Demo Day at East Lake

An interesting item I missed (thanks to reader Peter for alerting me), came from Doug Ferguson's Tour Championship notes:

GLORY DAYS: For those who believe the golf ball is solely responsible for distance gains, the pro-am at the Chrysler Championship showed other factors at work. The wooden driver, for example.

As the PGA Tour reached a conclusion to its "Drive to a Billion" charity campaign, it had five persimmons drivers available on the first tee and asked players to give it a crack, then use their titanium drivers for the shot that counted on their pro-am scorecard.

Adam Scott hit it pure, a majestic ball flight with a slight draw to the middle of the fairway. Out came his Titleist titanium driver - same golf ball, by the way - and another beautiful swing. Stepping it off, it was 32 yards longer.

Davis Love III also ripped the wooden driver. His modern driver sent the ball 40 yards longer.

Guess the ball is overrated? Might as well just buy some run-of-the-mill Callaways since the clubs are doing all the work, eh?

Or maybe there is a unique ball-club synergy that allows players to exceed the Overall Distance Standard, and someone ought to test for that?