A Fix For Too Much Pro Distance
The PGA tour gets longer and longer. Everyone has been talking about it for at least 5 years. There have been many suggestions on how to deal with it, but the powers that be have not budged. Meanwhile top notch courses are forced to continuously add yards if they want to host the top events. Seems like an expensive way to fix a problem that results primarily from one club - the driver.
Take away the 340+ yard drives and the pro tour could continue as it has without all the expensive course modifications. The classic layouts in the game could be preserved as they are and not gimicked up as some say they've done at Augusta. Some have proposed limiting the distance of the pro ball, but this has some serious drawbacks that have been discussed at length. Why not just take the driver out of the pros' hands. I don't propose that they do it on all courses, just select ones. It would be just fine to leave some tournaments where the pros can bust the long ones. It would also work out well for the club manufacturers. They could still promote who's using their big sticks. With pros hitting their 3 woods like they did drivers about 10 years ago, we could roll back the clock with very little pain.
Who said the game can't be protected by limiting distance and still keep everyone pretty happy. And it doesn't have to be implemented all at once. Do a pilot at a couple of events next season at courses particularly vulnerable to monster drives and see how it works out.
2 comments:
Since some of the lower level tour players are only known for their lenght the club manufacturers are wanting more visibility to their drivers, so these players agents have built their endorsement contracts with incentives to pull the big dog out as many times as they can. Showing fans and potential clients how far the can pop that little white ball is what what sales their club. This change in designating a course as a 'Driver Free' environment would either be ignored or cause most pros not to play the event since they are making their house payments by walking the sponsor's dog on at least 14 of the holes. Unless the PGA wants to pay the tour players for losing those endorsement dollars then I don't see this working.
Duke, I hear what you're saying. I feel that the desire to play and win tournaments would trump sponsors dollars. The PGA made 99 millionaires this season. If I'm a pro, first and foremost I want a chance at the monster payouts. I also have to earn enough to keep my card for next year or no amount of dollars for big drives is going to help.
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