"It brought more strategy into the game"

I couldn't help noticing in this excellent Mike Stachura Golf World story on the OGA tournament ball, a pair money quotes:

"This ball could be pretty frustrating," said Matt Ries, who tied for seventh. "Iron shots seemed to roll out more. I think if we could get something that flew 10 to 20 percent less, but checked around the greens like balata, that might be a better test. It's definitely an equalizer, though."

The winner agreed. "The hardest part was adjusting to the release," said [Tournament winner Blake] Sattler. "It brought more strategy into the game."

Included with the story is a sidebar reporting on a preliminary USGA report on spin.

On August 11, the USGA sent an "interim report" to manufacturers on its research completed to date on spin generation--specifically, spin generated with irons.

Although the report states "no final conclusions have been reached and no proposals for rule changes are included," the results appear to indicate that U-shaped grooves may be in the USGA's crosshairs.

Now, the OGA ball situation may not have been perfect (it's hard to be comfortable with a ball that on discriminates against certain clubhead speeds).

However, a ball can be made that spins a little less, therefore promoting accuracy, thought and possibly restoring strategic value to a course.

Yet the USGA is looking to change the grooves on irons instead?

Which is more costly for golfers to replace. Balls or sets of irons? 

Something To Look Out For...

In Thomas Bonk's piece on the drug talk in golf, he writes:

The driving distance of the top players on the PGA Tour has been steadily increasing for decades.

Well, actually only "steadily increasing" in the last decade (which Bonk points out, leading me to believe there was an editing mistake). Anyway...

Advances in equipment, such as shallow-faced drivers with thin faces of space-age metals, plus improved physical conditioning by the players, inspired largely by Woods, are most often credited with the longer drives.

After the last five or so years of hearing executives, players, and media say that the distance explosion has been driven by the incredible player conditioning, might we going to see most of the blame shifted back to equipment in order to protect the image of players and quiet the calls for drug testing?

Wishful thinking, I know.   

"Champions 08222306"

E. Michael Johnson and Mike Stachura reveal a few new specifics about the Ohio Golf Association Champions Tournament ball, which will be used Aug. 22-23 at Windy Knoll.

According to Alan Fadel, a member of the OGA's board of governors, the ball was submitted for USGA approval earlier this year. "We were told it was on the [conforming] list in June," he said. "In fact, I believe it may have been used on [a pro tour] this year."

Still, some of the ball's particulars -- including who makes it -- remain a mystery. The ball, which sports "OGA" as its logo and has "CHAMPIONS 08222306" (the tournament and its dates) as its sidestamp, is not listed as such, meaning it is on the conforming list under a manufacturer's brand name.

Fadel would not reveal the manufacturer, but said the ball is "a three-piece, very high-spin, very low-compression" model. And although the OGA has been consistent in saying it is a "uniform" ball as opposed to a "short" ball, Fadel confirmed the OGA ball is six to seven yards shorter off the driver, five yards shorter off the irons and some 20 yards shorter on drives into the wind for players with swing speeds in the 100-110 miles-per-hour range, where most of the event's participants fall.

This is funny... 

The move to a uniform ball may raise eyebrows,

only if you are looking at a 207 drive at waterlogged Newport as a barometer for distance's impact on the game...

but that the OGA is taking this step isn't surprising. The association has a decided maverick streak, having declared a local rule in the early 1980s allowing players to tap down spike marks, leading to a falling out with the USGA. The OGA also was the first U.S. association to ban metal spikes.

"This is not the OGA trying to act contentiously," Wall said. "[But] if it becomes a discussion point for all of golf, then so be it."

As much as I'd like to know what kind of ball it is, the OGA has wisely decided to keep it secret.

They have nothing to gain by revealing the manufacturer and instead make it clear that they are more concerned with the results of their studies, instead of introducing a new ball to golf.

Still, it would be nice to know in case others wanted to, you know, try out the ball.

Reader Blue Blazer awakened from a long slumber to wonder if the balls pictured above came from an overseas company residing in a country where they have no room to keep lengthening courses. He also thought the dimple pattern resembled something from the old Slazenger or Maxfli lines.

