of these tournaments might be considered tune-ups for the Masters, every golfer would still like to win. Why would they put themselves at such a disadvantage?

It won't be all that hard for them to switch between a regular ball and a competition ball so they'd be nuts to use a short ball when they don't have to.

I'd kind of prefer that there never be a competition ball. I want to see golfers stop this sham of thinking they are playing the same game as the pros.  The day isn't that far off when the Tour will only play on TPC courses, and then courses will finally stop changing on the off chance the tour might show up some day.

Casual baseball players ended the foolishness that they could compete with the best in the world years ago. It used to be the pros would barnstorm during the off season, playing at local parks against amateur teams. They don't do that anymore because it would be silliness. Now there is different equipment for the casual player and the best in the world. And there are manufacturers still willing to make wooden bats for a very small market.

So I don't have a big problem with a competition ball, I just don't think it is time yet. I'd rather the pros stay on the TPC courses built just for them and leave the courses I play, or might some day want to play, alone.

I was going to post this back when the U.S. Open rotation thread was up, but never got around to it.

My U.S. Open rotation

• TPC at the Canyons, Las Vegas
• TPC of Scottsdale
• TPC at Craig Ranch, McKinney, Tx
• TPC of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis
• TPC of Michigan, Dearborn
• TPC at Southwind, Memphis, TN
• TPC at Sugarloaf, Duluth, GA
• TPC at Jasna Polana, Princeton, NJ
• TPC at Deere Run, Moline, IL
• TPC at River Highlands, Cromwell, CT
• TPC at Heron Bay, Coral Springs, FL

How can you not love this list?

Jim_kennedy writes:
a 120 mph clubhead speed produces 300 yd. drives.

How many believe that 120 mph is the maximum swing speed possible? Won’t we have the same problem 10-20 years down the road when the next generation of golfers appear? Why worry about it. It’s the Tour’s problem let them deal with it.

”Na, na, We're na goin t'eat in the kitchen.”
 --Willie Anderson, 1901 (prior to the U.S. Open in 1901 when the professional golfers were told they couldn't each lunch in the club house)

[Tim_Weiman]

Dan King,

I am prepared to support your proposal for a new US Open rotation and forget about all this talk about a competition ball.

First, we need to add a couple amendments to your proposal:

a) All professional golfers would be banned from playing any course currently featured on GolfClubAtlas.com

b) All professional golfers would be banned from any course currently or previously listed among the Top 100 courses in the US or the World by Golf Magazine, Golf Digest or Golf Week magazine.

P.S.  If you are not ready for this, I could still except the competition ball as a compromise.

[TEPaul]

Forget it, the tour pros are not going to be relegated to some "other world" of TPC hybrid courses for everything they play in.

I'd like to see them get back to some of the classic courses and a "competition ball", depending on how they set up it parameters of it can certainly help with this whole dilemma people seem to be getting into about the obsolesence of classic courses with the balls they're now using.

Staying with the balls the pros are using now is not going to help classic courses, particularly well known ones resist the temptation to redesign but a "competition ball" might start to help clubs resist that temptation.

[Dan King]

Tim_Weiman writes:
a) All professional golfers would be banned from playing any course currently featured on GolfClubAtlas.com

b) All professional golfers would be banned from any course currently or previously listed among the Top 100 courses in the US or the World by Golf Magazine, Golf Digest or Golf Week magazine.

The libertarian in me doesn't want to see a ban. If they want to play casual rounds at our courses, I'm the last person to tell them they can't.  I think they are moving toward the TPC model for tournaments and I'm saying I applaud the change.

TEPaul writes:
Forget it, the tour pros are not going to be relegated to some "other world" of TPC hybrid courses for everything they play in.

Says you.

The change is already happening.

I'd like to see them get back to some of the classic courses and a "competition ball", depending on how they set up it parameters of it

So as the players consistently keep getting better, will the parameters constantly be changing? Change every 10 years, 20 years, whenever they start averaging 300 yards again? Or do you believe we've hit some sort of max, and this is the best generation of golfers ever?

"Professor P.G. Tait, a mathematician and professor of philosophy at Edinburgh University, once worked on a theory that the gutta-percha ball could be driven no further than 191 yards. His son, Freddie, tore that theory to shreds. One of the finest golfers of his time, Freddie drove the green of the thirteenth hole at St. Andrews, a distance of 341 yards, and the shot was said to have carried 250 yards.
 --Robert Sommers

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