i agree on the balls but i also blame the tour vans, those guys switch out drivers way too much imo. they claim they “heart” their taylor made’s but where’s the love?
i watched the special with seve before the telecast, and i think he played that black persimmon for over a span of a decade if not longer.
all the great drivers played a particular driver for a long time. even with a junky frying pan, they could learn alot more shots if they had some
familiarity with the club. not as much as persimmon or even smaller heads, but still some more variety.
When did we ever see a guy spin the ball back on #10 or even #12 for that matter? Instead of having to land the ball on the first 3rd of the green… to allow for a bit of skip and bounce… now they have the whole green… so it’s just another target golf event. All the nuances are gone the really separated the good from the great. So the ball, and the the trajectory of the shot coming into the greens are vital…
Standing on the first tee, I imagined how nervous Hanson is probably feeling… but it must feel like a big safety net looking down at the frying pan, not having to worry about sky popping it up… or sending a ball way off target with a toe or heel strike. It’s just got to be a lot easier than with the classic persimmons the greats won with. You simply don’t have to be as good.
As minimal as it is, I think the “first cut” has made a difference. Every major has a dark horse every now and then (Larry Mize), but historically great players have tended to win the Masters more than they win other majors (Tom Watson with 5 Opens being a glaring exception). I think when the great players got off line in the Masters, they were able to manufacture a shot to get to the green. They could hit their ball cleanly and control it. The lesser ball strikers couldn’t do that…or at least not as well. Today, with even minimal rough, neither the best ball strikers nor the bottom of the field really know for sure where the ball is going when they’re out of the fairway. The talent advantage is negated. The winner becomes more of a toss-up decision.
Contrast that with the US Open. You see numerous dark horse champions…Orville Moddy, Jack Fleck, Andy North, etc. You don’t see (modern) players winning 4,5, or 6 US Opens. I think it’s at least partially because once the players get in the rough (and they all get there eventually), Jack Nicklaus and Jack Squat are both limited to the same shot…wedge it back to the fairway.
Check out some of the champions since Augusta has been thoroughly Tiger Proofed…Immelman, Z Johnson, Schwartzel. We’re starting to see more good (not historically great) players win more often. Augusta is becoming more like the US Open and we’re starting to see more US Open dark horse type winners.
The Masters was unique in that fashion… and just incredible that they were able to design a golf course that really did exactly that. Why try to change or fix something that was working so perfectly?
It saddens me really to think there is no longer such an event on the planet anymore. Very sad.
I just watched the first hour and getting to the good part…and the player froze. I refreshed but how do you fast forward the player…I need to get back to Strange about to hit his second at 13
Remember that if you hit the pause button on the flash player, you have to then hit the play button to restart.
If you hit the stop button, it goes back to the beginning.
Best to let it load for a while before watching the stream.
