Distance Alert

For those who are proponents that technology has not negatively impacted professional golf and the sport on the whole, you will see this headline in their articles, columns, and blog posts: PGA TOUR DRIVING DISTANCE DECREASED IN 2007!

In mine, you will read: PGA Tour Driving Distance is Flat in 2007. The hatas are right. PGA Tour stats show that driving distance dipped...exactly 0.2 yards year over year. That's exactly 0.06% difference, or statistically flat.

But, the tech guys will not let you live it down that the distance average dropped at all. See Michael Johnson at Golfworld's post:

Doomsayers who believe the game is being ruined by distance will be disheartened to learn that driving distance actually went down 0.2 of one yard (the first time distance went down since 1993), from 289.3 to 289.1 yards this year. That comes on the heels of last year's 0.3 of a yard gain from 288.9 to 289.2 yards. Hardly signs of the apocalypse. In fact, the increase over the last three years is the smallest in a three-year period since 1991-93. In short, it appears the big boys have maxed out.

Johnson is right because this statistic is one that cannot be manipulated. Still, that is because the USGA has effectively capped the amount of energy to be transferred from a swing to a ball. Some distance could yet still be gained if Titleist were to invent a ball whose material would spin almost none with the driver, yet somehow maintain the Pro V1's impressive ability to spin even out of high rough.

But why would I be disheartened? That makes no sense. The euphoria must have messed him up in typing. Basically, over the last 2 years, distance is flat. That does not seem to be stopping tournaments, though, from pinching in fairways, growing rough to injury-inducing lengths, placing pins in absurd places, taking away creativity in the professional game, and introducing a slow, boring style of play that has caused ratings to continue to drop for the PGA Tour. Doom, I tell you!

Johnson's rationalization:

I know, I know. Courses are longer, pins are in insane positions, etc., etc. So? Pro golf is not a game. It is a sport. As such, it should be difficult, and the achievements of those playing it for a living are far superior to those of us who don't. The only courses that need to be lengthened are the 55 used for PGA Tour events.

Athletes are better all around nowadays. We should go ahead and bump up the NFL fields to CFL dimensions to make it harder to tackle.

Nevermind the impact that the tech boom and its influence on the pro game has in trickling down to amateurs. That, in part, has to do with why people are quitting the game as quick as they start and are not improving. Many amateurs simply are not considering practice as a key component in their improvement. (Some also simply don't have the time, in the interest of fairness.) Rather, they're relying on technology to improve their games - which it isn't.

Johnson seems to disagree:

Odds are there's more than 20 yards you're not getting. Isn't that the only statistic you should be interested in?

I sure hope that's in jest. It's the guys that try to smash it who have no business doing so that are keeping me from finishing 18 when I go out to play twilight in late summer.