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Everyone who is anyone who talks about golf these days is talking about distance. The question on everyone’s lips is “How far is too far?”, and of course they are talking about how far everyone, it seems, is hitting the ball. I was at one National Club Pro Championship in New Mexico where the driving leader averaged 330 yards, with a long drive of over 390 yards. Even though the event was played at 5000 feet of altitude, those are still some serious numbers. The crazy stats are seen every week now. Give a long hitter a fast fairway and little bit of helping wind and drives of close to 400 yards are commonplace. Here in the Middle Atlantic Section we have at least 5 guys who hit the ball unbelievably long, carrying the ball over 300 yards off the tee.
Throughout the history of the game there have been exceptionally long hitters who stood out for their power, but rarely were they the type of player to also exhibit the ball control and the short game to add to their length to make themselves dominant players. All the great major champions, Jones, Hagen, Sarazen, Nelson, Hogan, Snead, could certainly hit the ball long enough, but they weren’t known specifically for their length off the tee. It was with Jack Nicklaus that we first saw a player who drove it past everyone by a good distance, then played better into the green as well. His combination of length, accuracy, and control made him the best player of all time, and his game became the measuring tool by which all others are compared.
The problem the game faces now is not that one player is dominating the game by hitting the ball farther than anyone else, it’s that everyone is hitting the ball far, and the manner in which players attack a golf course is completely different now than in years past. When I play in a Tour event I am always one of the shortest hitters in the tournament. However, I played in a Section event at the venerable North course at the Woodmont Country Club in Rockville and gave myself a first hand view of what the debate over length is all about. I have played Woodmont many times over the course of my career, dating back to junior golf, and I know where I hit the ball on the par 5’s. When I knocked it on number 3 (550 yards) and number 10 (585 yards) in two shots I knew that this golf course, playing at over 7000 yards (and once brutally long for me), was now officially short. And if the North was now short, what about all the other courses we play, especially for guys who hit the ball 40 yards past me in their sleep?
Where did all this new found length come from? If you were to eavesdrop on any conversation on the subject you would probably hear 4 or 5 different possibilities, all of which have combined to get us to out present state of affairs. These would include club technology (especially the driver), ball technology, player strength and fitness, club fitting, and golf course conditioning. As we touch on each of these, I think it is important to remember that the distance explosion is not necessarily a problem, and there should be no attempt to blame anyone for trying to maximize the performance of their bodies, their equipment, or the course. As I mentioned, it has always been the case that if you hit the ball longer and straighter, you were simply better. There is no greater goal in the game than to maximize distance without sacrificing accuracy. We have now come to a time when equipment companies and players are honing in on the best ways for a player to do just that. How can you blame them for trying?
The golf manufacturing companies have taken a lot of heat for creating clubs and balls that perform beyond what we would have previously thought possible. Again, what do you expect? If their equipment does not keep up, no Tour pros will use it, and no amateurs will buy it. And don’t forget that there are guidelines set up by the USGA to place restrictions on the performance of clubs and balls: the companies must work within these parameters, otherwise the equipment would be deemed non-conforming and unusable for competition or handicap purposes. It is obvious that the USGA completely underestimated the ability of the technicians at the major companies to work within the framework of the established guidelines and achieve huge advances in club and ball performance. There is no doubt that with every new batch of drivers and balls advances are being made with distance and spin control, and the question becomes how much further can it be taken? One thing is for sure, you can’t roll back progress. The advances have made the game more fun for the average player, and have made golf courses easier for the Tour pro.
This last point is the main gripe of those who think that the increase in driving distance is ruining the game. They see the traditional golf courses, which used to be considered long at around 7000 yards, battered by 350 yard drives and pitching wedges to what were the longest, toughest par 4’s on the course, while unreachable 580 yard par 5’s are reached with drives and mid-irons. If there is no room to retro-fit the course and add large chunks of yardage it is possible that it will no longer be suitable for championship play. While this is unfortunate, it remains that the course will be plenty hard for the average player, and that the design factors that made the course such a gem in the first place will still be there to be enjoyed. You can take any course and make it play 7600 yards long, but if the greens are soft, the fairways fast, and the rough less than brutal, I guarantee you the scores will be low. I played at Atlanta Athletic Club, set up to play 7400 yards with a par of 70, with healthy rough to boot, and because the greens were soft 15-under par won the tournament. It was too long for me, but for the guys I played with, Chris Smith and Adam Scott, it wasn’t long at all. Both hit wedge to a 480 yard par 4. If you make the course even longer you eliminate more and more of the field who are average hitters and you only intensify the thirst for more distance. If you want to make a course play hard and make par a good score the greens must be very firm and extremely fast, the fairways narrow, and the rough very deep. Bunkers should be deep and semi-soft, and pin placements should range from hard to harder.
