"And so the whole damn game, people are saying let me out of here. They can't afford it. Instead of staying where we were and just slow the ball down."

I didn't see much coverage of Gary Player's Masters presser last night and only today after a couple of emails and reading Bob Carney's post did I realize why: he sounded alarms no one wants to hear!

And then you saw our era come along and then you saw this era came along and you'll see new era come along, and I've said this on British television on BBC about eight years ago: It's just a matter of time before players hit the ball 400 yards. And this good player and a good announcer said to me, absolute nonsense.
They are hitting the ball 400 yards now, never mind 30 years' time.

And so what we are going to see, we have not scratched the surface of golf yet. We are in our infancy. Unless we slow the ball down, you cannot put the tees back in the streets anymore, gentlemen and ladies.

You can just feel the Twitterers shifting in their seats! Go on...

They have got to their limit now so the next thing is you have to slow the ball down because the golf courses are going to be completely outdated which is happening now. Golf is suffering terribly. You see golf courses just weeds now closing down. You can buy golf courses for a dollar now because it's the maintenance of the golf course. Because they have seen what is happening: These pros hitting a driver and 6-iron to a par 5 so from Timbuktu to Tokyo to China to here, everyone is lengthening golf courses. And the members hate it; and greens are undulating and the members hate it; and the fees are going up and oil is getting more expensive and we are running out of water (laughter)

Just a note from watching the video: that (laughter) was not from Player, who was entirely serious, but from a few in the room. Nice touch lads. Keep laughing.

and so the whole damn game, people are saying let me out of here. They can't afford it. Instead of staying where we were and just slow the ball down. Not for the amateur. We must have technology for the amateur golfer who is the heart of the game.

The pro is a mere tiny part of the game. And this is going to happen; I can promise you, it is going to happen in time because hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted on unnecessary programs.

I know this is a hard one for people to deal with. Yes, courses everywhere, whether they need to or not, are adding length to accomodate a few players. It's going to happen. And that length, means more cost, more maintenance, and there is also a safety component that has changed.

Now, if you do as Player says and change the ball for competition, this comes to an end, and courses might even get a little shorter (doubtful, but possible). And manufacturers still get to sell clubs, golfers still buy golf balls and the game goes on its very way!

"The best thing we can all do to make our golf game better is to at least practice with (and hopefully play with also) older smaller heavier golf clubs such as blade irons and persimmon woods."

Yep, we have another treasonous threat to capitalism and his name is Bradley Hughes! The former PGA Tour player and Australian dares to out himself as no fan of what modern technology has done for the game. And while he has some excellent thoughts on how we should sticking up for our classic courses, I urge you to take a few minutes to read his thoughts on what modern clubs and lie angles have done to the average golfer's game. Hughes is teaching now and has lots to say.

Welcome Bradley to the vocal minority!

"A president's critics always go for the golf joke because it irritates people at a gut level."

Slate's John Dickerson defends Barack Obama's love for golf in light of Newt Gingrich's recent criticism. Yes, someone is defending golf!

Obama should resist—and, regardless of party, we should all want him to. The presidency is a prison. Your every move is watched and tended by the Secret Service, your opponents, and the media. Even when you're "having fun," you do so in quotation marks. At parties or a baseball game, you're watched to see if you're having a good time. If you play basketball, your on-court demeanor is analyzed for clues to your leadership style. You don't drive. You can't keep a diary (they can be subpoenaed). You can't smoke (the kids are watching). You can't take a stroll through your old neighborhood. All of this distorts the mind.

The golf course is one of the few places a president can escape the pressures and physical limitations of the office. George W. Bush was smart enough to have a ranch that allowed him to get out from under the scrutiny of the press. He was inside a perimeter, so the Secret Service could back off a little. You don't have to like golf to recognize that being able to walk in relative freedom and hang out with friends is an obvious pleasure and escape. The more tightly someone is confined, the more necessary it is to escape. One of the great problems for any president is a loss of perspective. A distraction, even for a moment, from the constant and attention-shredding duties of the day is one way to gain perspective.

"Hogan's got to be rolling over in his grave."

Former PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman, as told to Bill Fields in Golf World's Backspin issue (not posted):

Using today's 460cc metal-headed drivers with perimeter weighting, if you miss it a half-inch off center, you'll only lose five yards and still hit it dead straight. If you did that with persimmon, it would cost you 50 yards and you couldn't find the ball.

And...

Hogan's got to be rolling over in his grave. Take the top 20 ranked player in the world today, give them the type of clubs Jack Nicklaus used in his prime and a mid-1970s ball--the best made--and put them out on tour in January against all the other players using today's equipment. Not one of the world's current top 20 would win a tournament and, week-to-week, not half of them would make the cut.

Now before you rip Beman for stating the obvious for any generation of golfer or sounding like a cranky old man, think of his comments this way.

We hear over and over how today's fields in golf are deeper than ever before. The players are working out, the instruction is better, diets have been refined, et cetera. All true, but ultimately what his comments point to is how much equipment has equalized play and made it harder for the great ball-strikers to separate themselves.

"A 'dog sandwich.' Only in the British Isles."

Great blog item by Alistair Tait on yet another major divide between golf in the U.K. and the bastardized version we play here: hounds.

The Sunningdale Foursomes is a unique event in British golf since it features tour pros, club pros, elite amateurs and ordinary club amateurs with a handicap of three or better. Men and women can compete.

Dogs, too, are welcome at Sunningdale, even encouraged. My dog Izzy felt very welcome during her visit to this year’s Sunningdale Foursomes, but then my dog feels welcome at many British golf courses.

Dogs are almost de rigueur at traditional clubs like Sunningdale, The Berkshire, Swinley Forest and many others. Ryder Cup player Paul McGinley felt slightly disconcerted during qualifying for the Open Championship at Sunningdale a few years ago. McGinley is a member of the club and felt out of sync because he had to play the 36 holes without his dog. The Irishman couldn’t remember the last time he’d played Sunningdale without his faithful hound in tow.

That's McGinley and his friend pictured above.

Golf Digest To Let Golfers Sample 15-inch Cups...

Peter Finch with the details on a one day event at Pine Needles to play with 15-inch cups for $100 in the W-I-D-E Open, a response to the Flogton/Mark King kvetching about the USGA having a hand in all world evil.  Finch also Tweeted a photo of the proposed cup size.  Ron Whitten Tweets that the cup cutter was created by Baltusrol mechanic Todd Simms.

The 18-hole event will feature holes created with a specially designed cutter that measure 15-inches in diameter. That's more than three times the diameter of a standard golf hole and only slightly smaller than a basketball hoop.

The competition was inspired by recent comments from Taylor Made CEO Mark King, who suggested using 15-inch holes as a way to make golf more fun and appealing to newcomers. Intrigued by the idea, Golf Digest Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde created Thursday's W I D E Open event to measure how fun experienced players -- from club pros to scratch golfers to high handicappers -- would have on such a course set-up.