"The truth is there are no reasonable arguments for golfers being able to hit tee shots 400 yards, nor that our royal and ancient game should be played with such enormous driving instruments."

Here is Darius Oliver's excellent look back at the evolution of the driver head, referenced Sunday by John Huggan.

Oliver does a nice job summing up the history, regulatory bungling, manufacturer short-sightedness and the consequences which, as he notes, have had a far more significant impact on the safety, cost and way golf is played than anchoring a putter.

Given the inaction of the governing bodies previously, it could be argued that manufacturers shot themselves in the foot back in 2003 by jumping too quickly toward the 460cc driver. Had they progressed more steadily they may have been able to sneak past that number to 500 or beyond. While hardly cause for celebration, it does raise the very relevant question of golfing lawmakers - why is 460 the magic number here and is a driver head this size really appropriate for a game played mostly in suburban fields surrounded by residential homes?

If golf was still confined to ocean links land and we had hundreds of unoccupied acres within which to hit our shots you could possibly argue that length was irrelevant. Every time a mid-handicap amateur launches a golf ball into a neighboring house, however, that argument loses weight. As it does every time a round takes five hours to play, or a well credentialed golf club is ‘forced’ to spend millions changing holes that until 2003 had provided an adequate challenge.

The truth is there are no reasonable arguments for golfers being able to hit tee shots 400 yards, nor that our royal and ancient game should be played with such enormous driving instruments.