Anyone recognize the dimples by looking at the photos?

Either way, we should know soon, since it's inevitable that a tournament contestant or media member will send off a sample to a manufacturer that can do a quick ID autopsy.

Breaking News! Ogilvy Concerned About Direction of Game

I know Australia is a bit disconnected from the world sometimes, but how do you explain The Age sending out a story on Geoff Ogilvy's comments about the state of the game as breaking news? The comments, reported by Golfobserver's John Huggan (which The Age obnoxiously did not cite), were made Friday or Saturday of the U.S. Open and reported in a June 20th column.

Well, no worries, because it is still a column worth reading. Unfortunately, you have to read a cached version because the original is not viewable as Golfobserver moves to a new host. 

Actually, forgive me, but this is my personal clipping archive and since I didn't copy the original comments over, here they are from The Age's uh, exclusive.

"Two important aspects of golf have gone in completely the wrong direction," said Ogilvy.

"Most things are fine. Greens are generally better, for example. But the whole point of golf has been lost.

"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.

"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 was particularly critical of US Masters officials at Augusta National.

"With the greens they have there, you don't need rough. They are always going to be firm," said Ogilvy.

"Move the pin ten 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?"

Ogilvy questioned the R & A's set-up of last year's British Open venue at the Home of Golf at St. Andrews and the infamous Road Hole.

"It's the most fearsome hole in golf and yet they had to grow all that silly rough up the right hand side," said Ogilvy.

The Australia also took aim at the USGA, organisers of June's US Open where Ogilvy became the first Australian in 11 years to win a Major.

Speaking of the 2005 US Open host venue of Pinehurst where Sydney-based Kiwi Michael Campbell won, Ogilvy remarked: "All of the bunkers were in the rough."

"And all the best angles were taken away by the USGA growing long grass in the spots where the best drives should have been allowed to finish. It was a mess."

Ogilvy's biggest fear is that the new direction of golf is filtering back to the weekend hackers and spoiling the game.

"I don't care, if people want to see us hacking out of long grass all the time, it's fine with me," he said.

"But the trouble is that everyone in golf follows us, the professionals. So it gets harder to find fun places to play.

"All of a sudden my dad is out there chopping around in six inch rough, losing his ball every time he misses the fairway and having no fun. Which makes no sense. We play a game that 99.9 per cent of golfers have no hope of duplicating."

The Skill Open?

Get the Washington Post ombudsman on the line!

We have some good old fashioned anti golf ball bias displayed by Leonard Shapiro, who not only dares to suggest a retro equipment tournament, but proposes that Nike run it!

Back in June, when the PGA Tour pulled the plug, for now, on Washington playing host to a tournament for the next few years, I received several e-mails from a friend and Northern Virginia neighbor, Howard Jensen, clearly a thinking man's golfer himself, who offered an intriguing alternative to the usual stroke play format for a tournament he'd love to see some day replace the Kemper/FBR/Booz Allen Open.

The play of Woods and Pavin over the last two weeks reminded me of his proposal, which follows mostly in his words. It includes a deep-pocketed sponsor -- he suggested Nike--that would put up the prize money -- say $5 million -- and dictate the rules of play that would go something like this:

Equipment: Nike selects a standard shaft, maybe graphite, and a standard ball (soft) that all players must use. The goal is to select a shaft and ball combination that, in the hands of the longest hitters, would only carry 300 yards maximum when hit perfectly.

See the bias. Criminal I tell you! Here's more from Len's equally biased friend:

"Skill with mid-irons and skill around the greens becomes a significant factor in professional golf again. The equipment in the bags of all players is identical, no tricked-up wedges, no fairway iron/woods, no fade driver/draw driver combinations. It's pure golf, pure equipment.

"This is not a radical notion. Every other professional sport uses standard equipment for all players, even NASCAR. The Battle Cry will boil down to a single question: Is it the player, or is it his/her equipment?

