Well, just call me Hogan then. Of course, hitting Range’ balls is the answer to that! We have some really old crap-o-la balls at the range and it’s amazing what some of those rocks will do. Ever seen an “S” shape in the air 
I would post some pictures of them, but it would be too embarrassing.
Nice to see you back Irish stewin’ around Bom. 
I’ve hit them both, draw fades and fade draws. Simple stuff if you know how. 
Does it always have to be either/or? I think the world is more nuanced than just having two colours.
I will celebrate Rory as a golfer of immense talent, and I’ll enjoy watching him do his thing. I don’t have to think he’s better than Hogan in order to asses his ability- as Jack Kerouac once said, ‘comparisons are odious’. I’m sorry you can’t find any joy in what he does, it seems like your loss.
I’m as much a fan of the Persimmon game as many here would be, appreciating talent doesn’t negate that fact. I’m as ever confused why opinions that don’t completely fit the mold, are taken in such negatively stark context.
Stimping at 4.5-5?
Really?
My advice would be unless its on the side of a mountain don’t play any break at all!
You can still curve the modern balls… but I agree… not nearly as much as the balatas. The balata’s were fun!!!
I agree with Apples though… if I need to turn it right to left 20 feet in the air, I feel like I have to try to snap hook the shot. In that sense I think it is easier to hit it straight. I have to make a much bigger change in my body to get the ball to move a little bit.
To me, the problem with the new balls is that they go too far… and you can’t feed them into the greens with side spin to work it over to a tucked pin. The new balls are much easier to play into the wind… but I would rather have a balata down wind so I have a better chance of holding the green with the higher spin rate.
All in all I really don’t like the plastic golf balls that are out today. People ask me which ball I like best… but to me they are all junk. I try not to think about it because until one of our ABSers starts winding balatas in their garage… there isn’t much I can do about it.
Persimmon I can still play. The great blades are still around… and I can still set up my gear properly to hit the ball straight. I can work on my swing and all that… and I can choose to play quality golf courses and avoid the wide open pancake courses ruled by golf carts where the greens and tees are in separate zip codes.
I don’t mind playing a level layout once in a while… but it does bore me after time. I really enjoy the intuitive experience of playing rolling fairways combined with wind and having to shape the ball into a smaller green. When you properly execute, it’s a nice feeling compared to golf being more of a driving range experience.
Even if every golfer wanted to play balata, Arent the balata tree’s protected now in certain countries? Its not evironmentally viable to make them. So i dont see the point in arguing about old v new is the old can never be made again…
Hyperbole Styles…look it up. They’re slow.
Captain Chaos
I have mentioned this before. It’s NOT the Balata ball that we necessarily need or even want, it’s the wound ball/liquid core that we want. Forget Balata…that’s NEVER ever ever ever ever coming back as a cover material for about 20 different reasons. THE WOUND MANTLE/LIQUID CORE is what’s important…not so much the cover material, because there are a million ways to formulate urethane technology to mimic old school Balata…the cover is NOT the issue. If anybody were to EVER do this, you need to focus on the WOUND technology with the appropriate (matching) soft core with a modern cover material. Towards the end, a lot of the “Balata” that was used to make those old balls had some other synthetic stuff in it besides Balata anyway. I think Balata was actually a pretty shitty cover material to tell you the truth…it cut easy, it deformed easily, it was expensive, and very labor intensive to mill and cut into cubes for manufacture etc…If somebody would make a WOUND ball with the appropriate core with a soft urethane cover, I really think that would be the ticket. You’re gonna have to play with mantle and core technology though, because the solid core (as opposed to the liquid center) is part of what makes the modern ball fly so far and/or spin less.
Forget Balata as a cover…that dream is long over and has been for 12 years. But the performance of the wound mantle and liquid core could certainly be reproduced and/or replicated some other way. Especially if financing was NOT an issue!
