BBC Article

[peter160180]

I Stumbled across this article on the BBC website this morning. All the modern equipment in the world would not have improved my game by 5-6 shot or my accuracy which is why I’m on the ABS course. When they talk about customising the clubs I bet they don’t mean flattening them by 5-6 degrees!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/c … 269507.stm

[lagpressure]

And that is when golf’s governing bodies stepped in to keep what they saw as tradition and a high level of skill in the game.

It’s a little late that they step in now… considering the game of golf has already been completely dumbed down, and the tradition destroyed to the point that most classic historic courses are no longer relevant in the way they should be for top competitions.

“If you look at other industries, they tend to limit their technologies, but we pretty much went up to the limit straight away. Maybe we made drivers too big, too quickly,” says Doug Wright, business director for Wilson Golf in Europe.

Maybe this should never have happened in the first place.

“I’m always guarded about people who want to stifle innovation,” says Steve Burnett, coaching department manager at the English Golf Union.
“The normal golfer on the street wants to hit the ball further, he wants the latest gadgets because golf’s a hard game to play. It requires a lot of time and a lot of practice so the easier we can make it the better, for the health of the game as a whole.”

Statements like this are complete idiotic crap… why not make the hole bigger so we can all make more putts and shoot lower scores?

What is wrong with a game that you have to spend time to practice mastering and is difficult? Those that do and learn proper technique should be rewarded. Those that don’t should remain hackers. Dumbing down the game to please undedicated hackers has hurt the health of the game. The game was doing just fine before people started thinking this way.

There is increasing debate about whether there should be two sets of rules, one set for amateurs and one for professionals. The argument is that purity should be kept for elite players but amateurs should be offered all the help they can get.

There didn’t need to be two sets of rules… however, because the governing bodies have completely failed to uphold their responsibility to preserve the history and tradition of the game, there now needs to be a new set of rules.

It is a similar idea to Formula 1 in which drivers are forced to prove their skill by driving without navigation and braking devices available to regular drivers .

Proving their skill with restrictions is what makes any game great.

[Steb]

I thought the elusiveness of golf is what makes it so popular anyway. There are plenty of easier sports for the lazy to pursue. I’m sick of hearing that the hardness of golf makes people quit the game, so let’s make it easier, when the sport is already so well developed that a disabled junior girl can compete with a ex-pro.

I think the bodies do have the best interests of the game in mind, it’s just harder than it sounds to navigate through restrictive trade practices and creating test procedures when independent variables are responsible. It’s easy to specify a driver distance limit using a test ball for instance, but then a new ball comes out and suddenly the once conforming driver now goes too far. Or you can limit the distance a ball flies with a test driver, then a new driver comes out and smashes the distance limit.

Let’s just hope this 10-20% distance rollback for balls happens. I haven’t heard how the trial testing is going, has anyone?