USGA and R&A announce proposal to limit golf ball performance for elite level competition

[bekgolf]

1 minute ago, stevesteven1 said:

page 389 answers everything 

 

but tbh nothing much has changed since the 10th page 

 

What username were you posting under on page 10?

[Ashley Schaeffer]

10 minutes ago, klebs01 said:

or the ball can get rolled back and you can move up a tee or two if you’re that salty about it. 

Yep, or just hit it shorter and leave the rest of golf alone if you're bored with hitting it too far.  Instead of score, you can keep "shot value score".  

[TiScape]

24 minutes ago, bekgolf said:

 

What username were you posting under on page 10?

Thread needs an index and a bibliography.

I realize what my reputation is in here. But must say I find the thread truly fascinating. I predict one day it will be included as source material in sociology programs. 

Edited May 3 by TiScape

[Oostiesalbacore]

Okay so I gained about 20 yards with my driver after a proper fitting so it seems to me you could shorten the game by not letting these guys get fit for a driver. 
 

some youtube video I watched, I think golf digest, had a video about why some players have a hard time hitting draws at Augusta. A highlighted point was that the drivers are fit to a specific spin and shot profile. A lot of these guys are hitting cuts off the tee so they can swing harder without over spinning. 
 

The solution is simple: end fitted drivers for pros. 
 

A more entertaining solution is to do driver pick up sticks before the first round. A large pile of off the rack drivers are dropped on the practice green. Everybody lines up 100 feet away. When the starter pistol fires, you have 30 seconds to pick your club. 

Edited May 3 by Oostiesalbacore
iPhone mistake

[clevited]

38 minutes ago, Ashley Schaeffer said:

Yep, or just hit it shorter and leave the rest of golf alone if you're bored with hitting it too far.  Instead of score, you can keep "shot value score".  

 

Honestly, this thread is so much better when you are posting.  I get some good laughs!

[Oostiesalbacore]

Plant more tall trees and bushes along the fairways so attempting the long ball into the rough pitch on strategy is less viable.
 

Or, you could have some actual fun with course design and I dunno, put a hedge around the fringe. Perhaps allow some tumbleweeds in the bunker or maybe bushes in the bailout areas. 

 

Spanish moss dangling raucously from every branch would really force a player to make hitting the fairway a premium so maybe swinging out of their shoes on every tee box quickly becomes a dumb idea when your ball is stuck in the moss.
 

If you want to make bomb and gouge unviable, you could alter the course in ways that aren’t cost prohibitive or require length. I’m only half kidding about a hedge around the green. Why shouldn’t one be there? Links golf and US Opens already force the player to make these length vs accuracy choices so rather than nerfing the ball, smurf the courses. 
 

This would also make the courses look nicer. Your day on the course would be much lovelier not worrying about long ballers chucking it everywhere. You might even see a butterfly or a cool hawk. 
 

Long term, this could help stem the tide of golf courses being targeted for development if they are made to be borderline arboretums. Once a year for a month, open them up to the public as park space. They could do all the course maintenance things we dislike like punching the greens, resanding bunkers, planting new hedges around new greens or taking others away to keep the course fresh. 
 

To me, nerfing the ball is just an unimaginative way to go about the problem. 

[bekgolf]

3 minutes ago, Oostiesalbacore said:

Plant more tall trees and bushes along the fairways so attempting the long ball into the rough pitch on strategy is less viable.
 

Or, you could have some actual fun with course design and I dunno, put a hedge around the fringe. Perhaps allow some tumbleweeds in the bunker or maybe bushes in the bailout areas. 

 

Spanish moss dangling raucously from every branch would really force a player to make hitting the fairway a premium so maybe swinging out of their shoes on every tee box quickly becomes a dumb idea when your ball is stuck in the moss.
 

If you want to make bomb and gouge unviable, you could alter the course in ways that aren’t cost prohibitive or require length. I’m only half kidding about a hedge around the green. Why shouldn’t one be there? Links golf and US Opens already force the player to make these length vs accuracy choices so rather than nerfing the ball, smurf the courses. 
 

This would also make the courses look nicer. Your day on the course would be much lovelier not worrying about long ballers chucking it everywhere. You might even see a butterfly or a cool hawk. 
 

Long term, this could help stem the tide of golf courses being targeted for development if they are made to be borderline arboretums. Once a year for a month, open them up to the public as park space. They could do all the course maintenance things we dislike like punching the greens, resanding bunkers, planting new hedges around new greens or taking others away to keep the course fresh. 
 

