good P4 position however…and probable(?) camoflaged angled hinge…
I agree Lag. Tiger would figure out how to hit it 250-260 and straight. I have to throw my own experiences into the mix here. I am considerably straighter with persimmon than I am with my Cleveland waffle iron. But like everybody else I hit it a great deal shorter. I was a better player (in terms of stroke average/handicap) playing sub 7,000 yarders with lumber, knifes and squash balls! My shot dispersion was a lot tighter back in the day. I am actually impressed how straight these players are with the modern gear. Given the clubhead speeds and crazy long shafts and light heads…these guys are good! We forget sometimes that Ben Hogan regardless of club in hand could never move it out there as far as Tiger. Simply a different breed of athlete I am afraid. Unlike the majority here I find facing courses with Buck Roger’s gear at 7,400 yards with stroke and distance looming everywhere as a tougher propostion than old school stuff on a Perry Maxwell design etc. I think pure athleticism is a bigger factor now than before. Two different games as Lag and others have articulated very well.
I figured it out…Tiger would miss it further left…Get it to matted-down grass! 
He would figure it out…
I am going to have to disadgree with the athleticism bit. And I'm almost sure if you went about interviewing 70-80 year old retired professional athletes you would find that the genetics really has not changed that much. If you think about it a very very long time ago there were those that could catch the food and those who could lift the heavy rocks...these were not the same people but each had a special talent to lend to community.Yes, Hogan could easily hit it as far as our Mr Woods and a 24 year old Nicklaus with a big belly would spot him at least 20 and still dust it by him. Bobby Jones hit it on the 16th hole at Olympic Club,the site of the 1987 US Open, a 604 yard par 5 in 2 shots. Only one other gargantuan local amateur was able to do it.I doubt Tiger's ever hit it. Snead says that he did not play with Jones until 6 years after he had retired,in 1936, but he testified to Jones's length. "Bob just cruised his drives short of mine until we reached the par 5's. Then he some how crushed them 20-30 yards past mine.Nobody had ever told me that he was that long...I was flabbergasted!!" says Sam. Snead was not only one of the longer hitters but at this time considered one of the best athletes in the country and could have competed in many different sports with the same proficiency.Sam Snead at 62 finished 3rd at the PGA championship. Please, lets not mix up athleticism and genious! The genetics are not different...perhaps only the training methods? When was the 4 minute mile broken and how much faster are we now? Paulsy
Paulsy,
No doubt in the past there were many great athletes playing golf. Like Jones I am also pretty long when I am playing a rope hook ! Relax, that is meant as a joke! But golf must be the only sport that is now NOT producing better athletes (note I did not say competitors) I think Nicklaus was a great athlete regardless of his oyster eating habits circa the 1960s! Palmer looked like a blacksmith! I would never suggest that players of a by gone era were not good athletes, but it is ridiculous to suggest that Hogan was as athletic as Woods is in the general sense of the word. In terms of “golf-fitness” maybe, but overall certainly not. It reminds me of an experience I had playing with a good South African pro, John Bland. He was a chain smoker that enjoyed a beer or five. He had a sizeable waist and did not fit any version of an athlete. I was a teen at the time I played with him and was a provincial squash player as well! I could not keep up with the man! He could walk the hind legs off a donkey, puffing practically every step of the way! I agree that DNA is DNA, but as you suggested training is an important variable. I also contend that athleticism in a golf context hits the diminishing returns limit quicker than many other sports. What I love about Hogan (Gary Player as well) is that they wrung out every ounce of their respective abilities. Too much has been made about Player’s supposed diminuitive disadvantages. In fact although small in stature he was ahead of his high school peers in terms of athletic prowess. At 15 he competed for the First XV rugby team as well as First XI cricket team at his high school (one of the strongest schools athletically then and now in the entire country) The equivalent of varsity football and varsity baseball in an American high school as a sophomore. Athleticism apparently was not a deciding factor in Jerry Rice failing to break 80 in a nationwide event! But can there be any doubt that Mr. Woods can run faster, longer, jump higher, bench and squat more than the venerable Bob Jones? After I read Al Barkow’s biography on Snead I hold a closet opinion that Sam was one of the most gifted athletes…EVER. But even the great Jim Thorpe could not compete successfully in a modern Olympiad. They had no steroids back then! I think golf fitness is an ultra functional thing. Bilateral balance, sufficient strength to absorb a hellacious impact etc. I think we will see many Camillo Villegas type players in the future. Pound for pound immensely strong, super flexible with the capacity of incredible core rotation! Kinda like Hogan without the Chesterfields! But I know a high school kid that will play big time college foottball next year that can jump higher, run faster, lift heavier etc. In fact the same kid (an eager but poor golfer) made a wisecrack about Bob Murphy (I was showing time lapse pics of his putting stroke) looking like a nerd. I smiled and replied “That nerd played college golf and college baseball for Florida! I think that is the case, anyway!
Hogan’s legs were run over by a bus…Woods’s leg…well…just fell apart. I am relaxed now 
Oh ya,and Jones didn’t hit rope hooks 
C’mon Paulsy you have to hand it to a guy that trains his body like ElTigre does. He is a shoe-in for the sealy-posturpedic olympics! I guess Bobby Locke was copying someone else with that hooking action. 
The sizeable draw is white evident on his famous movie shorts. But I am just being a whipper-snapper. It gets you uber-traditionalists wound like a penfold! I love everything traditional. I like it when knowledable guys like yourself tell the likes of me what we could not possibly know seeing that we are so far removed from the time period. I am just saying that Tiger is perhaps a better all round athlete than Mr. Jones and Hogan (not Snead) Impossible to know for sure, just a guess really. I want to give credit where credit is due.
Paul and I witnessed maybe the greatest feat in a four round tour event in Winnipeg. A 310 pound Chris Patton shot 34 under par for 4 rounds. I believe that record still stands as the lower four round total in competitive golf. If not… mind you … it was impressive.
Chis was about as far from an athletic guy as you could get… and I can almost guarantee that Tiger or Hogan or Jones or anyone would not be able to beat his play up there that week.
You absolutely do not have to be a great or even good athlete to play top level golf… at least sometimes.
Ask Jerry Rice.
I still believe golf to be a game of skill and technique… not athleticism, in the traditional sense… We are sneaky athletic with very odd muscles being toned up, often hidden under some interesting disguises.
I agree, Lag. I guess because of the increased cool factor it seems that more so-called athletes are signing up to play golf these days. I liked it better when golf was more of a loner elitist game! I made the point earlier about John Bland who looked more like a barfly than a professional athlete that could walk a man half his age into the ground. I also agree that the skill level is not what is used to be among the best players…it is simply not needed. Harnessing everything you have and delivering it through the ball again and again is no short order.