"Nicklaus and Norman and Player who are whining about distance are whining about something they no longer have."

I try not to read too much of Breach and Gulley's blog over at GolfDigest.com, but reader Charlie insisted I check out Billowy and Gnarled's take on the John Paul Newport groove WSJ story.

Besides leaving me completely confused what point they were attempting to make, this just blew me away, from the keyboard of Gouge:

Those like Nicklaus and Norman and Player who are whining about distance are whining about something they no longer have.

Yes, but they still have all those majors, their own planes and absolutely nothing to gain from their comments.

So this got me thinking about an idea that could generate some serious traffic for GolfDigest.com.

Let's get "Gouge" in a room with Nicklaus, Norman and Player, and have him say the above to their faces.

We'll videotape the moment along with the ensuing discussion and see what people think.

Jerry, Bob, I smell a million hits, easy! 

Comments

[keith86]

The room should be on one of Normans boats 4 go out offshore 3 come back

[Smolmania]

Nah, it's so much easier to be critical through the anonymity of the internet. . . oops, isn't that why we're all loyal readers?

[Hawkeye]

That's true, Mark Smolens, Chicago.
/Andreas H Wickander, Sweden

[86general]

Gouge is one of a few journalists who has the guts to say things that need to be said. Is he always right? No, but who is? I will admit that he made his point in a blunt, some may say harsh way, but he's right on the money. Athletes past their prime have a tendency to decry the modern game in all sports, and sometimes it takes on the tone of whining. When Jack was the longest hitter of his time, I wonder how he would have reacted to people saying the ball should be rolled back because he was making a mockery of the game.

Yes, yes, I know, distance HAS increased at a much more rapid pace in the last 5 years than ever before, but the underlying concepts are no different than they've ever been.

I'm sorry, but the argument that "Jack and Arnie say so, so it must be true"--argument from authority--just doesn't cut it. The idea that rolling the ball back is necessary, because it restores the proper balance of power and precision, or because it brings thousands of golf courses back into the professional game, etc., is merely one opinion. The same argument could have been made at the advent of the steel shaft, or any of the previous historical ball evolutions, and courses have been lengthened or become obsolete many, many times before. The argument to roll back the ball has no more logical validity today than it ever has.

I still maintain, you don't back up. Draw a line in the sand here if you wish, but don't try to back things up.

[86general]

One correction: The explosion of distance was primarily between the late 90s and 2003, not the last 5 years, as I said before. The increases have largely stopped in the last 2 years, as the players have finished the process of launch monitor optimizing.

And one other thing--not only is the Nicklaus position just one opinion, it doesn't agree with some of the data out there. You can see the table in E. Michael Johnson's article on grooves to see that missing the fairway has a huge effect on scoring. So simply bombing away and gouging from the rough doesn't seem, at least by looking at that data, to be a good strategy for scoring well.