Does modern technology make some great courses a better experience?

[Garland Bayley]

Anthony,

I am currently a 22.1, so am not even a 15. If I want to shoot a score, I have to play away from most everything. If I hit it in a green side bunker and try to blast it out, I am highly likely to catch it flush and send it off the property. If there is a pond on the course I need to steer extra wide as my accidental misses will surely steer right towards and into it. For the most part, strategy is not a great concern for the average guy if he wants to shoot a score.

However, if he doesn't want to shoot a score, he can pretend to strategize, and he can try to fly every bunker, and mishit and come up short as likely as he will fly it. He can try to hit every green and end up in bunkers, followed by flushing it OB. He can try to pound it on the par 5s to give him a chance to reach in two for the fun of it, and then hit his second from two fairways over.

Our clubs contact the ball on our misses in such bad positions, technology really makes little difference.

[Mac Plumart]

Garland...

In all seriousness, you described playing strategically, and tacticly, in your post when you talked of playing away from ponds and bunkers.  Knowing your game is way more than 1/2 that battle.  You've got to play the game you possess and adapt to the conditions of the course in front of you. 


You know what, I suppose I can see both sides of this argument now.

Thinking of playing WAY away from hazards reminds me of playing when my femurs were cracked and crumbling.  I am a right handed golfer.  So, when my left femur was crumbling I couldn't put any weight on that leg or it hurt like hell.  So in addition to chomping oxycodones, I would load all of my weight on my right leg and just put the big toe of my left leg down to balance me.  I would swing away.  I found that if I just did a nice and easy arm swing and put the center of the 460cc driver head on the ball, I would hit a 200 yard slice.  Play that ball out to the left and, BINGO, dead center fairway.  The irons were harder to hit as you had to pick that thing off the turf with precise aim.  But the slice would be the same.

But without modern technolgy, I'll bet I couldn't have played worth a crap.  Hmmm...interesting...at least to me.

[Chris Cupit]

I apologize in advance for not having read all the posts but I had to jump in

According to NGF only 17% of all golfers have handicaps below 20 so while the average handicap may be unchanged at around 19, most golfers never attain bogey status.

I think technology has certainly made the game easier and the advances were taken advantage of by the elite golfer even more than the average player.  One thing that we may forget is how hundreds and hundreds of yards has been added to courses even for the regular golfer in order to keep the scores from improving.  Growing up, a 6800 course was a "championship course" (whatever the hell that meant) and now I see way too many 6-12 handicap golfers insist on playing from 6800-7100 yards!!

Had we chosen some time (arbitrary, yes I know) and held the line on equipment then I think we would have been better off.  Were I golf Tsar I would have said that going from hickory to steel was OK since it ended up making clubs more affordable for players.  If we had stopped in say 1970 with wooden woods, steel shafts, whatever the golf balls were, I think millions in real estate, additional tees, property taxes and maintenance could have been saved and ultimately made for a more affordable game.  We also could be able to compare records from ers a little easier but that's another story.

If you look at Pine Valley and Merion, not to mention the Old Course, "we" have felt compelled to adds hundreds of yards on to those courses just to keep up.  What have we gained?  A more expensive game?

Modern technology certainly helps but it is a relative--as long as courses continue to get longer and more difficult it is a never ending situation of a dog chasing its tail.

[Melvyn Morrow]

If technology is controlled it will add to the game, left as a free-for-alls based upon money and the need for some to hit a long ball will continue to debase the real achievements of golfers.

Technology should be used to improve reliability of the equipment but should not enhance the performance of a duffer or professional. A common sense policy needs to be introduced, but the real issue needs to be resolved by those in charge. Alas they currently see no immediate problems, the result of keeping their heads in the sand for the last 120 years.  I hear the R&A are considering using gas lights at their next evening meeting – suppose that might be regarded as progress in some quarters.

Melvyn

[Ben Kodadek]

Melvyn,

Did you see the questions I posed to you in reply #14?  I'd love to hear your thoughts... 

[Jerry Kluger]

I was wondering about the courses built in the different eras and their difficulty for the average player.  Most the great classical courses that I can think of were pretty difficult for the average player.  Now most were private clubs so the level of player was generally better than average but still not necessarily top echelon.  We then get into the post WW II era and we see courses being built that were not designed to be championship layouts and generally were okay for all levels of players.  I have seen many of the 1950s courses where they were geared to all levels of players and the equipment of the day. Fairways and greens were generally firm and most players were using balls which did not spin, so there were openings to allow balls to run up on to the greens. Then we come to the 1990s and better equipment and softer conditions and more difficult courses were being built - I think this is especially true with Dye and Fazio courses.  Minimalists were just starting to build courses and the ground game was well received as it allowed all levels of players to enjoy a course.  But not all designers saw the need for considering all levels of players and they made courses even more difficult. 

[Jim Eder]

Melvyn,

I so agree with you. I am unsure if I have improved because of the new clubs and balls or if my swing is better (I do believe as I have aged my course management is much better). I do know my mis-hits are better and that I am longer than my age would suggest. I enjoy pulling out my "old" clubs and playing the courses. The Pro V1 adds distance (at least for me) vs the old ball with my old clubs so the courses still play shorter than they did in the old days but the feel of those clubs from the old days as so wonderful. It would be interesting to see Nicklaus at 20 but with the new technology, would he be as long as DJ or Bubba? I just wonder if the top players would be different today if technology was held constant. With all this said Corey Pavin held his own in the Travelers this past summer against Bubba Watson so there is still more to this game than just distance.