Another possibility is for the professional tours to adopt a standardized golf ball with specifications that limit how far it will go. Augusta National has already entertained the idea, but has not yet put it into play. One major headache is that the game is retail driven, meaning that without money you have no professional events. The manufacturers sell their product to amateurs, and those amateurs watch the Tour pros to see what hot new products are out there to buy. I’m sure the Titleist Company is going to be thrilled to have some generic ball in play at Tour events. The only reason to go to a one ball rule would be to protect the course. It won’t even up the field, as longer hitters are going to be longer than shorter hitters no matter what ball they use. If a long hitter is taken from driver-8 iron to driver-5 iron, the short hitter is going from driver-5 iron to driver 5 wood. Guys that hit it short and straight aren’t as good as guys that hit it long and straight. It really is that simple. The penalty has to be for being crooked, but it is well to remember that hitting it into the rough 50 yards ahead of a ball in the fairway has a tendency to even things up. Even out of thick rough strong players have shown the ability to hit short irons onto even a fast, firm green and stop the ball. From further back such conditions make it almost impossible to get the ball on the green, much less close to the hole. Thus, a missed fairway for the short hitter is much more penal than for the long hitter. That is the main reason that lengthening courses is another advantage for the longest hitters.
Even if someone said “O.K., that’s it, no more advances in club and ball technology, everyone has to play with what they have right now”, players would still find ways to get longer. The first thing they would do is to continue to have expert club fitters measure their ball and club performance so that they could milk every possible yard out of their equipment. When a player constantly sees his launch angle, spin rate, ball speed, club face angle at impact, and degree of ascent or descent, he can try endless combinations of clubs and balls to optimize his results. There are certainly more choices than ever, more opportunity for testing, and the gains in equipment technology have been mirrored in club and ball testing technology. Tour pros have it made when it comes to finding exactly what they need. There is a widening gap between what they can do with their clubs and balls (which are all free), and what an amateur or even a struggling mini-tour pro can do when they have to spend $400 on a single driver. I’ve gone through 10 drivers in the past year alone, probably more because I can than because I really needed to. I know I need to settle on one club and get to know and like it, but it’s hard when something better (supposedly) is coming out every 4 months. My problem, other than my swing, is that every new driver (for me, TaylorMade) is definitely an improvement over the last models. I have the hand it to the engineers at all the companies: golf clubs have gotten much better recently. I’m not sure how much better they can get. And there are enough choices in golf balls now that they never have to come up with anything new. What we have now will do fine. They are just great golf balls. Isn’t that what we’ve always wanted?
The other thing that players are going to keep doing more of that cannot be regulated is working out. Never before have so many golfers become fit athletes. Guys are lean and strong, and they absolutely pound the ball. Gary Player was so far ahead of his time it’s not funny. Everyone used to think he was a nut case, even after he won 9 majors. Now his basic ideas on diet, strength and endurance are the norm for any aspiring player, while most of the guys already out on Tour who never considered spending time in the gym or watching what they eat are all over the idea of looking like Tiger. For Tiger is the bar setter when it comes to owning an intimidating physical presence. The guy walks out onto the range and it’s like a stallion, or a god has just arrived. I can only describe him as majestic to look at and to watch up close, and most every other player is aspiring to have at least a piece of that action. The next thing to watch for is the synergy of fitness training and club fitting. You can optimize the speed you have with clubs that fit you, but to really advance you need to increase your speed. Research is starting to show exactly what it takes to achieve greater club and ball speed, and exercise programs are being designed with that goal in mind. With the ability to monitor progress on a daily basis improvement is almost guaranteed to those with the time, inclination, and cash to take advantage of the technology.
The last thing that is helping players play tough courses better is the conditioning of the course itself. Fairways are now generally perfect. The grass is designed not to be over-watered, and the perfect surfaces are often firm enough to allow for a good bit of roll. When a course is wet and requires all carry it will play quite a bit longer, but the mitigating factor in scoring is that wet conditions mean soft greens, and we’ve already discussed the fact that soft greens mean low scores, period.
