Lengthening Courses

I read an article in which Tiger was interviewed about the continuing lengthening of courses to 'beat' the big hitters. He said 'I dont mind because I can hit it in the grandstands and it doesnt matter'

Is anyone else fed up of this attitude of the R&A and PGA to just keep making courses longer and longer? Rather than pernalise the long hitters it puts them in even stronger positions than say purer ball strikers. Faldo for instance wouldnt win anything now but he was the best iron striker I ever saw. Sure sometimes they cut the rough long but surely the answer is to introduce more OOB or penal trees/water etc for these guys who want to bomb it 350 off the tees. If you know it doesnt matter if youre 50 yards off line because the spectators will stop it anyway and theres always a line in to the holes whats the point .. 500 yard par 4's will be the norm soon rendering par an impossible score for most recreational golfers who dont have the time to pump iron for 6 hours a day

What else can/should they do instead of just adding length?

Different tee boxes for Champ, Pro, Men, Senior, Ladies take care of the length issue. Just don;t play from the Champs if you can't carry a drive 300.

The PGA has to keep up with equipment. It's a never ending battle until they stop the manufacturers trying to out-do each other for profits...so don't look for changes in the rule anytime soon.

If golf is becomming more of an athletic sport (hitting it longer) then that is what it will become. Adapt. In any sport, the top players will find ways to beat eachother, it's what the competition is all about. To compete, then learn to play with the top players and hit it longer AND keep it under control. Some players will succeed keeping it in the fairway giving up 30 yards. Some will hit it long, give up accuracy and play roulette in the trees and rough.

Tiger gets away with being both top 10 long (305 yds) and only straight (54% fairways). Fred Funk is just about last in distance (266 yds) but First Accuracy (80%). Fred is 64th in the money list so he must be doing something else right...try Greens in regulation at 54th (67%). Tiger is first in GIR (75%). Thats about 1 extra green hit per 9..huge difference. But then what did they do on the green? Funk is just about dead last in putting 1.85 putts against Tiger's middle of the road 1.77. Not much difference there. Has to be something else that is making so much better. Tiger is -10 on par 4s. Funk is +10. Hum. On to something there. Par 5s, Woods is -31 and Funk is -18. My guess is that the extra 30 yards off the tee allows Tiger to go for tighter pins with a higher club then Funk, and reach the 5s in 2 more often. So length is winning over the long run.

And so Professional golf also knows this. They make courses longer to put more then a SW in Tiger's hands on the par 4s. Yes, this puts a 4i in Funk's hands, but Funk has the option to learn to hit it longer. Tiger already learned how growing up, but early on, he was all over the place. He has changed his swing 4 times to get to where he is. Funk hasn't changed his swing since he joined the tour.

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I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

doglegs, pot bunkers, savage rough like you get on a UK links, OB between fairways if you are past the walkways?
Though personally I dont like internal OB, then again, I dont get paid to hit it straight.

Water at 300-325 yrds on fairway.

I agree with the idea that golf is becoming more of an athletic game. Is the PGA afraid of Steven Bowditch, Robert Garrigus or James Driscoll. All of them are in the top 20 in driving distance. Take a look at the active players with 9 or more wins in their careers. Most if not all have solid games from tee to green and most have never or will never win a driving contest. Unless golf designers are willing to design courses with 300 yard par 3's, 500 yard par 4's and 700 yard long par 5's some golfers are always going to "overpower" a course.

I honestly don't see what the problem is.

Sure, back in the Wilt Chamberlain days, they modified basketball courts because of ONE PLAYER. It hasn't happened since.

Hockey has finally gone back to goaltenders (not a wall of pads on skates).

Did the PGA change courses for Nicklaus? Nelson? Morris? Jones? Palmer?

Why the panic? You're seeing better athletes than we ever have - they're going to produce higher or lower scores (whatever dictates a win in your given sport). Let them be.

The thing that irks me is that Joe Average golfer is the one getting screwed. I like playing by the rules. To me, rules define a performance in a sport. If you were carry the basketball like a football and score every time, it doesn't make you a good basketball player - you're cheating.

The problem is that the rules surrounding equipment are made for the professionals. Joe Hacker can't really take advantage of the stuff effected by COR limits, ball limits, etc, but has to use approved gear if he wants to play by the rules. As the USGA (universally stupid golf administration) keeps limiting equipment, I believe more and more amateurs will play illegal equipment. That said, I'm assembling a GolfSmith 1K this weekend... just to see what breaking the rules feels like.

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True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
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PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

Keep us updated on the differences between it and your regular driver.

You mean beyond the .370" hosel and extra 600 or so CC's?

600 cc's

That thing must look insane at the end of shaft.

No no - EXTRA 600 cc's.

The 1K is a 1000 CC driver. It makes a 460 cc look like a 230 cc.

I'll be hard pressed to miss the middle of the face.

The thing is so crazy, GolfSmith has UST create a special shaft for it.

Again. Insane!

Want to see pictures, or better yet video.

Maybe I'll post some of the club once it's built. It's absolutely massive.

I ordered some 'baby clubs' (< 100 cc's, made out of persimmon)... it's barely bigger than a golf ball. Then I put the 1K head next to it. I think if I cut the top off, I could put 5 or 6 golfballs in the cavity.

I agree with Gree,

Rather than make courses longer more emphasis needs to be placed on designing courses with internal obstacles. Length need not be the utmost consideration. This can be done as Gree suggested, ie, by creating dog legs, hazards, planting trees and so on.

In doing this golfers would be on a level playing field. Length wouldn't matter, placement would. Personally, a better game to watch.

Simple, make the fairways 50 yards wide but end the par 4 fairways at 280 yards with a little bit of fairway maybe 20 yards short of the green, for the par 5's make a big swathe of rough from 280 to 400 yards and for the par 3's keep them all below 180 yards so even the 'shorter' hitters are using a 6 iron or lower to attack the pins.

Its hard to tell what the best way to go about the constant lengthening of courses is. If you lengthen a course to protect par (is that really why they are doing it, more on that later) then you have to balance it out by modifying another aspect to give an equal advantage to players with other gifts like short game or bunker play.

I think I have voiced this particular conspiracy theory before, but the reason they are lengthening the courses is so that Tiger, Phil et all have a better chance to be in the reckoning come sunday night, which boosts ratings which means more sponsor dollars etc etc etc. What's the betting the Swoosh and the Arrowhead are stumping up for the diggers and turf?

Bringing the OB in a bit would help, if you made it so that 30 yards off the fairway centerline was OB then Tiger would be costing the Swoosh even more in new balls every week and would be maybe a dozen shots worse every tourney.

D.

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