Rory-proofing.....

[User 105]

Leave well alone I say.

So what if not everyone can drive it like Rory, not everyone can hit wedges close like Zach Johnson or putt like Jordan Speith. Don't see anyone complaining about them and saying we need to make it harder for them.

More than one way to put a score together. Look a Luke Donald a few years back. Not a long hitter by any stretch of the imagination but he had the best scoring record on par 5's by not going for it in 2 all the time !!

That's what makes golf great. You can't be a one trick pony. You need to have all aspects of you game working to win.

 

[Foliage Finder]

I'm with the leave it be camp as well. Like others have already pointed out, Rory doesn't win every week, and when he does, it's not always by such a big margin. He's the product of natural talent, good coaching, athleticism and course management, we should sit back and enjoy watching. Most sports have their stand-out big names (Johnny Wilkinson, Michael Schumacher etc) and having Rory or Tiger does a lot to promote Golf to the wider public as well, so we shouldn't make efforts to hamper their success.

 

[Ian_Bristol]

That would be like putting lead weights in Bolts running shoes so as to give the others a chance, no matter how far you hit a golf ball you still have to hole it out.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I have to say, watching Rory over the weekend was something special. A wonderful display from a man at the top of his game. There was an interview shown on Sky with the President of the club and he was loving what Rory was doing. How many under par didn't matter to him, the quality of the golf and who was lowest did. Great attitude. I did not see that as an easy course, Rory was just on another level, as was shown by the other scores.

They tried Tiger proofing courses a few years ago, moving the tees back seemed to be the main move, and on the whole they just caused more damage than good. Rather than extending allow the designers to use their talents. More water, run offs, shape fairways and rough, move bunkering to allow for extended hitting, plant some new trees. Plenty of ways to alter a golf course and lets face it the courses they play on are not struggling for money. These are high end golf clubs with money to burn and if they do not have money to burn then the PGA does.

A lot of these problems seem to be on US courses where rough is minimal and boom and bash is order of the day. Maybe they need to re-assess their thinking. I don't want a slog fest where +2 wins but possibly a slight tweaking is not amiss. Nothing more is needed though, certainly not to reign in one golfer who can't do that every week.

 

[gazr99]

To be fair was quite unique as in don't think many others did that and you won't see him do it very often.

On the hole in question, make the bunker on the corner bigger as he was carrying it by 5/10 yards and make the rougher thicker (which they are doing) so it won't have a massive bounce onto the fairway like what happened on Sunday

Also I heard Quail Hollow mows the fairways tee to green, they should try doing it the opposite way

 

[fundy]

Personally I loved the response from the president of Quail Hollow. He said something along the lines of "We dont mind what score they shoot as long as we find the best player as the winner" think this was very refreshing. Sadly the USPGA have already made it clear they will be expecting changes at a cracking course when it holds a major in a few years

 

[alexbrownmp]

So our Rors is reducing 500 yard holes to a driver/gap wedge.
This is quite frankly, ridiculous. Isn't it?
What can, realistically, be done?
Reigning the ball in, taking it back10 years, is one answer but can anyone see the OEMs agreeing to that? Same with clubs. They've spent millions developing product, why should they go back?
Making the courses longer is only going to help those like Rory.
Growing the rough and narrowing the fairways will result in a "hack-fest".
Or do we just let it ride and go with the flow?

Is it time for separate gear for the Pros?
A " Competition" ball that they all have to use - make it go 300 yards maximum. It could alternate between manufacturers so the all get a look in......

ridiculous post.............

 

[PhilTheFragger]

ridiculous post.............

Disagree, it's an interesting subject for discussion , makes you think about the game and there have been some good well thought out responses.

Not expecting everyone to agree with the content, but by no means is it a ridiculous post

 

[brendy]

I think this is a bit of a kneejerk reaction, he came 8th last week and there were no calls to make the course tougher. Occasionally we can all boom it a little further than normal at a hole and reduce its second shot by a few clubs. the difference between Rory, Bubba, DJ and a few others on the tours isnt that great so singling out one man simply because he was playing well isn't right. They never made the courts smaller/larger for Becker etc, sometimes its perfectly good and well to watch someone tear the competition apart when at the top of their game.

 

[Tongo]

Disagree, it's an interesting subject for discussion , makes you think about the game and there have been some good well thought out responses.