To me, nerfing the ball is just an unimaginative way to go about the problem. 

 

There might be a catch phrase in there:  Smurf not nerf!

[North Butte]

4 hours ago, smashdn said:

 

Did you choose to ignore all the examples of municipal, public daily-fee, resorts and private but more or less obscure clubs of which I have provided evidence?

I don’t give a damn about who spends money on their golf course. people with money spend it however they spend it.

[gvogel]

3 minutes ago, Oostiesalbacore said:

Plant more tall trees and bushes along the fairways so attempting the long ball into the rough pitch on strategy is less viable.
 

Or, you could have some actual fun with course design and I dunno, put a hedge around the fringe. Perhaps allow some tumbleweeds in the bunker or maybe bushes in the bailout areas. 

 

Spanish moss dangling raucously from every branch would really force a player to make hitting the fairway a premium so maybe swinging out of their shoes on every tee box quickly becomes a dumb idea when your ball is stuck in the moss.
 

If you want to make bomb and gouge unviable, you could alter the course in ways that aren’t cost prohibitive or require length. I’m only half kidding about a hedge around the green. Why shouldn’t one be there? Links golf and US Opens already force the player to make these length vs accuracy choices so rather than nerfing the ball, smurf the courses. 
 

This would also make the courses look nicer. Your day on the course would be much lovelier not worrying about long ballers chucking it everywhere. You might even see a butterfly or a cool hawk. 
 

Long term, this could help stem the tide of golf courses being targeted for development if they are made to be borderline arboretums. Once a year for a month, open them up to the public as park space. They could do all the course maintenance things we dislike like punching the greens, resanding bunkers, planting new hedges around new greens or taking others away to keep the course fresh. 
 

To me, nerfing the ball is just an unimaginative way to go about the problem. 

There is a wall in front of the 13th green at North Berwick.  They have been playing it that way for over 200 years.  It is a shame that the hole has become a drive and a pitch.

[Titleist99]

1 hour ago, TiScape said:

Hey! If you don’t like what’s being said/discussed in here you can simply choose not to read it.

 

😇🤣

100%. Why some posters find it hard to scroll by is beyond me.... 🤣

 

Lack of self control, maybe?....LOL!

[bekgolf]

4 minutes ago, Titleist99 said:

100%. Why some posters find it hard to scroll by is beyond me.... 🤣

 

Lack of self control, maybe?....LOL!

 

That's easier said than done.  We all come here for our forms of entertainment/discussion/passing time, sometimes it's just about impossible not to respond.

[Oostiesalbacore]

4 minutes ago, gvogel said:

There is a wall in front of the 13th green at North Berwick.  They have been playing it that way for over 200 years.  It is a shame that the hole has become a drive and a pitch.

This is exactly what I’m talking about. That wall is a step in the right direction. Notice all that open air space along the wall? Looks like a great spot for a line of poplars. Or maybe some oaks, whichever fits the local scene. 
 

Alduous Huxley in “Brave New World” talked about the rich playing “obstacle golf” and I always chuckled about it because all golf is obstacle golf. So why not embrace the idea in a way that serves to solve the ball problem and enhance the physical beauty of the game? It’s win win to me. 

[Titleist99]

Question:

 

Does anyone in their right mind believe that the average male golfer will move up a tee when that tee is the lady's tee.?

 

Men's egos won't allow it.😂

[bekgolf]

Just now, stevesteven1 said:

I read the entire 388 pages (at that point) to make the post on page 389. 
 

if more people were reading instead of writing this thread would have been done months ago 

 

I've read it all too.  The problem is that I can't remember it all.  It's a very fluid topic.

[Oostiesalbacore]

2 minutes ago, Titleist99 said:

Question:

 

Does anyone in their right mind believe that the average male golfer will move up a tee when that tee is the lady's tee.?

 

Men's egos won't allow it.😂

Just call red tees “big dick energy” tees and the black tees the “compensating for something” tees.  It’s really as simple as a few signs and rewriting the score cards. 

[klebs01]

23 minutes ago, Oostiesalbacore said:

Plant more tall trees and bushes along the fairways so attempting the long ball into the rough pitch on strategy is less viable.
 

Or, you could have some actual fun with course design and I dunno, put a hedge around the fringe. Perhaps allow some tumbleweeds in the bunker or maybe bushes in the bailout areas. 

 

Spanish moss dangling raucously from every branch would really force a player to make hitting the fairway a premium so maybe swinging out of their shoes on every tee box quickly becomes a dumb idea when your ball is stuck in the moss.
 

