WSJ Story on Bowling

Who says Wall Street Journal readership is down? Thanks to readers David, David and John for the heads up on this WSJ story by Steve Levine who writes about one man's about technology issues in bowling, and efforts to restore significance to the 300 game.

Eric Pierson thinks there are too many perfect games in bowling, and he knows what to do about that.

The 41-year-old Mr. Pierson is the lane manager for amateur bowling's premier event, the U.S. Open Championship, a five-month competition involving about 63,000 players now under way in this port city on the Gulf of Mexico.

It isn't that Mr. Pierson hates to see players reach the pinnacle of bowling, achieved when they knock down all 10 pins, 12 times in a row, for a perfect score of 300. But, in Mr. Pierson's opinion, there's such a thing as too much flawlessness.

His management tool is oil, which all bowling alleys spread on their lanes. Oil protects the lane surface, but oil artists like Mr. Pierson can use it to make the game harder or easier depending on how they apply it.

At this point while reading the story--assuming the USGA jet wasn't at 40,000 feet--Walter Driver is text messaging Mike Davis to see if this oil would hurt Winged Foot's greens.

Sorry, continue...

But while golfers are driving farther and tennis players are hitting more aces, they have nothing on bowlers. To score a strike, bowlers are generally aiming to hook the ball into what they call "the pocket," the space between the front pin and the next pin on either side. If the pins are walloped just right, they knock or bounce into one another, and all 10 pins will fall. It used to be an extraordinary feat to knock down all the pins at once a dozen times in succession. Few players had the consistency to do that. But in the late 1980s, the sport began to shift away from polyester balls to super-engineered polyurethane balls with special resins and particles that grip the lanes better and strategically weighted cores that make aiming easier.

The maple pins were covered with a new plastic called Surlyn that not only protected them better but made them bouncier and easier to topple.

As a result, the bowling congress has seen an explosion of perfect scores, with more perfect games rolled last year than the combined total racked up in the 87 years after official record-keeping began in 1895.

But of course all these perfect games are growing the sport, right?

Declining interest in organized bowling has made the problem worse. In the sport's U.S. heyday, the 1960s to the early 1980s, bowling alleys served as magnets for teenagers and as social venues for adults gathering to drink beer and compete in local leagues. But league participation has fallen to under 3 million players from more than 4 million at the zenith, the bowling congress says. So many bowling-alley owners, according to officials of the sport, have tried to make it easier for players to roll high scores. "There are fewer bowlers, so they want the ones still bowling to feel good," says Matt Cannizzaro, the spokesman for this year's championship here.

Many bowling alleys have opted for oil patterns that raise scores, which, along with the improved balls, help account for the climb in perfect games, experts say. Meanwhile, the U.S. Bowling Congress, trying to slow the pace of perfect scores, is encouraging the growth of "sport bowling," a version of the game in which the oil is strictly limited so as to increase the challenge.

Hey, is that like club invitationals where they grow rough and ratchet up greens to 12 on the Stimp?

The bowling congress has watched as perfect games have soared in its prestigious annual tournament. After the first tournament in 1895, it took 13 years before a player, using a wooden ball, delivered the first 300 score. By the 1990s, the tournament was regularly seeing 25 to 50 perfect games.

When players scored 64 perfect games in the 2002 tournament, it was too much for Mr. Pierson, the lane manager. "I think that's outrageous," he says.

So...

All bowling alleys use a lubricant composed mostly of mineral oil to protect the lanes from the battering of dropped, heaved and sometimes bounced balls. But, after bowling just two or three balls, skilled players can detect the pattern in which the oil was applied -- where it's thick, where it's thin -- and try to aim in a way that after a while grooves out an effective guide straight to the pocket.

Walter Driver just sent another text message to Davis: forget the oil.

Woosnam: "You've got to be more like anywhere from five foot ten to six foot four to play this game now"

Ian Woosnam at the BMW Championship, with help from the assembled inkslingers:

Q. What do you think of the modern obsession with fitness regimes, diets, coaches, all the stuff that goes on, head coaches?

