The older I get, the better I used to be.—Lee Trevino
Coming Events
A Couples Mixed Format Tournament is scheduled for Sunday, February 23 with a tee time of 12:30. Play will include scramble, shamble, and low ball formats. The full schedule of couples tournaments is here.
The February MGA event was plagued by 2 weather cancellations and a conflict with high school tournament scheduling. The high school tournament also caused the February 19th noon game to be canceled. Stay tuned to this website and/or Larry Henson’s emails for when the MGA event will be rescheduled.
Recent Results
February 9th 2-Couples Scramble – Results here.
My Humble Solution To A Problem Plaguing Us All
I’m sure all of you have been feeling guilty because you hit the ball too far and you have been worried that the golf courses you love to play are becoming too easy for you. The USGA and R&A have responded to our distress and released their long-awaited distance study.
Without going into excruciating detail, the results show that the pros have definitely gained yardage. The PGA tour average drive in 1980 was around 256 and it is now around 294. For the LPGA, the average in 1993 was 227 and is now 258.
Players on the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly web.com, formerly Nationwide, etc., etc.) are the longest drivers at 303 yards, up from 277 in 1998. The Champions Tour average now is 272. Amateurs have also increased the distance they hit a driver, but the distances aren’t as impressive. In 1996 the average male hit it 200 yards. Now he hits it 216. Lower handicappers tend to hit it farther, of course, but the current average is 240 for handicaps under 6.
The data make one thing obvious to a dispassionate observer: The real problem with increased distance is that male pros, especially young ones, hit the ball too dang far. It’s an insult to the memory of Old Tom Morris and cleek-carrying, feathery-playing, kilt-wearing pros everywhere. It doesn’t look like LPGA pros, Champions Tour players, or amateurs are threatening to make golf courses and traditional course design obsolete. The solution is also obvious, and it doesn’t require changes in manufacturing balls or clubs and it doesn’t demand that courses are modified to fit today’s game. I offer my solution with all humility and in the spirit of my hero, Sam the Eagle.
Sales of drivers to male professional golfers under the age of 50 should be illegal. Equipment companies are prohibited from fitting or providing drivers to these players. Professional male golfers are allowed to buy and play only irons until they reach the age of 40. If those young guys want to hit something farther, let them learn to hit a 1-iron. And none of those hybrid-looking driving irons. It has to be an old style “butter knife on a stick” 1-iron.
At 40 years of age male pros can put a 5-wood or hybrid in their bag. They can add a 3-wood at the age of 45 and join the rest of us with a driver in the bag when they turn 50. Amateurs, ladies, and all players over 50 can keep playing as they have. Problem solved.
Not only does this keep bombers from having fun and showing off, it also makes the game more attractive to anyone who has trouble hitting woods. After all, they’re just playing the game like the big boys do. And those pro sets should be cheaper, too.
I eagerly await a call from golf’s governing bodies about the details of my plan and stand ready to help with its implementation. And I’ll include an Amazing Elbow with every new set of clubs sold that fit my specifications. It’s the least I can do