And naturally, this next point is just ludicrous. The plummetting ratings and Tom Fazio say the people want long drives, so they must want the power game, not silly stuff like this:

"Fan interest would be off the charts, drawing in even the casual golf fan. Sports radio and ESPN will have a field day hyping the event, and Washington would be the place to be in the world of golf.

Feherty and McCord On Pavin's Shotmaking

Not sure what to make of this exchange today between Feherty and McCord during the final round at Milwaukee as Corey Pavin prepared to approach the 4th hole: 

FEHERTY: You know it's really kind of interesting to watch this because he's playing the game the way it used to be played, but with modern equipment. He's exactly where Hogan would have been, but he's hitting a metal wood from here. He's got 212 yards. And this is a hard green to hit. These are little push-up greens, they slope off at the sides. It's a task for the amateur player to hit these greens with a wedge.

McCORD: I used to play a lot with him early when he was playing balata golf balls, he used to curve the ball so much it was unbelievable. He'd hit 40 yard hooks and slices out there.

FEHERTY: And that's why he plays so well on these courses. At Colonial, at Hilton Head, you know because you can move the old ball. You can't...this ball just wants to go straight. That's why players like Corey Pavin can still play. And it's great to see them.

TV Boost For Sustainable Golf?

From the R&A: 

TV BOOST FOR SUSTAINABLE GOLF 

The campaign by The R&A to promote sustainable golf courses worldwide received a major boost from the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake – with television’s multi-million audiences a key factor.

For several years, the televising of major tournaments such as The Masters has led many club golfers to ask for “greener greens and fairways”, requiring the application of huge quantities of water and chemicals.  At this year’s Open, however, spectators watched one of the most successful championships ever, played out on dry, brown fairways which had not been watered at all during the long weeks of drought and record temperatures running up to The Open.

Hmmm...firing a little shot at their friends in Augusta! 

The excellence of Hoylake’s sustainable course led to many tributes: 

“I think it’s a fantastic test.  With the golf course being this fast, it lent itself to just amazing creativity.  This is the way – how it all started and how I think that it should be played.” Tiger Woods.

"I wish our fairways in the States were like this.  It’s nice, it’s golf, instead of trying to grip it and rip it.” Chris DiMarco. 

Agronomists and greenkeepers confirmed that Hoylake was a shining example of The R&A’s definition of the sustainable course: “Optimising the playing quality of the golf course in harmony with the conservation of its natural environment under economically sound and socially responsible management”. 

Robert Webb, Chairman of The R&A Golf Course Committee, which spearheads the drive for sustainable courses, said:  “We have had to work hard to get the message of best practice course management across to many amateur golfers and their club administrators, so The Open has helped our cause significantly.  People watching television coverage around the world – or on the course itself – must have heeded the message that best practice course management, with conservation of water, minimum use of pesticides and enhancement of the natural environment makes for more pleasurable golf and, at the same time, demonstrates greater social responsibility. 

“We’re thrilled with this boost to our work and like to think it will lead even more golfers to turn to our website, www.bestcourseforgolf.org which has already attracted registration from nearly 2,000 clubs worldwide”.

Did any of you know about the aforementioned website or the R&A "drive?"

Naturally, the hypocrisy here is breathtaking, yet predictable. The R&A is busy suggesting changes to rota courses, introducting costly changes to offset faulty golf ball regulation. They are surely aware of the liability issues and other costs making the everyday course less sustainable, all because of their complacency.

Watson: "it's too late to do much now"

An unbylined Unison.ie story features Tom Watson's latest thoughts on the equipment issue.

The Great Man, hugely popular with the galleries wherever he plays, got up close and personal with some of the heavy hitters of the modern game and saw power unleashed that left him reeling in shock and awe - as in "aw crap, I'm too old for this stuff."

Watson knows what it's like to thump a ball a country mile down a fairway. In his day he asserted: "I was a long hitter," but conceded: "I saw a difference this week."

"During the week I played with Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen. I played with Brett Wetterich and with Chad Campbell, and these guys bomb it out there.