IAN WOOSNAM: I think obviously once you see some players doing it and if you want to get to that standard, and they are successful at doing it, everybody has got to go along with it.

I think obviously these times and days, professional golf, it's a highly, highly tuned sport and very physical now. If you want to hit the ball a long way, you've got to be very, very fit. I think most probably in the modern time of golf now, being my size is probably gone. You've got to be more like anywhere from five foot ten to six foot four to play this game now I think. I just don't think you can generate the speed. You could look at maybe there will be an exceptional small player, but I think the taller player with the golf clubs are going to hit the ball a lot further now.

Q. Is it a much more interesting game, though?

IAN WOOSNAM: I think with the modern equipment you sort of aim straight and hope it goes straight. When we used to play the game, you used to sort of try to fade it, draw it; there was more a variety of shots. It was more like tee to green and then hope you 2 putted. But now there's such a variety in the game, really.

Q. Do you think you've had more fun than the guys have now?

IAN WOOSNAM: Yeah, definitely. Oh, yeah. You go in the gym for two hours before you go off, play your game of golf, do a bit of practice and then a couple more hours in the gym, I don't think that was for me. (Laughter) I don't think I would have been making it.

Q. You've been on the Tour for a long time, what do you think in historic sense of the standard of golf now, is it as good as it was or better than it was?

IAN WOOSNAM: I think you can look at it two different ways. The equipment has changed such a lot, everybody is working out. As you say, it's a different game all together. I think you've got to look at the way the game is played now and what it was played before. You know, if you watch any of the histories or videos or anything, there has been time where equipment has changed the game completely and we're going through a phase now where the game has just been completely changed.

Q. What do you think about the standard of golf on the Tour today, is it better than when you won the Masters?

IAN WOOSNAM: Well, I wouldn't say so, no. What I would say is that there's more people got a chance of winning these days than what there used to be.

Q. Because of the equipment?

IAN WOOSNAM: Don't get me into that one.

Q. Because of the equipment or because of the new attitude?

IAN WOOSNAM: I think the equipment is so good. With a wooden driver and bladed clubs and other kind of golf balls, it was very difficult to get the ball in the air. Even a wooden club, you get the ball in the air, you would hit it a long way. I think that's why I hit it a long way was because I managed to get the ball in the air and it went a long way with a strong driver. Nowadays the clubs are so big, the clubs just automatically get the ball in the air for you. Everybody has a better chance of scoring better really.

Monty Calls For Ball Limits

Monty saw the new-look Wentworth, and decided it's time to do something about the ball. And for that, he joins The List of noted figures in golf who have made similar calls in the last few years. 

From a BBC interview today:

"The ball's going further and further - changes like this are almost demanded.

"I wish we could control the length of the golf ball and it would save this happening," he told Radio Five Live.

Els has also added 30 bunkers to the course, and Montgomerie said the changes were inevitable.

"It had to be done - the new owners wanted 300 yards on it, Ernie did and I think we all did," added Montgomerie.

"It's a shame in many ways because it has changed the course, but then again it's been very well done.

And this...

"We can't keep on borrowing land from people's gardens around the Wentworth estate - the easy option is to change the golf ball to make it go less far, to put a speed limit on it if you like.

"That's what we need to do but obviously the manufacturers haven't got together to make that possible."

Haven't gotten together to make that possible. Who said Monty has no sense of humor!

Els Messes With Wentworth To Help Euros End Majors Drought

This is just the kind of Ernie Els quote that makes you feel so glad Max Behr, H.S. Colt and Alister MacKenzie aren't around today:

"I know I could be getting some stick from the guys for what's been done, but at the end of the day they will be better equipped for the majors," said Els. "Anybody going to the U.S. Open will have a much better feel of what they are going into. Miss a shot in a major and you're either in rough, a bunker or in danger of three-putting."

