by Nostrum Baculus, Bird Golf Academy

What is wrong with having to fit a well-shaped tee shot into a tree lined dog leg fairway?  What has happened to finessing an iron shot around a bunker to a tucked pin position?  Where did the game of golf I grew up with go?

Today the game is all about power.  The name for golf today is bomb and gouge.  Hit the ball as far as you can and then gouge it out of the rough with a wedge and putt.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I never had the ability to hit 300 plus off the tee,  This style of play is unfamiliar to me.  Also, I think it is foreign to most of you reading this little missive.

The golf courses are getting longer, the greens bigger, the bunkers deeper, and the fairways wider, lending me to believe that golf course designers have fallen prey to the bomb and gouge concept.  The designers seem to be in competition with one another trying to see who can build the biggest monument to themselves.  They argue that they are preserving the game from those who hit the ball 300 plus.  Designing courses that fit a select few is a detriment to the game, and an insult to us mere mortals.

The ruling bodies of golf seem to think that changing the grooves on irons is going to bring distance under control, because the players are not going to be able to spin the ball out of the rough as easily.  The players who have tried the new grooves admit to some adjustments, but not to the extent the USGA and the R&A had hoped.  The players with the massive speed and the strength are not going to be impacted as much as the players that don’t possess those qualities.  This will result in an even bigger disparity between the bombers and the short hitters.

One of these days there may be a premium for driving accuracy.  Maybe we can get back to beautiful tree lined fairways, with doglegs in both directions.  We will again have to shape our shots to find those fairways and put the finesse and shot making back in the game.  Maybe one of these days, we can get the game back where mere mortals can compete with all the long knockers.  I certainly hope so.

Nostrum Baculus is nom de plume  and one of true gems of Bird Golf Academy.  Any pilgrimage to Bird is rewarded with perspective and insight coupled with mechanical improvement that lets you continue to improve throughout the life of your came. (And darn interesting conversations to boot)