FreddieMac
Returning Golfer
- Thread starter
- #51
About 25 years ago the first over size metal woods from Callaway did help amateur players get off the tee box a little bit better, but even that major equipment change did little for 18 hole scoring. For the past 25 years new metal woods and iron designs have helped the 90-shooting amateur make a better shot here or there, but the 18 hole score is still 90 (or worse). When swing technique is full of faults, no equipment is going to make any sort of significant helpful impact to scoring.
The segment of players who have benefited the most from club and ball improvements is Tour pros. They went from a slight mishit causing a tee ball to fly 25 yards off line to now only 10 yards off line. And they went from a slight mishit 8-iron shot being 25 feet from the flag to 15 feet from the flag.
So, while faulty swing amateurs are still shooting 90 or worse, equipment technology has allowed Tour pros to reduce their scoring average by a shot to 1.5 ,maybe 2 shots per round.
Sure, I agree with this, no doubt, but Tour pros play a totally different version of golf. The biggest difference for tour pros is off the tee. If you go back in time I bet you would find that tour pros from the 70s and 80s short-game and iron play is not very different than today. I could be wrong but what I see with tour pros is the long game is different now. They are hitting irons 30 yards longer it seems today. Lot of that is conditioning, but most of it is the ball and equipment.