Huggan On State of Euro Tour, Monty

John Huggan wonders if recent European Tour happenings are hurting the Tour. Starting with the weird Irish Open antics this week.

Then there was Thursday's opening round of the Irish Open at the Colin Montgomerie-designed Carton House. Serious questions need to be asked at European Tour headquarters about a venue whose topography is so flawed that a bit of wind is enough to provoke suspension of play. On a proper course - one where the 'architect' pays appropriate attention to the prevailing meteorological conditions in an area that he visits more than a handful of times - these sorts of things don't happen.

Or, at least, they don't on courses where the greens are built to receive good shots rather than to repel them. Witness the third round of the Open Championship at Muirfield in 2002. In squally weather that was a million times worse than we saw three days ago, the world's best course was certainly difficult, but remained playable - although it was sometimes hard to ascertain that fact, so loud was the squealing from various competitors. Equally, it is hard to imagine golfers being asked to leave the premises at one of Ireland's premier links, say Portmarnock, when the breeze rises to no more than a little gusty.

And he quotes a player, who isn't too keen on the quality of events or fields:

None of the above nonsense is, of course, helping the European Tour at a time when pressure from its main competitor, America's PGA Tour, has never been so intense. Nor will it change the view of at least one well-respected Ryder Cup player that the quality of the product is slipping.

"One of the great myths on the European Tour is that the standard of play is rising every year," he says. "You hear guys saying stuff like: 'Yes, I have to keep improving just to stand still.'

"What a load of rubbish. The real truth is that, apart from the few really top-class events we have each year, tournaments like the BMW Championship at Wentworth, the general quality of the fields week-to-week is falling. Which makes sense if you are paying attention. Look at the number of top guys who have disappeared off to the PGA Tour over the last five years or so. Not just Europeans, but Australians too.

"The harsh truth is that, if you are any good at all, the European Tour represents increasingly easy pickings."

Huggan also looks at Monty's consideration of the two-driver strategy:

Speaking of Monty, the eight-time European No.1 - good job Tiger's winnings are ruled ineligible by his failure to compete in 11 counting events! - is apparently considering following Phil Mickelson's lead and carrying two drivers, one for fading, the other for drawing.

While this nonsense is a logical extension of the distances that the leading players now hit the apparently turbo-charged ball with their turbo-charged clubs - who needs a 3- or 4-iron after a 330-yard drive? - it is also more than a little depressing. Rather than a game of skill and technique, golf is turning into a mere test of power. Purchasing power, that is.

Let me see, shall I buy a hook or a slice today? Shot-makers of the past, men like Ben Hogan who viewed golf as an art rather than a science, must be spinning wildly in their final resting places.

Colonial Times

Gil LeBreton in the Star Telegram writes about Colonial's struggle to lure long hitters, how the once feared course is too short and reveals plans to make changes. Gee, all so that...eh.

But, as even Gentle Ben observed, "I don't think there is any question today that, with the distances that people can hit the ball, [Colonial] may be not quite what it used to be."

Earlier this month, architect Keith Foster of St. Louis presented Colonial members with his latest plans to redesign the old course.

Don't reach for your heart medicine. It's a subtle redesign, not a makeover.

The course needs its bunkers redone to aid their drainage. And, while Foster was going to be digging up the course, club officials asked him to draw up a proposal for how he would "improve" the late Marvin Leonard's riverside pasture land.

No big deal, according to Leonard's daughter, club vice president Marty Leonard.

"There will be some minimal yardage added in some areas," she said. "It's more about reshaping things. Maybe lowering some tees that have been built up that are not the Maxwell style."

No Forewarning Necessary

Thanks to reader Jonathon for this story out of Hawaii where the state Supreme Court ruled that a golfer may not be held liable for mistakenly hitting another golfer with an errant golf ball.

Chief Justice Ronald Moon wrote Yoneda assumed the risk of the injury when he played golf.