Bridgestone was all over this back in the 1990’s…
Andy
There’s a satisfaction playing these types of courses with old gear that I honestly haven’t found in the modern game- it’s akin to a conversation with the golf course, instead of bullying it and making it listen to you. I like to think they give a little back when you meet them halfway. Play it’s doglegs instead of blasting it over the corner, etc., listen to what it has to say, what it’s asking you. There’s often a satisfaction in strength, but there’s a far greater and longer lasting satisfaction in intelligence. It’s like how lay up pars feel great because you’ve thought it through and executed accordingly- it makes you feel smart.
You to, Double R. I keep meaning to tell you I loved that Hogan on the road photo- very cool. You’ve become awfully fancy with those computer skills- it seems like only yesterday that you were a wee rat lost in the internet maze- you’re all growd up!
Cheers,
B
[b]
Here are some of the quotes from various yahoo message board posters. I’m not the only one with this opinion about how golf has been ruined.
Drag him over here…If he’s not here already, that is.
These are quotes from 18 different people… just to clarify… there were a lot more… I just don’t have time to grab them all.
If they are making the course look easy with the modern “crappy” upright equipment and “out to right field” swings just imagine the scores they would have with the clubs from last century…
Oh that’s right, because they are “crap” ballstrikers no one would break 80. Yeah, of course.
i watched bubba highlights last night for a minute and it looked like he was playing my local muni that checks in at 6000 yds from the tips.
driver- half wedge, driver half wedge, knocking them to kick in range. i have to say i was envious of his 50 yard wedge game but
it gets pretty tiresome watching it…
Are you practicing at being obtuse or is that part of your DNA? Styles, you constantly build strawmen out of the very obvious differences between golf 20+ years ago and attack in the most innane manner.
Captain Chaos
No strawmen here.
Many times on here i read that todays pros are crappy. they have crappy swings and are crappy ballstrikers. read through this thread and take your pick of statements to that effect.
Throughout the site there are constant attacks on the equipment they use as well and how last century’s clubs were better.
Yet with their crappy equipment and crappy swings they keep bringing courses to their knees.
Yet there are exactly zero good ballstrikers playing now according to john (stated within the last couple of pages.)
So which is it?
Ps - yes “captain chaos”, i post just because its kind of like poking you with a stick 
Like John has said, we shouldnt blame or bash the players. Its the gear they use and how the game has been managed. The players cop all the flack because they are the face of golf.
Im sure alot of the pro’s would adapt very very fast to a gear change and play good golf. Heck if golf was played with a baseball bat today’s pro’s would find a way to hit it straight…
There are several ideas going on here…some seemingly contradictory.
Today’s 18th at Doral is a great example of some of the thought here at ABS. First of all, because of the new ball, long and lightweight shafts, and gigantic clubheads the hole is no longer a monster. It’s a good drive and a mid to short iron for most in the field. Hitting a green with a short iron shouldn’t be that tough for guys with their name on the bag.
Secondly, the sweet spots on today’s drivers and cavity back irons are large enough to accomodate just about everyone on tour. The players just don’t have to be all that good to smash a 460cc titanium driver. The result is that there is, to some degree, ball striking parity on the TOUR. In the persimmon/blade days, the sweetspots were very small. You had to be a very good striker -not just an average striker - to get the result you wanted from your equipment.
Thirdly, most TOUR courses don’t demand great ballstriking. Watson today on 18 snapped his drive into the rough, which essentially did nothing but tee the ball up for him. It didn’t deter his shot selection at all. If today’s rough at Doral were any issue, Watson would have been chipping out and praying to make an up and down from 150 yards. Instead he had a clear shot to the green.
A fourth reason, the purity of today’s greens make putting easier than ever. The ball rarely bounces. It rolls true. If you have the right line/speed, most of the time the ball goes in. In the old days, the greens were much bumpier and more unpredictable. This made the game more about ballstriking.
So it can make sense to say that today’s players can tear up courses and at the same time not be as good as the players of the past. …not necessarily “crappy,” just not as good.To see that fact in action, google or youtube last year’s Canadian Open. Players were crying because they couldn’t find the narrow fairways and couldn’t hit the greens out of the thick rough; conditions that golfers used to face routinely and had to battle with persimmons and balatas. Even with gigantic drivers and balls that don’t curve, the modern players were brought to their knees.