(Part 2 of 3)

Myth 2:  The gap between the highly skilled and the average player with respect to distance is becoming too great and that therefore the average player will not be able to relate to the tour player and will lose interest.

I don’t believe this argument, which is also made by Geoff Shackelford in Grounds for Golf at 275-276 (St. Martin’s Press, 2003).    While it does appear that there is an increasing gap between the average driving distance of a professional as compared with an amateur.  See http://www.golfdigest.com/equipment/index.ssf?/equipment/gd200305growinggap.html.  In 1993 the gap between the average player and the 100th ranked tour pro was 71 yards.  In 2004, the gap grew to 85 yards.  

I do not believe any fan can tell the difference in the air between a pro that hits it 71 yards past them as compared to one that hits fourteen yards further.  I do not think most people can tell the difference in the air between 280 or a 320 yard drive.   I think the gap in distance between the average player and the tour pro has always been so large that a 14 yard increase will not make much of a difference.

Myth 3:  Increased distance is increasing the cost of building courses

This argument boils down to the notion that longer distances require longer courses, which require more land and that therefore the cost of golf is adversely impacted.  There are several flaws in this argument.  First, it is by no means clear that there is a need to build longer courses.  Micheal Hurzdan recommends that only 5% of the teeing area on a course be used for the back tee because that is the approximate percentage of use such tees get.  Golf Course Architecture, Design, Construction and Restoration at 30-31 (Sleeping Bear Press, 1996).  This figure fits with my experience at 7,000 yard golf courses, where, given four sets of tees, almost no one chooses the back tees, including scratch players.  Accordingly, to the extent courses of this length have been built, they have become outdated only for very few people.

Second, to the extent courses do want to lengthen, my experience is that few courses acquire additional land to insert the additional length.  Usually there is some room to insert length if necessary.

Third, I would be interested in an economic study comparing the impact on price of the game associated with additional acquisition and maintenance costs associated with additional distance on newly constructed courses as compared to other expense issues, such as overall maintenance costs.  My guess is that the impact is minimal.

Myth 4:  Tennis provides an apt warning for golf

Many have pointed to the huge decline in popularity of tennis as a warning that technology could cause a similar decline in the popularity of golf.  I would suggest that racketball is another example.  Both sports experienced tremendous declines in popularity at the same time new technologies brought more power into the games.

In my view, the fundamental differences between sports make tennis and racketball analogies completely inapplicable to golf.  In tennis there used to be tremendous rallies at Wimbledon, the US Open or other venues in which Connors, Macenroe and Borg would make one amazing shot after another.  Now, at the men’s level, players rarely return a very effective serve.  Long rallies never happen.  

There is simply not a similar threat to the game of golf.  One need not catch a powerful drive hit by an opponent.  The ball just sits there.  The challenge can be the same whether one can hit the ball 150, 200 or 350 yards.  One simply needs to adjust the length of the hole to present the same challenges.

Yes, the distance is ruining the game.  

Myth 1 - Distance is far too important for the skilled player

The statistical table you showed is not very useful because there are now more better players than in 1980s.  The current number 100 is much better than number 100 in 1980.
Also somewhere there is the distance where the long hitters can start using wedges but the shorter ones are using 9 or 8 irons.  This gives the longer hitter much more options to play the ball to tight pin positions.  Because e.g. par 4 has a maximum length the long hitters are now playing nearly all of them with wedges.  In addition to this they are driving the shorter ones.

Myth 2 - The gap between the highly skilled and the average player with respect to distance is becoming too great and that therefore the average player will not be able to relate to the tour player and will lose interest

The reason the average player may lose the interest in the professional game is not the gap between the drives.  It is the same one I mentioned above.  We could call it e.g. the Tennis effect.  The game is getting more and more a power game like tennis.  With modern drives you can hit it nearly as hard as you can without losing control.  Who likes to watch pitch and putt for four days with 25 under par results.  The winner is always the one who has the hottest putter.  Boring!

The other reason some players may lose their interest in the game is that when they are paired with a long hitter they are playing totally different games.  It may get frustrating to be outdrived by more than 50 yards all the time.

Myth 4 - Tennis provides an apt warning for golf

See the above.

Jari

Another one of these threads, huh?

There're are about ten of these threads with about 5,000 posts on about 79 pages in the back pages of this website. I already solved this distance problem about two years ago. All the R&A and USGA has to do is just read it put it into effect and the game is saved. How hard is that for them to do?

Another one of these threads, huh?

There're are about ten of these threads with about 5,000 posts on about 79 pages in the back pages of this website. I already solved this distance problem about two years ago. All the R&A and USGA has to do is just read it put it into effect and the game is saved. How hard is that for them to do?

I'm afraid I haven't read all of the old posts.  I would appreciate a link if you have one and I'll be happy to read them.  

My point is that if you are going to convince anyone to dial back power, you better make a real convincing argument.  Experience has shown that equipment companies will beat back any effort that is contrary to their perceived interests.  I don't think a sufficiently convincing argument has been made yet, and I am looking for one.  

Please let me know the solution to the distance issue.  More importantly in my mind, please point me to the evidence that there is a problem.

I think Jason has a valid point.  I have not seen hard evidence of length harming the game.  Loads of conjecture and opinion, but no beef.  

Additionally, it is often assumed that the pros of today are better than the previous generation.  I find this particularly perplexing since many of these same people assert that the game is easier because of superior equipment.  I find it hard to believe the boys of today are better than Jack, Tom, Lee and Gary. These guys won a load of majors between them and they had to beat each other to do it.  