We all need to just face it: golf is not the same game it was 20, or even 10 years ago. As happens in all fields, science and technology have caught up to the game and the result is that the equipment is better, the players are better, and the courses are better. Unless the courses are set up to play incredibly hard, par is no longer good enough to win. When the 460 yard final hole of a U.S. Open is played with a driver and a lob wedge on the final day, you know that things have changed. The question of whether this turn of events is bad, or good, or simply inevitable is fodder for many spirited locker room discussions. One thing to consider is the positive effect all this has had on women’s golf. I never used to watch the LPGA: I got no thrill from 240 yard drives on 6000 yard courses. Now, however, the women are hitting the ball much farther, and their courses are sneaking up on what we sometimes play in Club Pro tournaments. Annika proved that she could play on the same level as the men, and women’s golf has, for me, become much more exciting. In this instance the advances in technology is indisputably positive.
But, like I said, it’s not going to go back to the way it was, so if you want to play long ball you’d better find a launch monitor and a gym, put down that beer and order the salmon instead of that cheeseburger. I’m teaching all of my young students to first hit it far, and then learn to keep it in play. As such, I am part of what is the last reason for the jump in distance, the improvement in teaching and the understanding of what produces power in the golf swing. And just like the club companies who have to produce better products in order to stay in business, so I have to be successful in preparing my students to be competitive at the highest levels.
As for myself, I have been trying to hit the ball farther for years. If you think I’m going to feel bad or guilty about hitting a 330 yard drive or reaching a previously unreachable par 5 in two, you’re crazy. In the back of my mind I may acknowledge that hot equipment may have something to do with it, but I’m going to give myself a lot more of the credit for getting up at 4:30 in the morning to work out, practicing before work, at lunch, and after work, relentlessly studying the swings of the best players as well as my own on video, and suffering through years of competitive disappointments. I thank the club and ball manufacturers for joining me in the search for excellence in what, to my mind, is the hardest game in existence. Blaming them for a job well done is ludicrous. Blaming the governing bodies for not setting stringent enough guidelines is 20/20 hindsight. Who could have known that huge advances, all made fairly within the rules, would come upon us in what seems to be such an immediate fashion. But, like I said, if it helps me, I’m all for it. I’ll leave it to the guys who don’t compete anymore to whine about the detrimental effects that longer shots have on the game.
The 8 Keys:
1. Learn the secret of “club head lag”. Your lower body must start the downswing before the backswing is finished. Initiating the forward motion with the legs and hips while the arms are still going backwards causes the weight of the club head to bend back into the wrists, increasing the wrist angle and storing up energy that can then be delivered into the ball at the proper moment.
2. You must have firm hands (grip pressure), flexible wrists, and soft, relaxed arms. A loose grip will cause the wrists and arms to tense up to keep control, and this tension is antithetical to producing speed through impact.
3. Let the club head swing through impact in an arc, and allow the club face to constantly close through the impact area. Trying to steer the ball to the target by keeping the club head moving “down the line” and the club face “square” interrupts the circular motion that is necessary to create speed.
4. Swing hard. If your technique is good you can be almost as aggressive as you want (short of throwing yourself completely out of balance). Contrary to what 6’3” 200 pound Tour Pros might say, swinging easy does not make the ball go farther. If you don’t have a decent swing, or you don’t understand how to store and deliver power in your swing, then swinging hard may make you worse. However, if you can hit the ball fairly straight and solid, you should try hitting it harder.
5. Use your legs aggressively. Once your weight gets to your left side you must “snap” the hips out of the way and straighten the left knee just after you hit the ball.
6. Get stronger. General fitness is a wonderful goal for anyone, and one of the byproducts will be that you will hit the ball farther.
7. Hit down on your irons, and sweep your driver. All swings are not the same. In order to compress and drive your irons you must trap the ball against the ground. To launch your driver effectively and take advantage of the new technology you must sweep into the ball with an upward blow.
8. See a club fitter. If your driver produces too much or not enough spin and/or launch angle, it won’t go as far as it could were it fit better to your swing. Get to someone with a launch monitor who can measure what you are actually doing. He will also be able to find the best ball for you to play, another important factor in maximizing distance.
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