What?

[Sweep]

Good post and I don’t disagree. Except as the article I posted clearly shows, despite their lack of athleticism, those same top players from 30 years ago are now hitting it further than they did back then, despite being 30 years older and I guess being no more athletic. That is quite staggering if you accept that at the very top of the game there is little to choose between players or room for improvement.
As I say, I have no issue with distance in itself. We all like to see it and as you say, it offers up a whole raft of options around risk / reward. Personally I think the biggest aspect is the widening of the gap between the pro and amateur. The Callaway R&D guy said that if they produce a ball that gets an amateur 4 more yards the same ball gets a tour pro 10 more yards. Clearly with each and every improvement in equipment the pro is benefited more than the amateur.
I read somewhere that the degree of difficulty of a pro playing an average tour course is like male amateurs playing off the ladies tees using ladies indexes and pars on an average club track. To be fair, it sounds about right.

In this context we often look to the amateur experiencing difficulty playing iconic courses lengthened for today’s pro’s. We often forget that such pro’s can’t play an average course now.
In the 70’s we had a major champ play at my club. He scored 1 over. Just last week on the tee of a short par 4, I pointed out DJ would hit the green with a 4 iron.
Other than to demonstrate what is possible, there is little correlation between the pro and amateur game now and the gap is only going to get wider.

 

[duncan mackie]

Dealing solely with the article you posted -
1. The ball alone was responsible for over 10% during their reference period. Documented, agreed and even apologised for by the ruling bodies who got overly focused on driver faces and iron groves at the time.
2. Fine tuning their swings as well as equipment using technology will have contributed.
3. Most of the players referenced, including JD, pay significantly more attention to their physical shape now then they did 30 years ago (Langer being the exception - although he's also arguably in exactly the same shape now!). Interesting that they don't quote stats for any older players - I am at the top age of their target group and still had the strength I had previously until very recently...but the slippery slope has started.

In many ways the throw away observation in respect of JD was the most telling for me - many players of that era delivered markedly different driving stats year on year! Dig deeper and you will also realise that the courses played by the tours, and the rotation they are played plus the set ups all contribute to increased statistical driving distances. Eve n the tours accepted that their methodology was poor at that time when they were picking limited holes that they perceived players would be trying to hit it a long way (and sometimes got it very wrong)

Pondering just how far DJ or Rory will able to hit it at age 50 is interesting - I would be happy to bet that carry distance will be less than currently. Obviously with global warming the run out figures on the baked fairways will be staggering....