It is "common knowledge that not every shot played by a golfer goes exactly where he intends it to go," the ruling said, adding there wouldn't be much "sport" in the "sport of golf," if golf balls went exactly where the player wanted.

The April 28 ruling makes clear a golfer who intentionally hits a ball to inflict injury, or recklessly hits the ball knowing that injury is highly likely, would not be exempt from liability.

Gee, you think?

The court considered whether golfers should have to shout "fore" or other warnings to protect other players. The justices concluded, however, that doing so was golf etiquette, not a requirement recognized by law.

Yoneda, 33, said many people would get hurt because the ruling didn't require golfers to yell a word of caution on the greens.

"With the ruling that warning is like an option, that's not too good," Yoneda said. "I know what it's like to be hit and I don't want anybody to go through what I went through."

In a sworn deposition in the case, Tom said he was about 175 yards from the green in the light rough when he hooked his 5-iron shot to the left.

The ball hit the fairway, bounced into the rough, then a dirt area, then on a cart path before it hit Yoneda who was riding on a golf cart to the sixth hole, the court said.

Tom, 33, said he didn't yell "fore" because he hadn't seen the cart.

And this was interesting...

Gary Wild, president of the Hawaii State Golf Association, said U.S. Golf Association etiquette rules require a player to shout a warning if the ball is in danger of hitting someone.

Starting two years ago, a player who repeatedly violates that rule can be disqualified, Wild added.

"So Why Not Let The Club Do That For You"

Colin Montgomerie, talking to The Scotsman's Mike Aitken about possibly moving to the Mickelson two-driver idea:

"Phil got one up on us all by carrying two drivers in his bag as he ran away with the Bell South Classic and the Masters," observed the Scot yesterday. "Drivers can now be made with a swing bias in them, to fade and draw the ball. Phil's done very well and he won't be the only person doing it from now on. Me? I've been in touch with Yonex already with a view to doing something similar.

"There are certain courses, like St Andrews, where straight is good and you don't need two drivers there. But when there's a lot of doglegs, for instance at Wentworth, on the 17th I would have to hook the ball, and on the 18th I would have to hit a fade, so why not let the club do that for you and not have to put two particular different swings on it?"

Hawkins on Ratings Decline

John Hawkins looks at the dismal PGA Tour ratings with his latest blog entry:

The first four months of 2006 did not bear good news for the PGA Tour in terms of its popularity with television viewers. Figures published in the most recent issue of Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal indicate some frightening drops in TV ratings. The Shell Houston Open, for example, had a Sunday audience about one-third smaller than in 2005. There were double-digit decreases (10 percent or more) at the first three events on the Florida Swing, a whopping 56.3-percent decline at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and a 50-percent loss at the season-opening Mercedes Championships.

February’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, a tournament once capable of attracting five million viewers, checked in at about 2.5 million on Sunday, down 37.5 percent from a year earlier. Not every tournament’s numbers were off. The Players Championship actually rose almost 32 percent, but there’s a catch—rain delays in ’05 forced NBC to televise live third-round action that Sunday.

So you're thinking, he's going to point out how the juiced up power game is not relatable to fans, course setups are not producing more consistently exciting finishes and that the Tour has left too many classic venues for contrived ones?

The PGA TOUR has not downsized enough and it is going to have to become leaner and meaner to survive.

I say bring back "blood and guts" competition to the PGA tour as played by Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, a young Arnie, Gary and Jack and other great players when men were men as well as golfers.

When men were men as well as golfers? Oh lordy. Still, he's headed to the old bring shotmaking back argument? Nope.

Cut the number of tour cards to a max of 100, cut the number of players in the field to 100 and cut the cut to the top 50 and ties.

Put some damn fire back into the competition and maybe golf will be interesting as a spectator sport once again and not seem to be just a gathering of nice fellows content to make a good check and have a good time. Screw the good time, get serious!

Shouldn't there be a rule that you only get to question the passion or manliness of players if you actually played the Tour?