Ciao

Sean

Tiger Woods Interview:

“Yeah, I think for me personally going from the 410 to the 460 was huge. I’d always miss the golf ball off the yield. I haven’t hit one on the toe since probably single digits in age. So, it’s been a while. And …of the heal, it showed me the numbers…how to gain 10 more yards on my miss hit. And when I tried that, I thought it was all BS, until I went out there and tried it and I’ve picked up about 8 to 10 yards with my miss hits and goes straighter.  So that was a huge combo for me, so all of the sudden my sweet spot got larger. When that started happening, I started hitting more fairways and my confidence grew and consequentially, my …has become better because of it.

If you ask all the top players, they would all say the same thing. It’s not as relevant as it has been in the past, because we’re hitting it further so our margin for error is smaller now. But the key is, if you’re missing the fairways, are you out of play. If you’re just in the rough, it’s no big deal. I’d much rather be a couple of yards in the rough, than hitting 6 irons or 5 irons from back there, because the 6 iron or 5 iron, a good shot would be about 20 or 30 feet. You know, with a wedge in your hand, that’s kind of a mediocre shot, but it’s a tremendous advantage. If you look at the way VJ played last year, he …drived it in every possible hole that he could. And there’s a reason to that. If you’re feeling confident, yes, but it’s also if your able to drive the ball far enough it really doesn’t matter.

It’s the evolution of the game. It’s how it’s changed. I haven’t been out here that long and when I first came on tour 450 was long Par 4. I mean that was a long Par 4. Now 450 is a driver and a 9 iron. It’s just changed that much, 300 yard drive and a 9 iron that goes 150. No big deal. But that’s why the USGA and the PG of America when we played Whistling Straights, we got 490, 505 yard Par 4’s and your still seeing guys hit 7 irons and 6 irons on these Par 4’s, the long irons are pretty much outdated. And they’re trying to capture that, but it’s hard. The equipment has changed so fast, you can’t build tees fast enough to go back, sometimes you run out of property.


It’s pretty cool when you have a driveable Par 4. I always think that’s cool, what Tom does with every one of his golf courses. I think that’s a great idea, but also you have to have these 490, 505 yard Par 4’s as well, a couple of Par 5’s near 600, a couple Par 5’s near 540, 550 but a lot of it’s angles, and if you can pinch things in and make us fire away from a dog leg you add just 15, 20 yards just by doing that. What we’ve seen on tour and what we’ve talked about in player meetings is trying to make an effort to get the rough up, narrow the fairways, and get those greens as hard as we can get them. Otherwise, guys are going to be shooting 20 plus under Par every week, in the old golf courses and that’s one of the reasons why we’ve made a concerted effort to try to get the pins tighter to the sides and I look on the pin sheet and you see probably 3 or 4 pins, 3 from the side which was ridiculous, and we first saw a 3 from the side, thinking there’s no room there, and now it’s standard.”

From Travel + Leisure Golf Magazine January 2005:

Hank Kuehne has become the poster boy for a new breed of long hitter—the young gun for whom extraordinary length is just a fact of life, the only air he's ever breathed. Tiger seemed otherworldly when he dismantled Augusta in 1997, triggering fits of "Tiger-proofing" golf courses. But it's not just Tiger anymore. Courses these days need to be generation-proofed. College and even high school players are booming the ball as never before (see box, page 111). Kuehne may be Tiger's age—both turn thirty this year—but the way he makes 320-yard drives seem like no big deal could signal a new paradigm in the game.

In 2003, Kuehne's first full year on the Tour, he not only dethroned Daly, who had led in average driving distance eleven of the previous twelve years, but he also set a new record of 321.4 yards per drive that was almost fifteen yards per poke longer than Daly's best of 306.8 in 2002.

Just as has happened on Tour courses, the new length is forcing college layouts to adjust. "We need to get rid of the conception of a long par four being 480 or 490 yards," says Kuehne's former coach at Oklahoma State, Mike Holder. "You'd better get it over 500. A 600-yard par five—that's reachable in two now. It's not the same game that was played fifteen, twenty years ago."

How to account for this power surge? "The biggest factor is equipment," says Steve Desimone, coach at the University of California, Berkeley, which won the 2004 NCAA championship. "The equipment manufacturers have their reps at all the tournaments. Sometimes they bring the science man, who has a launch monitor." But the AJGA's Hamblin insists that better training and better athletes are also responsible: "Our kids are the kids who used to be pitchers, quarterbacks and hockey players." Competition for top high school prospects has grown fiercer as the pot of gold on Tour has ballooned.

I just watched Hogan vs. Snead at Pine Valley (Shell's WWOG).
The best don't play the game like that any more . . .and I think it is a shame.

Fortunately, the best don't putt like that any more...usually.

Ted,

Is that available on DVD?

I forgot to mention that, this has to be the answer because neither the USGA or R&A are going to do anything along the lines of "rolling back' that is just not going to happen.

Can the humble dogleg help counter the PGA Tour distance problem?  Seems like the new driver technology makes it easy to hit long and straight.  If the player is forced to hit a draw/fade, might this equalize things a bit?  Long and straight would mean "deep in the woods".  

Forcing a shaped tee shot might force driver technology away from it's current trend.

Maybe trees in fairways are a good idea.  Blasphemy perhaps?!?

I just watched Hogan vs. Snead at Pine Valley (Shell's WWOG).

I think that match was in Houston, unless you meant the Byron Nelson-Gene Littler match at PV.

I have not seen hard evidence of length harming the game.  Loads of conjecture and opinion, but no beef.  

What hard evidence do you require to prove the game has been harmed?  

Is this something that we can quantify?