2020 Professional Golf Thread

[Orikoru]

You must be too young . From memory it was round about the end of the Sampras era. At Wimbledon in particular people were getting mad amounts of aces and games were incredible dull. Bob average players were doing well purely because they could blast super powered serves. Taking pressure out of the balls negated the total power players and meant you had to have more of an all round game again.

The downside was that it took serve volley largely out of the game because the ball stood up a little more and players could pass more easily. Perhaps that was the price to pay.

Oh christ I thought he meant recently! Well it obviously didn't work since most of the fastest serves recorded were in the last ten years. I used to watch a bit of tennis when I was younger but I don't remember any kind of song and dance about them changing the ball.

 

[Beezerk]

Tennis, another sport run by old people in blazers ??

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Oh christ I thought he meant recently! Well it obviously didn't work since most of the fastest serves recorded were in the last ten years. I used to watch a bit of tennis when I was younger but I don't remember any kind of song and dance about them changing the ball.

I think if you watched a mens game at Wimbledon from the 90's and saw one now you would see a huge difference. There were a lot of one dimensional games, a lot of one dimensional players. Different on different surfaces but grass is the fastest I believe so we saw the worst of it here. I think Murph may follow tennis so he may be able to tell you more about it. Perhaps the ball now bounces a little higher so returners have more chance to get the ball back but it is definitely different.

 

[USER1999]

Oh christ I thought he meant recently! Well it obviously didn't work since most of the fastest serves recorded were in the last ten years. I used to watch a bit of tennis when I was younger but I don't remember any kind of song and dance about them changing the ball.

So because it didn't happen yesterday, it's not relevant? It worked at the time, and maybe, even though serves have crept up, it may be isn't now the dominating factor that it was then.

 

[Papas1982]

Re the tennis.

Imo it went too far. There was a sweet spot early Fedever when serve and volley still had a place and the likes of Hewitt could win from the back.

Now it’s all from the back with many matches one from simply who makes the least mistakes.

 

[Orikoru]

Re the tennis.

Imo it went too far. There was a sweet spot early Fedever when serve and volley still had a place and the likes of Hewitt could win from the back.

Now it’s all from the back with many matches one from simply who makes the least mistakes.

So what you're saying is, changing the ball doesn't work.

 

[Papas1982]

So what you're saying is, changing the ball doesn't work.

It worked for what they wanted at the time, but it would imo eventually show up other problems.

I'm totally agaisnt it changing tbh. Sport is about winning within the rules. Big hitters aren't cheating. Make the course more penal by all means. But don't make the ball shorter as a percentage as that does effect the biggest hitters more and that really isn't fair.

 

[Orikoru]

It worked for what they wanted at the time, but it would imo eventually show up other problems.

I'm totally agaisnt it changing tbh. Sport is about winning within the rules. Big hitters aren't cheating. Make the course more penal by all means. But don't make the ball shorter as a percentage as that does effect the biggest hitters more and that really isn't fair.

I still think the best idea is to make crowd areas out of bounds. Obviously there's no spectators at the moment, which means they are free to ease it in gently by having the ropes further back than perhaps they normally would have done - or experiment by just having it on one side to stop players cutting a corner etc. Doing this will not stop the big hitters from having an advantage, but they'll know they need to be more accurate, as a wayward slice could see them out of bounds more easily. Added bonus when there are spectators back, is that it protects them a bit more from being struck on the head!

Like you say, I wouldn't want them to change the ball. I think if someone can hit it 350 yards but still find fairways (as Bryson does reasonably well let's not forget) then they deserve the advantage for that. But bringing in more out of bounds area will just give them something more to think about on certain holes. Because right now they have no such concerns about how far offline it goes.

 

[USER1999]

The ball doesn't necessarily need to be shorter, just spin more on anything not 100% middled. It would still be possible to hit it 300, just a heck of a lot harder to do it, and mis hits would be all over the place.
Much like balata balls used to be.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Distance has been king for the last 40yrs.......at least.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1308167613986598912

 

[Orikoru]

Distance has been king for the last 40yrs.......at least.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1308167613986598912

I googled 2002 and 2009 to see why there was a dip - both at Bethpage Black.

 

[BubbaP]

Not a tour, but anyone watching the matchplay exhibition?

 

[need_my_wedge]

Not a tour, but anyone watching the matchplay exhibition?

Was just coming on to post about it. Payne's Valley, designed by Tiger, Stunning looking course. There's a bit more banter going on Than in some of the previous exhibitions. Still on the first right now. Supposedly a public course, maybe next year's H4H......

 

[garyinderry]

Lost the remote to GBBO. Also been told to shut up and stop talking.

I get to watch untold amounts of golf so will have to use my tact and let this one slide.

 

[Imurg]

Was just coming on to post about it. Payne's Valley, designed by Tiger, Stunning looking course. There's a bit more banter going on Than in some of the previous exhibitions. Still on the first right now. Supposedly a public course, maybe next year's H4H......

Looking at a picture of them walking down a fairway that's about as wide as the M25... I'm all for it.....

 

[BubbaP]

Ha, quality double cross from Rose!

 

[need_my_wedge]

Rory trying out a new caddie....?

 

[Orikoru]

Just stuck it on - why have they all got one earphone in?

 

[3-off-the-tee]

Just stuck it on - why have they all got one earphone in?

Because if they had 2 in they wouldn’t be able to hear each other ?

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Looks a fun track