"I mean they're 80 yards ahead of me. I can understand people saying maybe the equipment has got too far ahead, but these guys swing the club a lot faster than I do.

"I'm out there waving at it, these guys are ripping at it. I just can't swing the club that fast.

Well Tom, they are younger than you too.

"What I think has happened also is that the ball has outgunned the R&A and the USGA.

"Back in 2001 a big jump happened then. The manufacturers played by the rules but the R&A and the USGA didn't have the rules in place to prevent the ball jumping ahead in distance.

"I think it's too late to do much now, but there are a few things they could do. One might be to reduce the size of the clubheads on the drivers, so you can't sling it with total abandon. With these drivers you can mis-hit the ball and still hit it a long way.

"Maybe they could get away from the square grooves so you can't spin the ball in the rough and put the old 'V' grooves back where you don't have the same control out of the rough.

"One thing I'm not in favour of is a special ball for tournament golf. I wouldn't like to see that. I like the competition between the manufacturers and it's good for the players."

So we know something happened a few years ago, we know it's bad, and we should correct other elements to compensate?  

Player, Harmon Call For Rollback

Alex Lowe on SportingLife.com, writes about an interview given by Gary Player on BBC Radio Five Live:

Player has been saddened by the sight of Tiger Woods and Ernie Els using long irons off the tee this week because their drivers would send the ball too far on the bone-dry links at Hoylake.

He has urged the Royal and Ancient, the world body in charge of setting golf's rules and regulations, to take immediate action.

"As a spectator, I want to see Tiger and Ernie and the top players taking a driver," Player said.

"They are all hitting off with three irons and four irons. The ball is going so far that they can do that and I find it very sad the Open championship has come to that.

"The R&A and the USGA (United States Golf Association) have to cut the ball back by 50 yards.

"In 30 years' time players are going to be hitting the ball 50 yards beyond Tiger.

"It is a technology issue. The galleries have said to me 'I want to see these guys hit a driver'. These fellas are all hitting irons off the tee.

And...

Butch Harmon, Woods' former coach, agreed with Player and insisted there is no problem with the professional game operating under different regulations to amateur golf.

"The ball is the big problem. It goes so much further than it ever did," Harmon told Sportsweek on BBC Radio Five Live.

"If you take these players back to equipment Gary won his three Opens with they wouldn't take irons off the tee because they would then have to hit woods onto the green.

"The R&A and USGA have to step up to the plate and decide what they are going to do with it. Professional golf can have own rules compared to amateur golf."

Norman v. Uihlein

Greg Norman argues for bifurcation, Wally Uihlein fights for his bottom line in Guardian point-counterpoint arguments that have appeared elsewhere. Norman:

The distance that pros hit the ball now is affecting the long-term vitality of the game. Not only are classic courses being made obsolete, strategy and skill are being taken out of golf. And lengthening and toughening courses is adding to the expense and time required for the public to play the game.

Uihlein:

Yet the professional game continues to grow and prosper because of the abilities of the players, and because the rules in place more than adequately control technological influence.

Hale Hale

We've got another anti-golf ball technology, pro-communist sympathizer in the game as John Huggan outs Hale Irwin who was playing the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

Take the dogleg right 7th hole. After Irwin slid his drive perfectly round the corner, just as the course designer intended - the Englishman simply blasted his tee-shot over the high tree on the right and into the distant fairway. While impressive, it was also a depressing sight, one that was not lost on Irwin either.

"There's a limit to what an older player can do, or what their minds will let them do," he explains. "When you nurture your game by manipulating the ball around the course - fading and drawing shots, hitting the ball high and low - you can't suddenly switch to hitting the same shot over and over.

"It's a whole different mentality and one I have tried to avoid. It just isn't my game and it's so hard to with today's equipment anyway.

"That shot I hit on the first hole is a perfect example. Twenty years ago that ball would have been in the loch way left of the green. It would have curved that much. But now what feels like a snap-hook only turns a few yards in the air."

Still, he is not above sticking up for his own generation and the way they used to play. Like so many, Irwin is not a fan of the direction modern technology has taken golf.

