Professional Mini Tour Golf Magazine Articles Reviews

...Wasn’t and isn’t it a primary principle of the game that it is the skill of the golfer that is supposed to make up the “difference” in playing conditions from day to day, one shot to the next? Now with “adaptable equipment” the fundamental nature of the game comes into question.

And once again, the USGA has failed to protect the game (see also, The USGA’s Failure to Protect the Game, ProGolfTalk.com copyright 3-17-03.

Heel-toe weighting provides expansive sweet spots. Shaft frequency matching ensures consistency in the set. Elongated and “belly” putters rescue players from the yips. The combined effects of ball improvements (exotic cover materials and “multi-layer” covers) and clubhead improvements (high strength, lightweight titanium and carbon graphite fiber) have changed the nature of the game and reduced the personal skill factor for all players.

Virtually every player who has been at this game for a period of time can point to holes at their favorite course that have become little more than driver sand wedge due to increased distances. Par 5’s once reachable by only the longest hitters are now readily reachable by 18 handicap players and often those same par 5’s are reachable with short irons by good players.

Distance is one thing. Now even the shape and trajectory of golf shots are going to be “manageable” but not by the skill of the player, but rather by the skill of the manufacturer.

In the 37 years this writer has been playing the game as both an amateur and a professional, the fundamental distinction golf gave the players was that if you worked hard enough, you too could become a good player. Learn to hit it low, learn to work it left to right and right to left. Practice, play, practice, play. Learn to hit the shots on the range, then learn to hit them and trust them in tournaments.

The development of SKILL is what the game was all about. The skill of the player.

Now, Taylor Made’s Cheat Stick, approved by the USGA, is taking that away from the game.

Going to a course that favors a hook? Don’t worry about practicing hooks. Just adjust your weights and put your “once swing fits all” swing on the club and trust the “adjustment weights” to do what they were designed to do.

Ten minutes before you tee off you realize today is going to be a windy day so you’ll have to keep the ball down? Don’t worry about adapting your stance, hand position or the way you “take” the ball. Just get that wrench out, on the first tee, and adjust yourself a game for that day.

To heck with skill. TECHNOLOGY BABY !

I don’t have to WORK at being a good golfer, I can now BUY A GAME, even the shape and trajectory of my shots.

And don’t think it will stop with this driver.

Irons will soon be available that can do the same type of “adjusting”. Same with putters as well. Once can easily imagine a day coming soon when balls are truly self-adjusting. Shafts will carry “error-offsetting” properties monitored by micro-electronics contained in the shaft. Just like the Medicus, if the shaft “senses” an “improper” swing, instead of just “breaking” and causing the player to try again, minute sensors will change the flex and angle of attack of the clubhead to offset the “error” in the swing.

Where will it all end?

What is most amazing to this writer is that he has seen NOT ONE SINGLE ARTICLE voicing an opinion similar to that taken here.

Who will protect the game? What will it become?

Fine line distinctions must be drawn and enforced before it’s too late.

Preserve the skill of the player as the basic nature of the game, not the advance of technology.