Not expecting everyone to agree with the content, but by no means is it a ridiculous post

Judging by some other posts from the poster there may well be some wumming being attempted.

Back to the subject in hand: the well thought out responses of some are clearly thinking about the long term health of the game rather than the here and now. Yep, its great fun watching McIlroy tearing it up and I don't think there are many people outside of the USGA who love to see a par fest but the balance of birdies and a decent challenge needs to be maintained. Augusta this year was lacking its usual challenge whilst the Open at St Andrews could be a bit embarrassing for the Old Course.

Its a bit like the debate about big sixes and loads of runs in cricket. For many people, the balance between bat and ball has now been skewed way too far in one direction.

 

[shewy]

I think we've all missed a point, what about the other 51 weeks of the year where the members play? Do you think you would enjoy playing it if it was tricked up and hard, I'm pretty sure I'd get fed up pretty quickly.
Let's just leave it as is and marvel at how good these guys are.

 

[ColchesterFC]

So after we make it harder for the longer hitters do we put windmills and clown mouths on the greens to make it harder for the good putters? Or make the hole bigger to make it easier for the bad putters (and Del)?

 

[Thexindi]

So our Rors is reducing 500 yard holes to a driver/gap wedge.
This is quite frankly, ridiculous. Isn't it?
What can, realistically, be done?
Reigning the ball in, taking it back10 years, is one answer but can anyone see the OEMs agreeing to that? Same with clubs. They've spent millions developing product, why should they go back?
Making the courses longer is only going to help those like Rory.
Growing the rough and narrowing the fairways will result in a "hack-fest".
Or do we just let it ride and go with the flow?

Is it time for separate gear for the Pros?
A " Competition" ball that they all have to use - make it go 300 yards maximum. It could alternate between manufacturers so the all get a look in......

Rory is a better player then most right now, So making changes will effect all players leaving the ability gap the same as it right now.
I think there's nothing that can be done or should be done really, everyone's got the same chance as each other.
One thing I think would help is to make the fairways that bit more narrow, try to make accuracy more important

 

[duncan mackie]

Some excellent and balanced perspectives here.

The ruling bodies missed the boat with the equipment, and the jump around 15 years ago is now bedded in too firmly - you could lower the maximum weight of the ball slightly as the easy solution to distance reductions ( but the byproduct would be floating golf balls&#128512

I completely agree with those suggesting that as he risk reward ratios are tweaked you simply widen the gap between those who excel and he rest.

 

[User 105]

These days you have to have all parts of your game working to win.

But I think the real question are courses setup to favor bombers over say great putters, wedge players etc.

Personally I don't think they are.

If you look at a lot of the winners over the past years, yes a good few of them hit the ball long, but then the rest of their games is pretty darn good too.

You don't just see pure bombers win week in week out.

Yes Rory bombs it long and straight, but then he stiffs irons and wedges. And drains a fair few putts as well.

You just can't go around setting up courses to stop him doing that. As others have said you'll probably just make it harder for the rest and give him and even bigger advantage.

 

[palindromicbob]

To much worry being place on pars and maintaining it. Plenty of the field are more than capable of it smashing it. Patrick Rodgers wasn't exactly a short hitter yesterday either but failed to convert changes so not all about length.

Just think though. If McIlroy had of shot his 61 during a club stableford he'd of only had 41 points . He'd also have missed the buffer twice :rofl:. Just shows the difference in the game the pro's play!

 

[bobmac]

No need to change the balls or trick up the courses, just make Rory +5 at the start of every tournament.
He would still have won yesterday but it would have been a lot closer

 

[ruff-driver]

Just put a moat full of snapping turtles and gators across the fairway at 300+ yds,

Oh and it's not a hazard , you must play it as it lies

 

[ColchesterFC]

You don't just see pure bombers win week in week out.

Yes Rory bombs it long and straight, but then he stiffs irons and wedges. And drains a fair few putts as well.

It's a lot easier to stick an 8 or 9 iron close for Rory than for shorter hitters who are having to hit 5 or 6 irons into the same greens though.

 

[ab1v]

I believe it is what it is. They are professional for a reason. Hard work and dedication has got them where they are. There are stand out people at any sport. Do we make the goals smaller as Ronaldo has scored a load of goals? Look at someone like phil Taylor in the darts. Same board, same equipment, same rules. Just a different class of player. sometimes you just have to step back and admire what these people can do.