Golf Life: Is too much distance really ruining the game?

Golf is supposedly a game of inches, but today there’s only one thing on most players’ minds: how do I hit the ball farther? The distance of modern pros has changed the game forever, but is it actually ruining the game?

The USGA and R&A currently have a survey out about the impact of ever-increasing distance in the game of golf. It’s a subject that seems to be creeping into more conversations about the game, particularly on the PGA tour. It’s also one that’s more complex than it appears to be on the surface.

At issue is more than just lower scores on Tour and the obsolescence of some of our favorite courses. It’s also a matter of “Big Golf” (that handful of corporations and organizations that either make most of the equipment or the rules) placing their finger on the scale in a way that doesn’t always have the soul of the game in mind.

For the amateur, distance is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. Now I can hit drives two fairways over, not just on to holes adjacent to the one I’m intending to play. Before you disagree on how important distance is to players with a double-digit handicap, which of these are you most likely to run your mouth about at the 19th hole?

• A nice lag putt
• That sand shot that stopped 8-feet from the hole
• Maybe that approach shot from 154 yards that stayed on the back of the green
• Or the hole on which you airmailed your foursome

Lie to yourself, but not to me.

A big drive is one of those shots that keep you coming back. You immediately think, “If I can do that once, I should be able to do it every time. And if I can do it every time … Well, I’ll be jingling my keys at Patrick Reed from inside the ropes pretty soon.”

Distance in the amateur game is great. Occasionally you get to go for a par-5 in two, you can hit a reasonably short iron into some par-4s. It makes the round better. But for the pros?

These are the driving stats on Rory’s first round at the BMW Championship at Aronimink last month. That’s impressive … and troubling. Next time you are out at your favorite track, walk a drive out to about 320 yards. It’s a different game. It probably turns your home course into a pitch-and-putt.

And he’s far from the only tour player who can do this.

Now, of course, the pros are going to be incredible ball strikers. Good for them for being so skilled. But one of the coolest things about playing sports is that you can compete on the same field used by the pros.

The tennis courts in your municipal park are the same size as Wimbledon’s Centre Court. The three-point line at the YMCA is the same distance from the hoop as it is in the Staples Center. It allows us amateurs to dream about being just like our sports heroes.

Not so with golf.

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I live in Kansas City, a town that would crush a PGA Tour event. I mean, we would go nuts. But we’ll never get one. We have almost 100 courses designed by architectural greats like Fazio, Robert Trent Jones Jr., Jack Nicklaus, Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, Tom Weiskopf, and Tom Watson. But not a single one of them is PGA Tour-ready. Never will be. Even the ones that can stretch out beyond 7,000 yards are too easy for the pros.

That’s a shame. For Kansas City and the PGA Tour.

Of course, detractors will talk about access, parking, and spectator stands. Baloney! Riviera, Augusta, Shinnecock, Pebble Beach, Oakmont; the list goes on and on. None were built with today’s game in mind but all remain gems. And sadly, all have been monkeyed with to accommodate the modern game. None for the better, in my opinion.

But don’t take my word for it, ask a few guys named Nicklaus, Trevino, and Player. They all agree that modern technology, especially the ball, while great for the amateur game, is wrecking havoc on the great old courses around the world. They each endorse the idea of creating a ball that performs less, to make the course play closer to how the architect intended.

And this is where “Big Golf” comes in. The one thing we can all do is play the same clubs as our golf heroes. I personally haven’t had much luck with a 6-degree driver, but maybe you will.

“OK, let’s throw ’em up to make pairs. I got a Stalin Spin playing with a Eugene Pro-V. Debs and a Castro Soft with a Mao Zedong Straight. Play well, boys!”

But if the PGA starts making players play with standardized balls or clubs, expect the equipment manufacturers to throw a hissy fit. I’m talking about a snot-running-down-the-face-fists-clenched-I-might-have-just-pooped-my-pants-a-little conniption. Because there is a reason your favorite golfer looks like he or she is wearing a Thrifty Nickel newspaper supplement.

Money. Lots and lots of money. Billions.

If Titleist, Taylormade, Callaway and the rest aren’t running ads about new equipment, who’s going to pick up the advertising slack for TV and other golf media? And where are these behemoths going to make their money if balls and or clubs become standardized in any way? It effectively kills competition to improve the products.

We’ll have socialist golf balls! Egads! (“OK, let’s throw ’em up to make pairs. I got a Stalin Spin playing with a Eugene Pro-V. Debs and a Castro Soft with a Mao Zedong Straight. Play well, boys!”)

Never gonna happen.

Standardizing the ball may make the tournaments more interesting to watch, and even bring more skill into the pro game, but it’s bad for business, and that’s the bottom line.

It’s too bad that some of the greatest courses in the world will, someday, be of no interest to the professional game. It might make golf the one sport where amateurs actually enjoy the best courses the sport has to offer more than the pros – simply because we stink at golf.

That’s really weird to consider, but it increasingly looks like the future of the pro game is in 8,000+ yard stadium courses; leaving the shorter classic gems to us hackers.

Good by me.