If you want to make bomb and gouge unviable, you could alter the course in ways that aren’t cost prohibitive or require length. I’m only half kidding about a hedge around the green. Why shouldn’t one be there? Links golf and US Opens already force the player to make these length vs accuracy choices so rather than nerfing the ball, smurf the courses. 
 

This would also make the courses look nicer. Your day on the course would be much lovelier not worrying about long ballers chucking it everywhere. You might even see a butterfly or a cool hawk. 
 

Long term, this could help stem the tide of golf courses being targeted for development if they are made to be borderline arboretums. Once a year for a month, open them up to the public as park space. They could do all the course maintenance things we dislike like punching the greens, resanding bunkers, planting new hedges around new greens or taking others away to keep the course fresh. 
 

To me, nerfing the ball is just an unimaginative way to go about the problem. 

that all promotes bomb and gouge and the long ball. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

4 hours ago, smashdn said:

 

Go back and read the thread and you would find those answers too.

 

Don't think of it in terms of how many golfers cause the impact, think of it in terms of how many golfers are impacted.

 

Exactly.

 

A tiny, tiny subset of golfers supposedly hits the ball "too far", so the ruling bodies have determined that every golfer must now be impacted negatively by a rollback. 

[Titleist99]

2 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Exactly.

 

A tiny, tiny subset of golfers supposedly hits the ball "too far", so the ruling bodies have determined that every golfer must now be impacted negatively by a rollback. 

Yep, in the best interest of the game.....LOL!

                      ^^^^ Just a little sarcasm

[Ty_Webb]

24 minutes ago, stevesteven1 said:

I read the entire 388 pages (at that point) to make the post on page 389. 
 

if more people were reading instead of writing this thread would have been done months ago 

 

Is that the one where you cherry picked all the things that you thought backed up your side, made some complete non-sequitur conclusions and posted a massive wall of text that no one in their right mind would ever read? I read the first two points and lost interest because it was clearly nonsense. If there were any good points in there, you shouldn't have camouflaged them quite so well. Then maybe people would have read them.

[mgoblue83]

6 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Exactly.

 

A tiny, tiny subset of golfers supposedly hits the ball "too far", so the ruling bodies have determined that every golfer must now be impacted negatively by a rollback. 

False.

 

Everyone hits it too far and too straight in relation to their skill level and athleticism.

 

The changes are not to lower scores or punish the average golfer because pros are too long.

 

They are necessary for the long term health of the game and will hopefully go even further like requiring pros to use 200cc drivers and 60 compression balls in the future.
 

 

[Oostiesalbacore]

19 minutes ago, klebs01 said:

that all promotes bomb and gouge and the long ball. 

Not if you can’t hit it over the trees it doesn’t and not when the second cut length rough has been replaced with this. It’s fairway or no way with my method. 

[klebs01]

4 minutes ago, Oostiesalbacore said:

Not if you can’t hit it over the trees it doesn’t and not when the second cut length rough has been replaced with this. It’s fairway or no way with my method. 

it does. 

[Oostiesalbacore]

3 minutes ago, klebs01 said:

it does. 

I don’t think you understand what I’m driving at. I’m saying there should be trees that are tall enough to prevent hitting over them and tee boxes devised in such a way that you don’t get the option to tee it high and let it fly. 
I’m suggesting pic related but with even more bushes, shrubs, and hedges everywhere but the fairway. I’m proposing making the rough an actual hazard you want to avoid.
 

Every course, every day, should have US Open rough so you can’t bomb and gouge. 

[TLUBulldogGolf]

29 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Exactly.

 

A tiny, tiny subset of golfers supposedly hits the ball "too far", so the ruling bodies have determined that every golfer must now be impacted negatively by a rollback. 

 

Addressing only said subset is a non-starter but you already knew that.

[Oostiesalbacore]

22 minutes ago, mgoblue83 said:

Everyone hits it too far and too straight in relation to their skill level and athleticism.

So the male D1 golfer, the LPGA pro, scuffed and punished Tiger, Prime Tiger, my grandma, that guy over there who’s been playing for a week, a scratch club pro, you, me, everybody in this thread, and Bryson are all hitting too far and too straight for our level of athleticism? 
 

stunning claim 

[Ashley Schaeffer]

I've come 720 degrees.  I won't rest until the elite players aren't able to do things the prime athletes of 50+ years ago could only dream of doing because Nicklaus said it's bad.  I worship him and I want him to be happy.  Listen, you can't just go hitting it so far like that.  It's a foul. No, two fouls.  Or traveling, maybe.  It shouldn't be allowed.  I'm entitled to watch the game I want to watch.  And because I'm forced to watch and play this game, it should be played exactly as I wish. I've earned that right.  Whole world's gone mad!

