What if equipment development had stopped to April 1997?

[SamboRoll]

Tour Pros would still be playing mostly with blade irons, steel shafted metal woods and balata balls. Pro V1 ball wouldn’t have ever been introduced, no oversized NASA wind tunnel designed drivers heads with 100+ custom after market graphite shaft options either. No era of anchor putters, no single length irons for Bryson, etc. Utility irons and hybrids would be noin existent.

 

How many more tournaments and majors more would have Tiger won? Would we still have seen the likes of Rory and Koepka bagging few majors each? Would DJ have developed a different approach to game? No success in Majors for 50+ guys, sorry Watson and Phil…or yes? Which players would have benefitted the most and for whom the lack of modern technology would have been disastrous?

Edited July 21, 2021 by SamboRoll

[Ferguson]

I ran these questions by my friends over at the Jo-Ann Fabrics web forum.   

They are working on it. 

 

 

 

[Superbrit]

1 hour ago, SamboRoll said:

Tour Pros would still be playing mostly with blade irons, steel shafted metal woods and balata balls. Pro V1 ball wouldn’t have ever been introduced, no oversized NASA wind tunnel designed drivers heads with 100+ custom after market graphite shaft options either. No era of anchor putters, no single length irons for Bryson, etc. Utility irons and hybrids would be noin existent.

 

How many more tournaments and majors more would have Tiger won? Would we still have seen the likes of Rory and Koepka bagging few majors each? Would DJ have developed a different approach to game? No success in Majors for 50+ guys, sorry Watson and Phil…or yes? Which players would have benefitted the most and for whom the lack of modern technology would have been disastrous?

mmmm

 

Well tour pros have been using cavity backs since before i was born, you not heard of the Ping eye 2?

 

Graphite shafts have been around since the 70's

 

single length irons have been around since the 30's i believe

 

The first Hybrid came out in the 70's as well

 

Equipment wise the biggest jump was the ball, so i'll give you that

[MattyO1984]

I can remember playing with a steel shafted 3 wood and really wanting a steel shafted driver and lamenting when Tiger, Scott and even Casey went on to use graphite shafts in their driver. Boy was I naive when I was younger 😂

[miamistomp]

1 hour ago, Ferguson said:

I ran these questions by my friends over at the Jo-Ann Fabrics web forum.   

They are working on it. 

 

 

 

 I think I met them on a crazy Craigs list personal

  Woke up with a $5 tip and note that they were down at the motel buffet- I slipped down the back stairs , walked to the 7-11, had an all syrup slushy and took first bus out of there ...

[Ferguson]

1 hour ago, miamistomp said:

 I think I met them on a crazy Craigs list personal

  Woke up with a $5 tip and note that they were down at the motel buffet- I slipped down the back stairs , walked to the 7-11, had an all syrup slushy and took first bus out of there ...

 

From the left: Gertrude, Sally and Helene. 

 

We did a group trip to Reno last year.   Let's just say by 11 pm the only items (resembling clothing) amongst a group of eight people were a day-glow orange bikini bottom, a large sponge-like cowboy hat, lederhosen and a pair of OSHA certified safety goggles.  

Funny old birds, the bunch. 

 

 

 

[KennyP]

Not sure I agree with all of your views on how golf was in 1997;

 

I doubt most pros were using blades - Titleist had the DCI's, Ping had the Eye2 & Zing, TM the Burner Tours, Callaway had Big Bertha shovels. All were prominent.

 

'Anchored' putting strokes existed back then - Langer won the masters in '93 using an early armlock grip. Others were using broomhandle putters in the 90s - Sam Torrance, Rocco mediate, Philip Walton (beat Jay Haas in the '95 RC with one to win the cup) 

 

I think the reason steel shafted drivers were still popular was because that generation grew-up with <44" drivers with weighty steel shafts. By 1997 the quality of graphite was already pretty good - Grafalloy Prolite & True temper EI70 to name a couple which can still be found today. If they'd been around when Tiger, Sergio, Adam Scott etc first held a club, they would have never known any different.

 

[smashdn]

Burner bubble shafts were around then weren't they?  That was the driver to have back when I was young.  I had a Big Bertha with the steel shaft.  Still have it somewhere.  Had to put a graphite shaft in it when I snapped the steel one at the driving range.  had the 3 wood and 7 wood "heavenwood" with the warbird sole.  I should probably dig around and hit some balls just for grins with it.

[Whereismydivot]

Why don't we take it back to the 70's when I bought my first non hand-me-down  persimmon driver with Blue Chip Stamps.

[bladehunter]

I vote yes.  Let’s roll it all back to 1997 and pause.   All of it. 

Edited July 21, 2021 by bladehunter

[Hawkeye77]

What if Buddy Allin was transported from 1975 to Scotland in 1865 with his same equipment? None of those Morris chops would have been heard from, Willie Park would have designed tartan pants. Patton and a division at the Little Big Horn with the Sioux, Herman’s Hermits playing for Henry VIII. 

[Hawkeye77]

4 minutes ago, bladehunter said:

I vote yes.  Let’s roll it all back to 1997 and pause.   All of it. 

We still wouldn’t get Masters tickets. 

[MountainKing]

2 hours ago, MattyO1984 said:

I can remember playing with a steel shafted 3 wood and really wanting a steel shafted driver and lamenting when Tiger, Scott and even Casey went on to use graphite shafts in their driver. Boy was I naive when I was younger 😂

 

I was rocking the hell out of my King Cobra 3 wood with a steel shaft.  I loved that club. 

