Accuracy and not distance is the key

ONE'S age, fitness and strength may determine if you are a long hitter or not, and there isn't much you can do about it past a certain age profile but, how surprised I was to find that accuracy, not distance, remain the key to better scoring when I applied myself to studying the statistical data on the PGA Tour website.

I didn't know what I would find and wasn't sure if it would be helpful to an elderly golfer, like me, with an average drive of 227-yards.

From the rough in the range of 125-150 yards – a wedge for most of the pros on tour – only a minority average inside 25 feet.

From 175-200 yards, the best hit it closer from the fairway than the best from the rough who are 50 yards closer.

So, what does one glean from this information? No matter who you are, hitting from the fairway is dramatically more effective than playing from the rough.

Instead of trying to force a few extra yards out of our drivers, throttling back a bit to make sure of being on the fairway is of more help in shooting lower scores.

If you don't believe me try this exercise when playing a casual round: every time you miss a fairway, go back 20 yards and drop another ball on the fairway.

Play both balls from where they lie towards the green and see which ball wins? The shorter ball from the fairway will come out on top more often than not.

Golf is an easy game if you can hit 350-yards drives and reach greens 600+yards away in two blows like the pros were doing in the BMW Championship at Medinah.

I've played that course and, at the time, thought it was the hardest course I had ever played.

Foolishly, I played off the back tees and couldn't get far enough around the corners of the doglegs for a clear shot at the greens.

If not that, my ball kept running diagonally across the firm, contra-cambered fairways into trouble.

For me, and its members, Medinah played like a monster! Give the pros soft conditions with no run on the ball and they'll eat any course alive, it doesn't matter how long it is.

One of these days, the members of great clubs like Medinah will join together and tell the PGA and European Tours to buzz off.

The pros are not only hitting their drives 350-yards, but 5-irons go 225; 7-irons 190; a gap wedge goes 150-160.

The players are in prime athletic physical shape, their clubs are all tuned to the finest degree and match their individual swings.

The ball goes ‘miles’ without spinning, which means it doesn't go that far offline when a poor swing is made.

Combine that with perfect fairways, perfectly maintained bunkers, greens like carpets and the only way to stop them is to drastically narrow the fairways, insert bottlenecks and doglegs and don't water the course for weeks, which is unfair on the clubs' members whose course it is.

The cause of my consternation is not a score of 25-under par, but the way such a score is compiled. No subtlety; bombs away strategy with little thought.

A dumb-downed version of a once great game. Not so long ago, if you wanted to be a good golfer you spent hours hitting balls, chipping and putting. Now, you go to the gym! A lighter tournament ball that spins more and drastically reduced in size driver heads would solve it.

Bad mis-hits would go into 'big trouble' or out of bounds. When I was young hitting a ball 'off the planet' was a regular occurrence if you swung too hard and made a mis-hit, but it is a rarity today.

I hate the emphasis on distance and reducing the value of accuracy and skill. The game has changed for the worse in a short period of time considering how old it is.

Where will it end? Is there any other ball game as technology driven as golf is?

It's out of balance and I'm not sure we'll ever get it back? The purpose of the Rules used to be to protect golf’s best traditions, such as to prevent an over-reliance on technological advances.

Almost anything new was banned once upon a time. Metal headed 'woods' and centre-shafted putters were banned in the 1920s.

The reality is golf cannot exist without it also being a business.

It was in Old Tom Morris's time and it still is today, so those involved in the business side of golf are entitled to their say.

Driver heads as big as frying pans arrived under the shadow of legal action over square grooves. PING won that argument and the USGA and R&A have been running scared since.

Bifurcating the game, with different balls and equipment, could be extremely costly and arguably unmarketable. I don't like any of it, but these are the facts and, if not controlled golf will be unsustainable.

How do you stop it, let alone reverse it? How does one manage the technological assault on the game’s great courses and maintain 'balance' from top to bottom? The driver is the most forgiving club in the bag now.

You can swing it as hard as you like, and the low-spin ball will correct itself in flight.

There is no skill in driving the ball from the tee anymore, which is unfair on the genuinely good driver of the ball whose talent is not rewarded.

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