Golf is getting too long?

Unfollow Thread

By Dave N

  • 0 Likes
  • 18 Replies
  1. Dave N

    Dave N
    Dade City, FL

    There has been a lot of talk lately to this point. Some even want the balls to be "turned down" distance wise. I read Jack N. wants the courses rated and use the appropriate ball for said course, this is nonsense to me how are you to know how far you can hit each club for different balls. Plus you will need to have 4 or 5 different strength balls. WHY CAN"T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG!!!!! If it aint broke don't fix it. Just my 2 cents.

  2. Hotsauce

    Hotsauce
    Georgetown MA

    Titleist did a really interesting study on this some time ago. According to them, It’s less about equipment and more about course agronomy than anything. If they want to make golf longer for the pros, they need to slow the fairways down. I forget the specs, but the consensus is that fairways on tour roll like the greens at your local muni.

    Making a different set of balls or a different set of rules is silly. The average weekend golfer can’t break 90, and the game isn’t growing like it once was. Keep golf fun, speed up pace of play and make the rules easier to understand. No need to complicate things...
  3. Speedy

    Speedy
    East Coast, NH

    Ok, first I thought you were talking about pace of play.. HA! But yeah I know what ya saying... I'll be the first to admit, I wish I could hit long like everyone else but it's not gonna happen.. I truly believe in the old saying, "it's the Indian, not the arrow"..

    Technology will only get better and if they're really CONCERNED about long hitters or whatever, then build another tee box for the long ball hitters. After the championship tees, they should build another tee box called the Iron man tee.. CASE CLOSE.. Leave the technology alone...

    And not sure why people are so upset about pros or whoever is hitting it so longggggg.. Who cares.. IMO, short game and putting is what people should be focusing on...

    And if we're gonna talk about this, might as well get MLB in play.. How many home runs did they hit last year?? A LOT. I don't see anyone complaining about them.. WHY? B/C IT'S FUN to watch the ball players crush it outta the park.. Just like golf, i like watching the pros bomb drives.. i can only dream of hitting it that far.. The closest i'll get to that is playing a little EA Golf on my xbox and tapping that A button for super duper power and ripping it..

    Ok, good topic Dave
  4. Dale V

    Dale V
    Surprise AZ

    Speedy said:

    Ok, first I thought you were talking about pace of play.. HA! But yeah I know what ya saying... I'll be the first to admit, I wish I could hit long like everyone else but it's not gonna happen.. I truly believe in the old saying, "it's the Indian, not the arrow"..

    Technology will only get better and if they're really CONCERNED about long hitters or whatever, then build another tee box for the long ball hitters. After the championship tees, they should build another tee box called the Iron man tee.. CASE CLOSE.. Leave the technology alone...

    And not sure why people are so upset about pros or whoever is hitting it so longggggg.. Who cares.. IMO, short game and putting is what people should be focusing on...

    And if we're gonna talk about this, might as well get MLB in play.. How many home runs did they hit last year?? A LOT. I don't see anyone complaining about them.. WHY? B/C IT'S FUN to watch the ball players crush it outta the park.. Just like golf, i like watching the pros bomb drives.. i can only dream of hitting it that far.. The closest i'll get to that is playing a little EA Golf on my xbox and tapping that A button for super duper power and ripping it..

    Ok, good topic Dave

    Speedy, you bring up the MLB. MLB/minor leagues use wooden bats and everyone else can use aluminum bats. Kind of the same principle for the "tour ball". My concern is two things, great old courses not being played anymore at the professional level and kids/adults just getting started having the expectations of being able to hit it nearly as far as pros. In our early days the separation between amateur and pros was more about the skills to control the shot, not so much about length. it gave me hope that even as a short hitter i could develop skills to be competitive. We are not the only sport suffering from a significant separation in pro verses amateur. I think it has also hurt tennis. I personally quit watching pro tennis when it became nothing but who could make the most aces on serve. I don't know the answer but i certainly see the concern.
  5. Speedy

    Speedy
    East Coast, NH

    Speedy

    Ok, first I thought you were talking about pace of play.. HA! But yeah I know what ya saying... I'll be the first to admit, I wish I could hit long like everyone else but it's not gonna happen.. I truly believe in the old saying, "it's the Indian, not the arrow"..

    Technology will only get better and if they're really CONCERNED about long hitters or whatever, then build another tee box for the long ball hitters. After the championship tees, they should build another tee box called the Iron man tee.. CASE CLOSE.. Leave the technology alone...

    And not sure why people are so upset about pros or whoever is hitting it so longggggg.. Who cares.. IMO, short game and putting is what people should be focusing on...

    And if we're gonna talk about this, might as well get MLB in play.. How many home runs did they hit last year?? A LOT. I don't see anyone complaining about them.. WHY? B/C IT'S FUN to watch the ball players crush it outta the park.. Just like golf, i like watching the pros bomb drives.. i can only dream of hitting it that far.. The closest i'll get to that is playing a little EA Golf on my xbox and tapping that A button for super duper power and ripping it..

    Ok, good topic Dave

    Good point on the MLB Dale V. in regards to the bats being used... My bad...
  6. Bomber3

    Bomber3
    Lake St Louis, MO

    Military
    For the vast majority of amateur golfers the advances in golf technology is welcome. Do I hit the ball farther now than I did in my 30s & 40s...NO, but the improved ball & club technology keep me in the fairways on a much more consistent basis which helps me shoot better scores...and better scores make the game a more fun. The game is hard enough, don't move backwards on the technological advances.
  7. Sam K

    Sam K

    Speedy,
    I too, like to crank drives EA style; especially after a day of slicing it into the woods. haha

    Regardless of changes to the game, I can see value in the pros playing the same course conditions and equipment as average golfers. Without common "conditions", the fans lose context for the level of play they are seeing on TV. We will see how it goes. I agree, the multiple ball idea is ridiculous.
  8. Tim Tiger

    Tim Tiger
    Tucson, AZ

    HOTSAUCE was dead on with what he said. Pros will still be longer and hit the ball better than the amateurs.
    Trying to change clubs and balls will not be the best solution. Tighten up and slow down their courses.

