"Progressive" Golf Balls
Sunday, November 21, 2004 at 11:17 AM The USA Today, longtime home to those ads designed to look like an article touting the new super long golf ball, offered a real story plugging a new material that purports to make balls fly straighter.
Meanwhile, Links Editor Dave Gould writes about balls embedded w ith tiny chips that emit a signal golfers can identify and track via hand-held scanners. , “A ll I can say to traditionalists is get out there and enjoy conventional golf while you can.”
Gould makes a strong case that this form of progress, while well-intentioned, will strip the game of a few more subtle character-building and bonding traditions.
Pretty soon, golfers will need to wear those Brian DePalma fishing vests, with pockets to store the Laser Link for yardages, another pocket for your ball scanner, and a big pocket to store a paperback to read when pace of play isn't helped by any of this nonsense.