[klebs01]

22 minutes ago, Oostiesalbacore said:

I don’t think you understand what I’m driving at. I’m saying there should be trees that are tall enough to prevent hitting over them and tee boxes devised in such a way that you don’t get the option to tee it high and let it fly. 
I’m suggesting pic related but with even more bushes, shrubs, and hedges everywhere but the fairway. I’m proposing making the rough an actual hazard you want to avoid.
 

Every course, every day, should have US Open rough so you can’t bomb and gouge. 

I’m not sure you understand shot distribution, statistics and strategy. That design would make length more important. 

[Oostiesalbacore]

Just now, klebs01 said:

I’m not sure you understand shot distribution, statistics and strategy. That design would make length more important. 

I don’t think you have the imagination to fully grasp what I’m proposing. 
 

For instance, Rory has an apex of around 140-150 feet with his driver when he really cranks it. I’m proposing that the fairway be lined with trees taller than that and tee boxes have narrow chutes which really penalize a mishit. More branches hanging down in the way. Put a hedge around or in front of the box so the player has to hit through a window. We move the pins around every round so add a hedge with a window that’s different every round. 

 

I’m proposing narrowing fairways and playable rough precisely to infringe on shot dispersion patterns. If the average dispersion is 25 yards with a driver or whatever, then the potential landing areas should only be 15 yards wide then or whatever it works out to be. Make the fairways narrow the farther from the tee box with increasingly penal rough and actual hazards. Put poison ivy over there. How about that? Take the choice, hit it over there and maybe take a lost ball, hit it over there and maybe get a nasty rash, or lay back with a 3 wood. 
 

I’m proposing deliberately changing the courses to force players to choose the shorter club or take extreme risk. I’m proposing changes that force a change in strategy. Bomb and gouge if you want. Sure maybe it’ll work today, but maybe it won’t and now you’ve got poison ivy all over you and you lost ten balls. 

[Ashley Schaeffer]

30 minutes ago, Oostiesalbacore said:

I don’t think you understand what I’m driving at. I’m saying there should be trees that are tall enough to prevent hitting over them and tee boxes devised in such a way that you don’t get the option to tee it high and let it fly. 
I’m suggesting pic related but with even more bushes, shrubs, and hedges everywhere but the fairway. I’m proposing making the rough an actual hazard you want to avoid.
 

Every course, every day, should have US Open rough so you can’t bomb and gouge. 

This idea has legs, in a way.  Because we can all agree that hitting it long and straight isn't a real "skill" because we're told so, let's choose a few classic holes on classic layouts and just put the tee markers in the woods to force the tee shot to be a punch-out to the distance the dead architect wanted real tee shots to end up.  That way, we can place a bigger premium on skill (punch-outs and long irons), rather than the dead straight 300yd drives that require no skill whatsoever.  I don't think the courses would have to spend money as long as they have tee markers, and we'd get to see the approaches we deserve to see.

[TLUBulldogGolf]

13 minutes ago, Oostiesalbacore said:

I don’t think you have the imagination to fully grasp what I’m proposing. 
 

For instance, Rory has an apex of around 140-150 feet with his driver when he really cranks it. I’m proposing that the fairway be lined with trees taller than that and tee boxes have narrow chutes which really penalize a mishit. More branches hanging down in the way. Put a hedge around or in front of the box so the player has to hit through a window. We move the pins around every round so add a hedge with a window that’s different every round. 

 

I’m proposing narrowing fairways and playable rough precisely to infringe on shot dispersion patterns. If the average dispersion is 25 yards with a driver or whatever, then the potential landing areas should only be 15 yards wide then or whatever it works out to be. Make the fairways narrow the farther from the tee box with increasingly penal rough and actual hazards. Put poison ivy over there. How about that? Take the choice, hit it over there and maybe take a lost ball, hit it over there and maybe get a nasty rash, or lay back with a 3 wood. 
 

I’m proposing deliberately changing the courses to force players to choose the shorter club or take extreme risk. I’m proposing changes that force a change in strategy. Bomb and gouge if you want. Sure maybe it’ll work today, but maybe it won’t and now you’ve got poison ivy all over you and you lost ten balls. 

 

Move to simulators so we can boot up The Predator from Tiger Woods '04.