    TT
  9. Don O

    Don O
    Madison, WI

    There's like 80 courses for the pros among the thousands of courses for real golfers (like us). Even then, there are only 30 or so players that go over 300 on average. Grow the rough and fairways and that will equalize the bombers so the guys going 275 can compete. Reward accuracy and they will dial it back.
  10. Dale V

    Dale V
    Surprise AZ

    To the point about course conditions, in some cases instead of growing rough i would shave off more. Augusta was much better without rough as the balls offline would run into the woods. Now they stop short of the pine straw. The guy that only has a wedge into a green is not as worried about the rough. If he has to worry about his tee shot running through the fairway and into a water hazard he might dial back. Just a thought...
  11. Don O

    Don O
    Madison, WI

    Dale V said:

    To the point about course conditions, in some cases instead of growing rough i would shave off more. Augusta was much better without rough as the balls offline would run into the woods. Now they stop short of the pine straw. The guy that only has a wedge into a green is not as worried about the rough. If he has to worry about his tee shot running through the fairway and into a water hazard he might dial back. Just a thought...

    Augusta, because they can, is adding more yardage to 15(?). That adds pressure to other courses. So it's up to the architects and course superintendents to set up courses to control longer shots other than through lengthening the course. Fairway bunkers with a 1 foot lip are not a hazard, especially for the pros. Make a couple with 5-8 foot lips at 300 yards will fix that problem. Would Augusta run the fairways up to the pine straw? Or is Augusta even relevant for design anymore without waste areas and naturalized plants? ...Just don't make it harder for me to hit driver 220 yards at age 67 just because Jason T can hit a Pro-V1 310 yards. I really get livid that Jack and Tiger may give the USGA the idea to once more not take into consideration who their base is (and they aren't on the PGA tour).
  12. KCGolfGuy

    KCGolfGuy
    Greenwood, MO

    Agronomy is the biggest deal in my opinion. Tight the fairways up and let them grow a bit. Make the traps an actual hazard like they are intended to be. Let some more native grasses grow in certain areas to add priority on accuracy. Players aren't too long the courses are just playing shorter than their stated yardages.
  13. Frank P

    Frank P
    Port St. Lucie, FL

    Military
    LET THEM PLAY! It's TV golf. It's what people want to see. What do you think the networks want Bubba Watson driving the green on a par 4 or watching him hacking it out of the rough with a 9-Iron?
  14. 19hole

    19hole
    Reading, MA

    Bifurcation of the rules will only hurt the game in the long run. When does a player make the change from one set of rules to the other?

    No need to shorten the ball or lengthen the courses. Narrow the fairways and grow the rough up a bit. Let the players hit it 320 into 4" deep rough and see what happens to the scores.
  15. Mark F

    Mark F

    I'm not at all sure that shortening the golf ball is the best way to shorten the Pros. I think that tightening the fairways and growing the rough would be one way to help. However, I feel that there are already two different games being played, one for the pros and one for the rest of us. One step might be to keep the spectators and marshals away from the fairways, although I doubt that would ever happen. I think the pros would use more 3 woods off of the tee if the rough was higher and there was no one there to find their off line drives in the new 3 minute rule. If there were strokes awarded for lost balls, the pros would be more likely to prefer accuracy to distance. I may just be a skeptic but I don't believe that anything will ever happen to dial in the pros because long drives bring viewers which bring in sponsors and dollars. So we will continue to watch and wish that we could hit it that far and then go out to our public courses with the chopped up tee boxes that tilt and the greens that are slow and pot marked with divot that weren't fixed properly. Hope that all of the T/T nation has a good Christmas and the New Year gives all of you more fairways and greens.

    Mark F
  16. Gary D

    Gary D
    Cranston, RI

    I'm in the camp that thinks if the pro's played "tighter" courses, they wouldn't be shooting 8 under on their rounds. Narrow the fairways and most importantly, grow the rough. How many times do you see a pro hitting a 3 wood out of the rough, carrying it 260. If the rough was 4" and thick, there would be a penalty for not hitting the fairway. It would take the Driver right out of their hands. Classic old courses could come back into the tournament rotation. Making courses longer is not the solution. That's been proven already.
  17. Mike H

    Mike H
    Wisconsin

    The fried egg did an evaluation of I believe hole 10 at Erin Hills for the us open which was not a Narrow hole rather had a wide landing area for drives, but depending on where the pin was it prioritized a spot to play to in the fairway this hole could be setup to play as one of the hardest holes on the course by utilizing strategic landing area and pin position rather than narrow tight fairways.
  18. Rooster

    Rooster
    West Wareham, MA

    Military
    Changing the ball or equipment is ridiculous. There are already rules on the books limiting them. It just happens that manufacturers have figured out how to take it to those limits. I think it is about pin positions, growing rough, width of fairways. These are things even the older courses can do at minimal cost.
  19. Lance P

    Lance P
    Hillsborough, NC

    Please do not even think of changing the ball...I enjoy hitting the same ball as the pros and knowing that with a little luck, practice, and the right teacher I might be able to hit a drive within 50 yards of a pro! A LPGA pro hits about 260 and I hit about 210. Put us on the same tee with the same ball and she smokes me and that's because she's a pro and way better than me and I'm okay with it. Gives me something to strive for...

Please login to post a comment.

Sign In

Haven't registered for Team Titleist yet?

Sign Up