[tsecor]

Scoring hasnt really improved by a significant margin with newer tech, so not sure it would be much different.....its like baseball....analytics provide velo, and launch angle and distance, but at the end of the day who cares......what was the score? who won......

 

i truly do not care of Dechambeau swings it 130mph with a 12 degree launch angle and 175 mph ball speed and drives it 325......

 

all ths equipment stuff is great for manufacturers to sell product, but scorimng has barely improved since the 60's.....so to me, its all the same...

 

the golf ball is maxed out right now, drivers are maxed out.....irons are just about maxed out.... what is next???

[dlygrisse]

There were solid core multi layer urethane balls in '97.  The tour Edition, the Strata, and several others.  Were they as fine tuned for spin as the modern ProV?  no, but they were on track to get there.  What really moved the needed was when Tiger went to the Nike/Bridgestone model and won the Tiger Slam.  Then Titleist rolled out the ProV, since most of the pros played Titleist the needle moved a bunch real quick.  

Big headed drivers were a game changer, figuring out how to manage the spin numbers were a big part of that with the solid ball.  Irons, hybrids etc. really were around since the early '80's in one form or another.  The old Ginty was essentially a hybrid before they were called hybrids.  

 

[ChrisL52188]

Tiger would have a significant advantage over the entire field if they stopped developing technology after 1997. IMHO.  

Edited July 21, 2021 by ChrisL52188

[tw_focus]

TW would have 30 majors, probably 2-3 Tiger Slams, maybe 1 GS. The only way those guys were able to keep up with TW is their 100-person strong engineering departments coming up with the latest and greatest gear that let them have a chance despite being amateur pros next to the great one.

 

Edit: And if you don't believe me, go take a look at YE Yang's famous hybrid shot on 18. The guy can't even hit a long iron, he loses the tournament if there's less than $10 million in R&D behind that club to enable a jobber to beat the greatest golfer ever to swing a club. And that's just one shot, one hole. It was like when IBM spent millions of engineering hours and billions of dollars building a supercomputer to beat Kasparov by one game. Good job nerds.

Edited July 21, 2021 by tw_focus

[ChrisL52188]

1 hour ago, KennyP said:

Not sure I agree with all of your views on how golf was in 1997;

 

I doubt most pros were using blades - Titleist had the DCI's, Ping had the Eye2 & Zing, TM the Burner Tours, Callaway had Big Bertha shovels. All were prominent.

 

'Anchored' putting strokes existed back then - Langer won the masters in '93 using an early armlock grip. Others were using broomhandle putters in the 90s - Sam Torrance, Rocco mediate, Philip Walton (beat Jay Haas in the '95 RC with one to win the cup) 

 

I think the reason steel shafted drivers were still popular was because that generation grew-up with <44" drivers with weighty steel shafts. By 1997 the quality of graphite was already pretty good - Grafalloy Prolite & True temper EI70 to name a couple which can still be found today. If they'd been around when Tiger, Sergio, Adam Scott etc first held a club, they would have never known any different.

 

If it were 1977, then I'd say all pros were probably using blades. But I agree with this though, mid to late 1990s had significant impact and growth in technology for clubs. 

[Go Cougs]

57 minutes ago, bladehunter said:

I vote yes.  Let’s roll it all back to 1997 and pause.   All of it. 

I'll go one further.  Turn the dial back to the mid 80's and rip the knob off.  Keep it there forever.  Best decade.

[bogeyk]

I’d be happily playing Zing2 irons and wedges. If the groove rule never went into effect, I’d still be playing them. I know I could still use them, but for some irrational reason I went to conforming clubs when I had 14 years to switch over. 

[Fairway14]

For amateur play scoring average would be the same as it is today. 

[tsecor]

51 minutes ago, ChrisL52188 said:

Tiger would have a significant advantage over the entire field if they stopped developing technology after 1997. IMHO.  

Not sure equipment had anything to do with Tigers advantage....he was just that much better than anyone regardless of equipment

[drbonesvt]

Tiger would have 25-30 majors , the equipment evolution  brought more guys closer to him.   

[llewol007]

I think distance more than anything would probably feel the affects. You would not have as many players cracking the 320 mark as we do now. 

[Bye]

I was talking about this last night. It would mean that anyone who was a good driver of the ball in 1997 still would be now. 

[smashdn]

6 hours ago, tsecor said:

the golf ball is maxed out right now, drivers are maxed out.....irons are just about maxed out.... what is next???

 

Bags.  We have the opportunity to get in front of the technological advances now before they get out of hand like the rest of it.

Edited July 21, 2021 by smashdn

[tsecor]

15 minutes ago, smashdn said:

 

Bags.  We have the opportunity to get in front of the technological advances now before they get out of hand like the rest of it.

rodney did that in 1980

[bscinstnct]

5 hours ago, bladehunter said:

I vote yes.  Let’s roll it all back to 1997 and pause.   All of it. 

 

Lol, TW win 50 majors

 

 

[Ferguson]

How many more tournaments and majors more would have Tiger won?

10 and 3

 

Would we still have seen the likes of Rory and Koepka bagging few majors each?

Yes.

 

Would DJ have developed a different approach to game?

No.  He would still use a cupped left wrist.

 

No success in Majors for 50+ guys, sorry Watson and Phil…or yes?

History is full of anomalies. 

 

Which players would have benefitted the most and for whom the lack of modern technology would have been disastrous?

 

Hank Kuehne 

Paul Azinger

 

Ernie Els

Hal Sutton

 

 

 

[smashdn]

1 hour ago, bscinstnct said:

 

Lol, TW win 50 majors

 

 

 

 

The kids don't dig.