Glad to see more pro's complaining about the technology.
Does anyone have the web address for the quote from Tiger? I believe he said something very similar.

it IS a great quote....Mr. Ogilivy just became one of my favorite players!

I think AUgusta is all talk when it comes to using their own ball for the Masters...if they haven't already with all the lengthening and changes they've made in the last decade, does anybody really think they still might?

no way!

Thanks Mike.
I know where to look now.
There was something about undoing some of the tech so the skill level would have to increase and better differentiate the abilities of the players.

That is a wonderful quote from a very apropos source to be sent to the regulatory bodies to spur them to move on distance increase.

However, it is certainly well worth sending that same quote and others similar to it from touring pros to all the club and ball manufacturers as well. After-all they are the ones who have and will do anything possible to take advantage of I&B rules and regs, of golf architecture as well as take advantage of the regulatory bodies.

Are you serious about the club and ball manufacures having a responsibility here?

-Ted
 

Ted:

Do you think I'm joking?

I hope you are.

-Ted

Geoff has been spending some time with Michael Clayton when he returns to Australia each November and December.  Sounds like he has been listening to Mike some in the process!

golf is becoming more and more like bowling every day.
The ABC is the regulatory body for bowling, and they allow everything..  A bowling ball today takes considerably less skill to use than one of 20 years ago.  And bowlers use wrist braces, elbow braces, etc - so they are a mere robot.
I quit bowling 15 years ago because it ceased to be a game of skill and became a game of whoever could spend the biggest bucks for the latest and greatest.
The USGA is following suit.
If they don't do something, people will just quit playing golf - the world's greatest game.

Dan:

That's pretty interesting you make that analogy between bowling and the USGA.

I've heard the USGA Tech Director speak perhaps a half dozen times regarding I&B rules and regs as well as other spokesmen for the USGA with I&B and they invariably mention the dangers of what happened with bowling which is to become so much easier and consequently dramatically drop off in popularity, happen in golf.
 
 

The bowling analogy is an interesting one.

My brother, who maybe bowls 20 times a year (3 games per session), averaged 212 in a league last year with a 300 game.

His neighbor recently made state history by bowling his 43rd? 300 game.

I never did see much of the attraction, but I do seem to remember when having a 212 average put one pretty close to touring professional status.

Mike:
just to extend the bowling analogy further (and wow, if six months ago someone told me I'd be writing a sentence like that... ):

apparently, one of the reasons for better scores is the way the lanes are groomed/waxed these days, i.e. the wax is allowed to build up in such a way that optimal lines tend to get grooved into the surface: get the ball rolling along that grove and the chances that it'll hit the pocket are pretty good (or at least better than ever)...

Sort of like golf's elevated tees and containment mounds, perhaps; though I'm more inclined to think of tennis when I think of golf/technology, i.e.:

I don't know the stats on the numbers of tennis players/viewers today versus 20 years ago, but even the serious tennis fans I know can't help but admit that the game was more fun to watch (and play) when McEnroe and Borg were using those small-headed wooden rackets than when Pete Sampras was dominating with the newer technology (which allowed for a bigger sweet spot and much more tightly strung rackets) and the 130 mph serve.

But maybe golf (and its future) is very much different than either tennis or bowling...

Peter

Mike, in addition, the answer is also; If distance were the only variable that allowed a ten hdcp to shoot 68. Which it isn't, so the answer has to be no.

In a private email form Alfie he asked me if I believed that the big money sponsorship deals between the players and the ball/club manufacturers actually explicitly forbid criticism of the distance that the ball now travels?


Hard to believe that the biggest earners don't have single one amongst them who will utter such thoughts.  Tiger chose his words carefully saying only that balls with more spin would reward the most skillful players and bring the issue of controlling flight back to the fore.