Coltart: "Golf has so little culture today"

John Huggan catches up with Andrew Coltart, who has plenty to say about the state of the game. My kind of rant:

"The explosion in distance that has come with the new clubs and balls over the last few years has hurt players like me. I can't comprehend how far some guys hit the ball now. It used to be that the wide, erratic hitter was punished, but that is not the case any more. Not as much anyway."

Underlining the sad truth that golf at the elite level is now more about power than pure skill is the fact that Coltart's average drive has stretched by more than 15 yards since he battled Tiger Woods at Brookline in 1999. As he has grown more powerful, however, many of his fellow competitors have exploded past him, encouraged by the lack of due diligence shown by golf's administrators when it comes to equipment.

"Courses on tour today are set up to encourage players to bomb away off the tee," claims Coltart. "Which is admittedly exciting, especially for the less sophisticated spectator or viewer. But it doesn't help guys like me, those whose games are built around accuracy.

"Then there are the sprinkler systems courses tend to have in the fairways, but not anywhere else. The water runs off into the first couple of yards of rough. That grass gets thick in a hurry. But ten yards further out, the rough isn't nearly as lush. So the bombers get more encouragement. They get to hit from relatively sparse rough and they are 60 yards closer to the green.

"Also, greens are generally too soft. So the big hitters are able to 'plug' wedges and 9-irons in there. In contrast, hard and fast greens would encourage a bit more thinking, and make the game a bit more strategic. But playing for position never enters the long driver's head these days. Every hole is a 'wellie' off the tee, and a gouge from the rough. I see so many guys making birdies from the long grass and the trees - because they are so close to the green after the drive. It's mind-blowing."

Coltart is not only concerned with the negative effect all of the above has had on his career. Unlike so many others, he recognises the wider and longer-term implications for golf.

"I think the game has diminished over the last decade or so," he says with a shake of the head. "Shot-making and shaping have all but gone. Round the greens we all play the same boring lob shot with our 60-degree wedges. Golf today is a lot like tennis. They stand up there and it is 'smash' 15-love, 'smash' 30-love and 'smash' 40-love.

"But few people are watching that. Instead, they are looking at the clock that says the ball was hit at 150mph or whatever. Now, golf is all about the 350-yard drive. There have apparently been 881 drives longer than that on the PGA Tour so far this year. Success is measured on distance from the tee rather than tournaments won. It's a circus.

"The mass appeal of distance has overtaken any other approach to the game. Golf has so little culture today. It was great when Seve was playing the way he did. He was artistic. Where is the artistry now? There is no artistry. Or feel. Ask a young guy to hit a little knock-down shot into a green, and he a) doesn't know how, and b) wonders why he should bother. It's depressing.

"I never see guys holding shots up against the wind. The money has a lot to do with that. They figure they can go for the flag every week. When they are on, they will shoot eight under par and win a huge cheque. And when they are off, well, there is always next week.

"If they were baseball players, they would all be home-run hitters who strike out a lot."

Scott: "They've got to build courses and set them up to how the equipment is"

Adam Scott, after round one of the Byron Nelson:

Q. Some of the clubs you hit in are staggering from the clubs of a few years ago people hit in here. Lob wedge at No. 8, which is 457; 5 wood, sand wedge at 9. There was another staggering 7 iron at 16; pitching wedge at 18

ADAM SCOTT: Well, it was windy today, too. I mean, they were probably the downwind holes. It was windy, but yeah, the ball is going a long way and the courses are getting short. Like 450 is no big deal for a par 4 at all; even if it's not windy you're going to hit a short iron in. That's just the way the game is. You've got to take advantage of it if you can hit it out there.

Q. How do you feel about 450 yard holes now being sand wedge holes?

ADAM SCOTT: Well, I mean, that's how long they've got to be for us to have them a little tricky. It's tough, they've got to build courses and set them up to how the equipment is. For the Tour, anyway, they need to because that's I think the pros get the real advantage out of the equipment. We find 20 yards somehow, every year it seems.

