Deane Beman tees off on equipment

I had the opportunity to play with two atomic smashing college players yesterday. One of the things I really noticed about the golf ball, was how straight it flies as compared to the balatas of the past. When a long hitter playing balata off persimmon would hit one off line… the ball would continue to travel off line… but what I really noticed yesterday watching the college players strike these towering rainbows was that if the ball started off line, it would stop curving off line before it’s apex, then would fall straight down to the ground from a very high altitude … not continue to move off line through it’s entire arc of travel as the balatas would. This allows the modern player to swing harder, and not have to worry about the consequences of doing so. The same effect to a lesser degree with the irons.

I don’t think I have noticed this as much with my own driving because I play a lower trajectory game. I tend to prefer a more piercing trajectory, because I usually play in the wind. I like wind because it offers me more options for shot shaping.

But playing the high trajectory game most young players are playing, they really can’t work the ball… because once the ball hits the apex of the higher arc, it is going to fall straight down onto the ground. I am always thinking about how my ball is going to run out on the fairway. In the wet winter months, I might play a more lofted driver to fly the ball farther, because wetter conditions require that kind of shot… but I think you need to have all the tools in the shed.

Do you mean something like this:

vs
this kind of ball flight?

There have been much better examples of the first kind of ballflight with a much higher trajectory but unfortunately Youtube deletes these things a lot…

BTW. i came across a quote you posted from Tiger Woods last year:

The USGA would do good to have a visit to the same dentist that the NBA visits. Get their teeth sharpened and put some bite back into
equipment specs.

sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d … nba-278191

Wouldn’t players jumping too high be similar to players hitting it too far?

In the article, they mention that the public can buy these shoes… of course. Seems like a good model to follow.

Mr. Finchem is probably sitting in his office and thinking: Hmm, if i introduce some kind of tournament ball that doesnt fly so far, would this increase ratings (aka my salary) - nah, probably not. Next idea please!

Distance is like a drug, once you did your job of getting people hooked, it is very very difficult to go back…

On the other hand - if you would make the manufactures (Titleist, TM) produce balls that look the same and are branded the same, maybe with a little TP printed on that are designed to go shorter, and keeping to sell the regular ball to us peasants, we might even find some liking in the idea of being able to hit it as far as Phil & Co. So that might be a Win-Win situations - the manufactures still can promote and sell their balls, the PGA Tour might make golf a bit more instresting by not playing pitch & putt and we might have a new goal to strive for with our “power balls” trying to outdrive the greats :wink:

USGA, and R and A are basically joined at the hip for some strange reason. PGA Tour, they all are enjoying a monopoly on how the game
should be played.

I don’t think monopolies are necessarily healthy. New organization needs to rise up and exist. No to complete against them, but to offer
another option. Better thought out and putting the game of golf first, and business second.

Just my two cents.

This is an excerpt from a Tom Watson interview in Golf Magazine July 2010 (interviewing Watson about his near miss at Turnberry the year before)

Golf Magazine: As one of the game’s great shotmakers, do you believe science is killing the art of golf?

Tom Watson: The game has changed significantly. We can make the ball go longer and straighter. The hybrids make it much easier to play. You can miss hit drivers these days and they still get distance out of it.You certainly didn’t get that with a persimmon club.

Golf Magazine: How would you improve the game?

Tom Watson: If i were commissioner, this is what I would do. They have started to reign in the grooves. I would also get rid of big broom handle putters. That’s not a stroke. I’d reduce the size of the driver from 460cc to 240cc. That gets the sweet spot a little smaller. You mis hit it it’s going to fall 20 or 30 yards short rather than 4 yards short like it does now. And then I would reduce the distance the ball goes by 10 percent

Golf Magazine: Any chance of that happening?

Tom Watson: No one hundred percent chance of it not happening. (laughs)

I like how he mentions …“If I were commissioner”…so he is basically lumping the blame on the Tour and it’s hierarchy for not making their own set of rules to play by to keep golf honest at the professional level.
We really need someone like him or others with the ‘name’ and the ‘knowledge’ and ‘respect’ to be able to alter these things and make a difference…until then, like he said it is a long shot

If the USGA have been testing shorter balls for the last five years and actually had the Canadian Tour test shorter balls in one of their events earlier this year, surely it can’t be a long shot.

My fear is that they’ll just rewrite the conforming ball list with the shorter balls, meaning most amateurs won’t be affected.

New organization must rise… one that has no baggage to bring to the table.
Put in new equipment limitations, a better ball, put professional golf back on classic real golf courses.
Clean up the rule book.
Start educating the golfing public properly.

Who’s in? :sunglasses:

Trying to get the USGA to change is like an ocean-liner attempting a U turn while wedged between two icebergs.

Never underestimate the power of a few clever minds.
I think the USGA have made a few big mistakes and in making those mistakes, have left an opening, and an enormous opportunity is available.
I see it clearly.

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Ben Hogan talks clubs and balls and how the courses suffer.


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