"I've been impressed with the play I have seen here this week," he conceded. "Every time I go play with the 'kids' the calibre of play never ceases to impress me. But they aren't any better than the great players of the past; it is just that they get so much benefit from modern equipment. Today's clubs and balls allow a very different type of play.

"Take today, Paul and I weren't really playing the same game. Like so many, he hits it high and launches it out there. They don't have to worry too much about the wind and just go for it. That's not depressing as much as it is just different. But I do feel that the game is suffering just a bit.

"The players of the past - the Nicklauses and the Watsons - manoeuvred the ball. They hit it high and they hit it low, shaping their shots to the conditions. But today's player just hits the one shot. If there's a debate between a 7-iron or an 8-iron they choose the 9-iron! They just go ahead and kill it. I don't say that disrespectfully, but it is not the game I know or the game I play." 

Golf On Steroids

Eric Rozenman in the Chicago Tribune says golf has its own steroid issue to deal with.

Chicago-area golf fans can witness routine drives at this weekend's Western Open at Cog Hill that would have been impossible barely a decade ago. That's because golf's on steroids. Not the players, the equipment.

We'll let this next reference to Augusta National Country Club slide because it's leading to a slick analogy.

Monster drives have changed the game so much that long par fours that used to call for a mid-iron second shot to the green now take a mere pitch. Four years ago, William "Hootie" Johnson, then chairman of Augusta National Country Club, which hosts the Masters, mused out loud about requiring a low-octane ball. Honorary club members Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer applauded, but Johnson backed off, lengthening the course instead.

That, of course, is the opposite of the Indianapolis 500 model. As engine technology advanced, race officials imposed power restrictions rather than change the event to the "Indy 600."

And...

The royal and ancient game of golf is undergoing the same extreme makeover suffered by auto racing when dragsters displaced sports cars: bigger, louder, but less sporting.

And...

Golf needs to end the distortion caused by ever more juiced equipment. The game must re-emphasize skill over technology. Today's "live" balls are live enough--and metal woods, like metal bats, belong in the minor leagues.

Tarde: Wishes Distance Regulation Had Happened

In his August, 2006 editor's column, Golf Digest editor Jerry Tarde lists his "Top 5 Wished They'd Happened" moments in golf. Number 5:

The USGA holding the line on distance in 1976, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006. 

This, combined with his June Top 5 that included 4 ways to deal with distance (only one suggestion to do nothing), requires that I add Tarde to The List. I'm sure this will make his month.

Pucker Up and Shill

That line about the smaller the ball, the better the sports writing? (Wind, Plimpton, Jenkins...one of 'em said it first.)

Well GolfDigest.com's "Bomb and Gouge" blog is going to do everything in its power to prove that it's not true.

This latest puckering up to a certain advertiser based in the lone state where Bruce and Steven can get married:

Gouge:  It is hard for me to say this, but if a professional golfer can average 207 yards off the tee and make the cut at the most prestigious tournament of the year, then maybe we don't need to worry so much about a rollback of any kind. 207? It is true. Rosie Jones did that this week. In fact, only the teenage wondergirl hit it farther than 280 on some of her measured drives. Hardly anyone else even came close to that. OK, so Rosie was barely in the tournament and retired from competitive golf after putting out on the 18th on Sunday. But still the average drive at the U.S. Women's Open was just 228.7, and that's hardly a threat to any golf course.

That's right, they are gauging distance by using a tournament that had standing water in its bunkers and a tournament where they couldn't even let spectators on the course on practice round Monday. Either they are intentionally misreading readers, or they didn't actually watch the event. Either way, not good. Oh but it gets better.

You want to know what's the real problem? People who complain that the golf ball is going too far may be short-sighted. The problem is that at the elite level (men) it's not the ball, it's the golf course. If men are driving it 28 percent farther than women, then why (at least in the case of the U.S. Open) are the men playing a championship course that is only about 10 percent longer? Shouldn't the U.S. Open and all significant men's championships be played at courses that are about 8,000 yards long, or at least 7,500 yards long? Well, I guess they're not because there's no room to make Winged Foot, Oakland Hills, Oak Hill, Southern Hills and Merion that long. That infatuation with the past is what Emerson called a foolish consistency. 