Feherty Advocates Ball Change

Ron Green Jr. in the Charlotte Observer talks to David Feherty, who talks about Tiger, how technology is not hurting the game, and what he'd do if he were Commissioner for a day:

Q. If you had Tim Finchem's job and could change one thing, what would it be? I would change the size of the ball. I'd make it .02 bigger. With one fell swoop you would cure a bunch of problems. The ball wouldn't go as far. It would spin. It would be harder to hit straight. It would be harder to hit far. It would be very slightly harder to get in the hole.

On the upside you'd bring a lot of old courses back into relevance.

It also sits up nicely around the greens. The amateur player has more fun playing with it. I grew up with the 1.62 (ball) and I remember changing to the 1.68 and thinking, wow, this is so much more fun playing with this ball.

For the high handicapper, those shots around the greens are difficult. When the ball is a little bigger, it makes such a difference. There's more of it to get underneath.

We've done it once before. I don't see a reason not to do it again.

I've added Feherty to the list of those who advocate something be done to de-emphasize distance in the game today. He's in good company!

Approach and Putting Are By Far The Most Difficult

From the 1879 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on golf:

The approach and the putting are by far the most difficult, critical, and important parts of the game; though no one who is not fairly competent in his driving also is ever in the least likely to take rank as a first-class player.  The maximum length of a good driving stroke for a first-class player, not favoured by any exceptional circumstances, may perhaps fairly be stated as something over 180 yards, and under 200.

I've taken the liberty of preparing a 2006 edition and run it through the Ali G translator just to show how in touch I am with my demographic (I have to savor this, as I'm down to mere months left in the coveted 18-34 demo):

da drive and da puttin is by far da mostest critical part of da game; though no one who is not incompetent in is approach play is eva in da least likely to take rank as a first-class playa. da maximum lengf of a wicked drivin stroke fa a first-class playa, not favoured by any fore real circumstances, may be somethin ova 320 yards, and unda 400.  

Huggan On Ogilvy

John Huggan profiles Geoff Ogilvy,  who he says is "the most appealing character in years to emerge among the game's elite."

In a world populated by truants, he is a true student of the sport from which he makes a living. Good grief, the man even reads books!

He's curious, too. At home for a brief visit over the winter, Ogilvy, with former European Tour professionals Mike Clayton and Bob Shearer, played Royal Melbourne using wooden-headed clubs.

"It was a whole new level of fun," he says, smiling at the memory. "You had to hit it well for the ball to go anywhere. The difference between a good hit and a bad one with a driver was about 40 yards. With a modern driver you can hit the ball anywhere on the face, really. The difference is only about five yards. Only afterwards, when I had thought about it more, did I get depressed by all of that."

Indeed, the modern game in general is a bit of a worry for Ogilvy, a self-confessed and unabashed traditionalist.

"Two important aspects of golf have gone in completely the wrong direction," he maintains. "Most things are fine. Greens are generally better, for example. But the whole point of golf has been lost. Ben Hogan said it best. His thing was that you don't measure a good drive by how far it goes; you analyse its quality by its position relative to the next target. That doesn't exist in golf any more.

"The biggest problem today is tournament organisers trying to create a winning score. When did low scores become bad? At what point did the quality of your course become dependent on its difficulty? That was when golf lost the plot. The winning score should be dictated by the weather.

"The other thing is course set-up. Especially in America, there is too much rough and greens are way too soft. Then, when low scores become commonplace, they think how to make courses harder. So they grow even more long grass.

"But that misses the point. There is no real defence against a soft green. Today's players with today's wedges can stop the ball from anywhere. The angle of attack and the shape of the shot mean nothing. It doesn't matter where you hit it, as long as it is between the out- of-bounds stakes or between the trees. And so the game becomes a one-dimensional test of execution, time after time after time."

And...

