Good grief Charlie Brown!
Someone (?) just came down from the mountain and gave us the following pronouncements. I’m beginning to think he has never touched a club in his life and knows even less about golf played at its highest level.
He proclaims:
- Technology has impacted the amateur game more than the Tour level game.
- Tiger is still hitting forged blades with steel shafts which are virtually the same as what Jack was hitting.
- Drivers smack the nut further and straighter these days.
- At the amateur level technology is a tremendous help, not so much at the pro level. At the pro level, the longer the drive, the more precise the accuracy must be off the tee to keep the ball in the fairway.
- A larger sweet spot on drivers will cause fewer mishits but that's not a serious problem at the pro level regardless of whether they are hitting persimmon or Titanium.
- Pros still have to contend with doglegs, so they still need to work the ball to fit the fairways.
- on and on and on . . . blah, blah, blah.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news BG . . . but here are what the PROFESSIONAL experts say:
from: USA Today
(excerpts from an article on PGATour professional Brandt Snedeker playing 18 holes with vintage golf equipment versus his current modern equipment. Brandt didn’t break 80.)
Brandt Snedeker: "Technology certainly makes the game easier for everyone to play. It makes the game easier for the pros to play."
Brandt Snedeker: "The biggest difference is the new ball doesn't curve as much anymore. It was a more precise game back then. The ball was spinning so much more, and it was so much harder to control vs. today's golf ball. The old ball wanted to curve 20, 30, 40 yards."
Brandt Snedeker: "They (old timers) had to be unbelievable ball strikers to hit the ball straight and as solid as they did. I truly appreciate growing up in the generation that I did, because I don't think I would have grown up to be a pro golfer if I had to have played with the old stuff. It is so much different, so much tougher."
Brandt Snedeker: "The players in the past had to have great tempo to control the ball back then. It proves the old guys were so much better course managers. They had to think their way around the golf course so much more because of the way the ball moved."
Jack Nicklaus: "Once we got into a wound golf ball and once we got into steel shafts, the game from basically the early 1930s until 1995 changed very little, and all the golf courses that were built needed very little adjustment to be able to handle any kind of a tournament. From 1995 to today, it's a totally different game. It's certainly not that game that I played when I grew up. I don't mean to be on my preaching stool again, but we need to do something where it brings the game back to where we don't have 17,000 obsolete golf courses in this country and only 20 courses for tournaments."
Lee Trevino: "If we had (the new) golf ball in my day, the best of us would have hit it 300 yards and Jack Nicklaus would have hit it 360."
from: GOLF Magazine
(from the April 2004 article on Luke Donald PGATour and Ryder Cup professional playing a round with vintage golf clubs)
Luke Donald: "Well, here goes nothing. There's a big difference in the sound and feel at impact. The MacGregor persimmon feels dead, like I'm hitting a grapefruit. It's a struggle to get the ball into the air with the driver. The balata ball has a low, flat trajectory that dives quickly at the end. The ProV1x proves easier to get airborne, but only just. On the 1st hole, I make a decent swing at least the contact feels fine. But when I look up the ball is knee-high. Almost gives the photographer a haircut."
Luke Donald: "My current driver with modern balls sends it 50 yards past the old MacGregor with the balata. The Pro V1x takes off much higher and stays in the air a lot longer. The difference between the old and new balls is amazing. Jack Nicklaus always says the modern ball is the biggest reason for the length we get these days. Now I have to agree."
Luke Donald: "I notice the Wilson Staff Dyna-Powered 4-iron has more loft than my Mizuno 4-iron, and the shaft is about an inch and a half shorter. Not surprisingly, my current set plays about a club longer throughout the bag."
(sidebar: the higher ball flight of the modern ball enables today’s irons to be built "stronger" than in the past (i.e., longer in length and with less effective loft). A vintage Wilson Staff 4-iron is actually a 6-iron by today’s standards.)
Luke Donald: "So what did I learn? Modern technology has definitely made the game easier. I've gained a new measure of respect for the old-timers, who couldn't just crush the ball; they had to be true shotmakers."
from: the U.S.G.A.
(a Statistical Analysis of PGA Tour Skill Rankings 1980-2006 / USGA Research and Test Center / June 1, 2007)
quote: "The PGA Tour has recorded and published Tour Player performance statistics since 1980. All of this information is published for each year on the PGA Tour website (www.pgatour.com). Among a number of parameters listed on the PGA Tour website, these published statistics include four key skills. These are:
- driving distance
- driving accuracy
- greens in regulation
- putting average
"In addition, the PGA Tour records and publishes the amount of money each player has won during each year. The players’ annual performance for money won and all measured skills are ranked from the highest to the lowest. Correlating the money won rankings to skill rankings can be used to determine the relative importance of key skills to winning and how the relative importance has changed on the PGA Tour over the period from 1980 to 2006.
Analysis of Rank Correlation
- (quote) Driving Distance ranking has a relatively low correlation to Money ranking.
- (quote) Driving Accuracy has changed the most over the time period studied. The overall standard deviation of the results is higher than the other skills. During the 1980’s Driving Accuracy was as nearly as strongly correlated to money ranking as GIR and Putting Average.
- (quote) This (driving accuracy) changed in 1992 and again in 2003. For the current era (2003-06), the level of correlation between Money ranking and Driving Accuracy rank has nearly reached the lowest level absolute value it can attain.
Conclusions?
Contrary to BG’s pronouncements, driving distance and driving accuracy are less important on tour today than at any time in the past 28 years.
The "big distance bombers" aren’t winning (i.e., Bubba Watson, ranked 1<sup> st in 2006 and 2007, and John Daly, ranked 2nd in 2007) . . . and the PGATour’s winners aren’t very accurate off the tee (i.e., Tiger Woods, ranked 139th in 2006 and 152nd in 2007, and Phil Mickelson, ranked 180th in 2006 and 181st in 2007).</sup>
Have a nice climb back up that mountain. And watch out for that burning bu.tt . . .I mean bush.
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.........and dont kid yourself viking, jack cares a whole hell of lot too.........