Whoa, we're quoting Emerson now! Deep stuff. (Note to really cool classic courses out there that are sick of spending money updating their courses so people like Bomb and Gouge can play the latest equipment they get for free: it's Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson, feel free to charge them double.)

BOMB: But finally, FINALLY you might be coming to your senses. The ball is not the problem. The courses are not the problem. Drivers are not the problem. Know why? They’re ain’t no stinkin’ problem! And we don’t need to go to 7,500 or 8,000 yards, either, to keep it that way.

Opponents of distance regulation have long said “grow some rough.” Worked pretty well at Winged Foot, don’t ya think?

Uh let's see. Tiger said watching the weekend was his "punishment" and according to one publication, the ratings tanked.

Worked great. 

Oh but here's the best part.

Throwing out the Match Play where they don’t keep the stats, there have been 26 events so far on the PGA Tour this year. In nine of them—more than a third—the winner has ranked 34th or higher in driving distance for the week. That’s out of about 70 players or so that make the cut. In six of those events the winner ranked 58th or higher. That’s right, 58TH—a lot closer to last than first. The winner has been in the top 10 exactly 10 times. That means sometimes distance wins and sometimes it doesn’t. And when distance is the difference-maker I’m all for it. Golf is a sport. An athletic endeavor where physical superiority should be rewarded. But unlike weight-lifting, it’s not the sole determinant of success. Tiger, Phil and Vijay may blast the cover off the ball, but I don’t think they’d be choppers if they didn’t. Holmes and John Daly and the like will wow us every so often with a week where they whack the ball a mile and hole an equally-lengthy amount of putts. But Fred Funk will win a Players and Jim Furyk a U.S. Open playing small ball.

So yes, distance only matters sometimes. That's why Bomb and Gouge continue to fight for every golfers right to buy things that let them hit the ball longer, free of USGA regulation.

If distance doesn't matter that much, then why do they so shill so hard to keep it from being regulated? 

Latest On OGA Champions Event

Don Delco in This Week News looks at the Ohio Golf Association's "unified-ball" tournament and has this quote from the USGA's Marty Parkes:

"Fact is we haven't been consulted and don't know much about the competition with one ball other than what we've seen in the press," said Marty Parkes, senior director of communications at the USGA. "We just don't know much of what's going on."

Isn't this the same organization that is studying rolled back balls and trying to gather as much information as it can?

You would think they'd take more interest in an event worthy of study than just not knowing "much of what's going on."
 

Anyway...

For the Champions Tournament, the OGA has designated a current, modern golf ball for play. While they would not say the brand, Alan Fadel, chairman of the golf ball committee, explained its makeup.

"It's a three-piece ball with a very soft outer cover and low compression that has a very soft feel," Fadel said. "It has the highest spin rate we could find. It's also an approved ball. What has happened is spin has been taken out of the golf ball, and we want to see what high spin does versus what is out there now. It gives us another benchmark, so to speak."

The OGA also is getting scientific. They have hired a company named ISG, inventors of the Trackman system, a sophisticated Dopler radar system that tracks information regarding the flight of a golf ball.

Trackman was used at the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst and will be used in the British Open, July 20-23 at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England.

"We will also survey players and ask them what results they've seen," Fadel said. "We will take that info and compare it to the scientific information and we might be able to share things with the USGA and the industry. If nothing else, it lest people know we're concerned and we'd like to try and protect the integrity of the old courses and game."

According to the OGA, integrity of the game is at stake.

"We want to draw attention that the fact the golf ball has given an unfair advantage in length to higher swing speeds," Popa said. "This makes older courses obsolete. In the old days, someone with 20 miles per hour extra on their swing speeds only gained 10 yards, today it's 30 to 40 yards. Add another 20 miles per hour, and instead of 15 yards it's 50-60 and sometimes 100 yards farther."