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Does new equipment really make any difference....USGA data would say no?

SuperStroke
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Longhorngary

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I think it depends on the player and their equipment. How old is their equipment? Updating to the newer Technology can definitely help. If you are playing 10 yr old tech, it is time to upgrade. I believe going to a place where you can hit the new tech is a must. You may find how much new tech improves your game. Also, being fit can make a huge difference.
 
seastrunk said:
I think it depends on the player and their equipment. How old is their equipment? Updating to the newer Technology can definitely help. If you are playing 10 yr old tech, it is time to upgrade. I believe going to a place where you can hit the new tech is a must. You may find how much new tech improves your game. Also, being fit can make a huge difference.
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This. And getting fit for clubs. Way too many over generalizations in the attached article. The game is hard, but tech makes it easier. And no one can fix the choke job putt on the 18th for a 79 with tech.


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I've seen several studies like this. Most indicate in spite of great improvement in equipment, the average guy does not score any better then he did 40 years ago. The equipment is certainly better but I can't argue with stats if it is done right. Clearly the best in the world are benefiting from driver technology.

No data based reason why this would be true but a few thoughts. 1- clubs don't swing themselves 2- courses are longer 3- too much focus by most golfers on the driver and not the putter. I would say the reason I've not made huge improvement in the last 20 years in my swing has not improved enough.
 
New equipment may help a player gain some distance by helping with the amount of distance low on mishits but golf still requires a player to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible and with all the tech out there it’s not reflected in the amateurs golfer and I don’t believe scoring avg hasn’t changed much on the various tours.
 
I believe the biggest advantage of new equipment is that it helps make mishits less penal. Improvement in one's game is much more about correcting game flaws than it is about new and shiny.
 
Many of the current irons are no more forgiving than the Ping Eye 2’s that came out in 1982. Drivers and shafts have gotten better but scoring is still mostly about the short game. 40% of my strokes are with the putter. The fact that my driver is marginally longer and more forgiving than my Ping G2 driver from 15 years ago doesn’t help my scoring more than 1/2 stroke per round.
 
I think too many are not getting properly fit or taking lessons to improve their games. We all enjoy this game in different ways and those that want to have a certain handicap will be more serious about being fitted properly or seeking out a club pro to help with the swing flaws.

I think we tend to forget that the majority of the golfing public is not knee deep in iron lofts, face balance putters, spin numbers off the tee and various covers of a golf ball. A majority go out and play golf without all of the "internet analysis". For them the technology advances have helped enjoy the game more, even if their handicap hasn't improved.
 
The USGA can go fall off a cliff.

Either distance is a problem and making old courses obsolete or golfers are not getting better. The USGA can't decide what it wants and they are part of the problem with golf.
 
my take is this: tech is not currently improved enough to help golfers around the greens. it's better than its been in years past with improvements in wedge sole design, golf balls that spin well into greens, and putters with more forgiveness, but the weekend golfer still lacks the basic skills to minimize the damage around the greens.

drivers are more forgiving. if you don't accept that, you're actively in denial.
irons are more forgiving in almost every category. see above.
the golf ball is more forgiving. see above.

the other thing i wonder is whether course architecture is part of the problem. water hazards, trees and sand traps are visually appealing. and i would think modern courses have a lot more of these design elements than older courses. i may be off base, just my observation.
 
Take Pro Baseball for example, the MLB regulates bats and bat tech and weights, etc. There’s a reason they aren’t allowed to use Aluminum bats in the Pros.

I think it’s only a matter of time before we see restrictions of “hot-ness” for drivers.
 
Buster1 said:
Take Pro Baseball for example, the MLB regulates bats and bat tech and weights, etc. There’s a reason they aren’t allowed to use Aluminum bats in the Pros.

I think it’s only a matter of time before we see restrictions of “hot-ness” for drivers.
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That’s already in place with USGA/R&f. But on hits away from center there is still room to improve.
 
