EDITOR’S LETTER E A looming catastrophe for club golfers
E ver-improving technology has popularised golf. As one who has experienced a vastly differing quality of equipment in my lifetime, I can testify that my enjoyment factor of golf has never been greater. The clubs and balls in my bag are products I never dreamed of playing when young. Looking back, I can’t believe I persevered as a beginner. The clubs were awful, particularly the grips, and the balls prone to extreme deviations and low trajectories. Thankfully, they were cheap, because they didn’t last long, either disappearing into dense vegetation or being sliced open by an errant swipe. I had limited control over this ball – a smaller version of today’s – and this was a game where control of your ball mattered because fairways were narrower. However, one thing that didn’t concern me was the distance it travelled when struck sweetly. There were those whose feats of hitting seemed extraordinary, yet they were a minority. The rest of us struck the ball similar distances. We all played from the same tees. One tee for men, one tee for women. How the game has changed. Today it is all about how far the ball can be driven, and courses have as many as five different tees to cater for length.
beneficial for the future of golf to put a check on distance. Say 300-metre drives maximum. Yet The R&A and USGA, in their judgment, have entered dangerous territory by insisting club golfers will also have to play this new ball, starting in 2030. I hope to still be playing then, yet age will have slowed my ball speed and I don’t look forward to losing even more distance with a “shorter” ball. Some say the loss will be minimal, yet surely the point of this exercise is to take back considerable distance from the pros. It should be at least 30 metres with the driver. Anything less won’t have the desired effect. It is a mistake to inflict this upon the aging club golfer because it could create divisions. No club golfer will welcome a “lesser” ball. Come 2030 many will likely continue using current balls. Tests have shown modern balls do not deteriorate. The Pro V1 I buy today will be as effective in six years’ time. I foresee stock piling taking place. Golf ball sales could plummet in 2030. In America there are already millions using illegal equipment and playing by their own rules. That trend may just worsen and spread around the globe. Stuart McLean stuart@morecorp.co.za
We have reached the point where golf’s ruling bodies, The R&A and USGA, have decided something drastic must happen to the ball to curtail the increasing distances golfers are achieving not only off the tee with drivers, but irons too. On the Sunshine Tour there were instances of drives exceeding 400 yards (365 metres). Asking one pro about the clubs he used during a round, never more than an 8-iron into a par 4. It has taken the last 25 years for the penny to drop. In this edition we publish (Page 14) an interesting chart detailing the ball’s progress since 1972. That was when the first two-piece Top-Flite distance ball appeared. It was revolutionary for club golfers, although the Pro V1 in 2000 was the ball which transformed pro golf. I welcome a “roll back” of the ball for pros, although why it requires another four years before being implemented is mystifying. The R&A and USGA should already have been experimenting with such a ball at elite amateur level to gauge its effect. Those are their events, and they can pursue that direction without controversy. Instead, they are trying to push the commercial pro tours into doing their bidding, and it has not been well received. Most pros are averse to anything that will disrupt their ease of scoring, even though they will still be driving exceptionally far. It can only be
EDITOR STUART MCLEAN DESIGN ELINORE DE LISLE MARKETING WILLEM REYNEKE
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