"The fact is, we are coming off the most activist 10-year period in the history of golf ball and golf club regulation, and a bold and rigid line in the sand has been effectively drawn by the game's regulatory bodies."

Thanks to Chuck Stogel at CBSSports.com for highlighting Wally Uihlein's latest essay on the sheer hopelessness of modern technology progress. Since the Titleist "News and Technology" propaganda page had been quiet for so long, I deleted it from my RSS feed reader.  And look at the giggles I missed!

As the march to the Masters gets closer, the drumbeat of anti-technology activists will inevitably get louder over the next week.

Activists! Bet Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus never thought they'd be considered activists.

The fact is, we are coming off the most activist 10-year period in the history of golf ball and golf club regulation, and a bold and rigid line in the sand has been effectively drawn by the game's regulatory bodies. The statistics speak for themselves. Driving distance has flatlined, and actually has decreased in each of the past two years. The USGA and R&A have effectively fenced in the driver and golf ball, so that there is little or no more distance to be had from equipment under the current rules and regulations.

Shut down those R&D departments, send the Tour vans to the junk yard and throw in the towel! Hope as we know it is gone and it's all the big, bad USGA/R&A's fault!

In fact, I bet Dick Rugge and the boys are probably brushing up their resumes as we speak, now that the door to progress is locked and shut!

The size, weight, initial velocity and overall distance of the golf ball are controlled. Optimization of the aerodynamics package of a golf ball is near complete. Higher compression golf balls might provide more ball speed, but will also have more spin, which will reduce distance. Spin and launch angle are coupled, so if you change one, the other will change as well. The bottom line is that when you attempt to tweak a golf ball parameter for more distance, other parameters are affected that limit the distance opportunity.

Based on our internal testing against the golf ball ODS limit under the current specified launch conditions, we are already 98 percent downfield towards reaching that absolute ODS limit (including the tolerance), and that is with our longest tour-played product. That translates into a maximum additional distance availability of approximately 5-7 yards.

You know I hate to sound like a broken record here, but...oh wait, one more jab...

The facts are the facts, and any suggestion of dramatic yardage spikes going forward is either disingenuous or propagandist. Take your pick.

I can't think of a single example in the last year when someone has suggested distance spikes have occurred again. Anyone, anyone? Bueller?

Was there any pre-Masters talk about the golf ball? Seems to me the focus was on the lousy course changes, which were a byproduct of the ball but more obviously now to a sizeable audience, the clumsy work of some fellows who shouldn't be tinkering with great courses.

So I'll say again: this transcendent moment of agreement is the perfect time to agree that distance peaks have been reached. So to do everyone justice and pay our respects to all of the great athleticism no longer cited for its role in spiking distance, let's roll back the ball just a smidgen to help courses with safety issues, make architecture more meaningful and motivate the kids to put in even more time at the gym.

What I don't understand is, why this strategy for Titleist? They've clearly mapped out this change of course and I think it's super. But it's starkly different from their previous stance of trying to present various reasons for distance spikes that were in no way bad for the game.

What do they hope to gain from waving the white flag?

Naturally, my hope is that they realize a majority of their customers who admire the high quality of their products (I used to be one!) support the USGA and R&A's efforts to protect the integrity of the sport. What do you think?