As you'd expect, Ogilvy is a big fan of the endlessly-fascinating strategic aspect of true links golf, and the Old Course at St Andrews in particular. It was there last year that he finished fifth in the Open Championship, shooting the lowest score over the final two rounds.

"St Andrews is the best course in the world because of the shots it makes you play," he points out. "In our increasingly black-and-white game, the Old Course is a million shades of grey. Stand on a tee there, and you have choices to make about where to hit your drive. That's a huge contrast with any course covered in rough, where any decision has already been made for you. It's: 'Hit it here you're good, hit it there you're f*****.' Which is stupid.

"Look at the last hole. It is a masterpiece, all because of one little hollow in front of the green. You have a 150-yard-wide fairway, and you don't know where to hit it. One day you might want to get some spin on the approach, so you lay back a bit. Then the next day, you might want to go way left, so that you can access a pin cut way to the right. On another day, you might want to hit past the pin, and on others that may not work - all on a dead-flat hole with no rough and one little hollow.

"But, because the green is firm, it is one of the best holes in the world. Plus, everyone gets to hit the fairway. And everyone finds his ball.

"If the first game of golf was played on some of the courses we play today, it wouldn't be a sport. It would never have been invented. People would play one round and ask themselves why they would ever play a second. It would be no fun."

Ogilvy also has some strong opinions on Augusta National, where he recently finished tied for 16th place in his first Masters.

"I've read a few of Bobby Jones' books," he says. "I don't think he'd be that flustered by the addition of length. I think he'd have done the same, given the neglect of equipment by the USGA and the R&A. But there is no way he'd have grown rough. He'd have kept it 100 yards from trees to trees. And every blade of grass on the course would have been cut short.

"With the greens they have there, they don't need rough. Which is what Jones wanted. His philosophy was: 'Okay, you have 100 yards to hit into, you tell me where you want to go.' Move the pin 10 feet, and the other side of the fairway becomes the place to be. That's the aspect that has been lost. And if Augusta misses the point, what hope has golf got?

"My mind goes back to the Road Hole at St Andrews during last year's Open. It's the most fearsome hole in golf, and yet they had to grow all that silly rough up the right-hand side. If they hadn't, we would have been hitting chip shots to the green. Symbolically, they could not allow that. That golf hole is the reason the golf ball needs to be changed. It's no fun with the modern ball. I was hitting a 4-iron off the tee at the Road Hole! Are you kidding me?

"There are people who seem to think winding back the ball is impossible. Rubbish! All they have to do is get a ball from 1995, test it every way you can think of, then make those numbers the limits. Job done."

Two Driver Debate, Part II

A reader who is a respected national golf writer had this to say about Phil and his two driver concept:

Mickelson using two drivers and one swing supports the argument against technology. It used to be that tour players had to learn to work the ball either way and many were unable to do so with any degree of consistency. Those that could had an advantage. In other words, it's a lost skill, since you can just carry two drivers and let the club work it for you.

In his Golfonline column, Peter Kostis writes:

It used to be that players carried a standard set that included a couple of woods, the standard number of irons plus a pitching and sand wedge. Whatever shots they could hit with that set were the shots they had to play. But today’s player is different. They see a shot that is required and then get their club maker to produce a club that will let them hit that shot. Can you say 60° wedge, hybrid iron, 7-wood, 9-wood or gap wedge? When players saw Tiger’s 2-iron fly driver distance with 7-iron trajectory, they knew they had to do something!

Going forward, I think we will see more and more players looking at the courses they are about to play and thinking about what shots they’ll need to hit. Then, based on their needs, players will put clubs in their bag that will allow them to hit the necessary shots without changing the way they swing. Develop a repeatable swing, and let the equipment adjust the shot.'

I'm still finding myself seeing both sides to this argument. Though when it was revealed (by Phil) that one driver gave him a 25-yard turbo boost, somehow the concept seemed less like something reverting back to the days of the brassie, and more like a strange symptom of the launch monitor.

Thoughts?