Tech is one of the main reasons why we are getting better and we depend on it. Tech can only do so much, the rest has to fall on the player and his motivation level to improve. If he is satisfied with being a bogey player, than a bogey player he will be.
 
blugold said:
The USGA can go fall off a cliff.

Either distance is a problem and making old courses obsolete or golfers are not getting better. The USGA can't decide what it wants and they are part of the problem with golf.
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This x1000
 
blugold said:
The USGA can go fall off a cliff.

Either distance is a problem and making old courses obsolete or golfers are not getting better. The USGA can't decide what it wants and they are part of the problem with golf.
Click to expand...

Bingo. 100%.
 
I upgraded from 20 year old clubs 3 years ago and Instantly saw a lot of improvement in off center strikes and not being penalized as much.
That being said If you don't work on your game or play smart golf your scores are probably not going to improve.
For me Playing smart means not trying to pull off a hero shot and laying up on occasion.

JMHO
 
Scoring, while all that really matters, is too narrow of a focus.

Because scoring is still very much dependent upon a solid short game, evidence for improvements in driver tech for example will be mitigated some in the score of a player with a poor short game.

For me though, I saw a direct result through tech.

Last year, switching to the Epic, I enjoyed a 50%+ improvement in fairways hit. In fairness, while the club marked serious improvement for me right out of the box, I was also playing more golf than I ever had in my life.

Also, the earlier change to CF-16 irons was met with about a 10% improvement in GIR.

Mack Daddy PM Grind wedges were just the change to cure my bermuda rough woes.

My handicap went down from 6.0 to 3.8 over about three months.

Yes I was playing more but no, my incidents for contacting driver a bit toward the toe did not disappear. My frequency of play did not afford me superior forgiveness from a typical mis-hit. Yet, there was my ball finding yet another fairway.

Same with the irons, very forgiving of toe and low contact. My frequency of play didn't grant me better results with the same contact but to my surprise every time is look up to witness a very acceptable flight from less than stellar contact.

Nothing will substitute for play and practice but when similar contact offers improved results? I have the engineers to thank for that.
 
Longhorngary said:
Yes technology advances in equipment from 1991-2007 saw average USGA Men's handicaps drop from 16.4 to 14.5 almost 2 strokes. However the last 10 years, handicaps have remained basically flat with little to no improvement on average. Have we reached a plateau on just how much the equipment can help a player?

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/a-...ow-much-golfers-have-improved-in-recent-years
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It has always been and always will be 90% Indian, and 10% arrow..........
 
What's interesting is that they are not polling players to find out how many are using new equipment in studies.
Not all golfers keep handicaps.
In fact the majority do not.
 
My opinion: next time you go to the range count how many people are practicing full shots and how many are practicing short game/putting. I believe equipment absolutely helps us and people don’t practice the right things, which directly correlates to an inability to score.


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I think that there is a possibility that the advances in tech have given players a crutch that gives a false sense of security in their games. The old guard of golfers had vastly superior short games to the new breed. There is so much focus on distance and forgiveness these days that getting the ball in the hole or up and down from anywhere is a bit of a lost art.

I would love to take this new tech back to the 90s and put it in the hands of my grandpa and his buddies and see what kind of scores they would shoot. They had little distance and missed a lot of greens by, good lord, could they get up and down from anywhere.
 
I would say yes in terms of stronger lofts and increased MOI on newer equipement.

This might be more in my head and increasing just my confidence level, but I do think the new equipment/tech has helped my overall game a few strokes.
 
I am better in all ways than 10 years ago BUT it doesn't show up unless I putt well, which I have been lately. 6 months ago I was in a major putting funk and pushed every other part of my game and as a result and my HC was 4 strokes higher. At the end of the day, clubs today need maybe a little less precise of a swing since they're a bit more forgiving on misses but you still need to swing them and get the ball in the hole and that's just plain hard to do well consistently.
 
I'm going to do a test to go along the lines of this thread. I have sets of clubs ... way too many to count ... some old, some new. I started playing in the mid '70s so that ought to tell you how old some of them are.
I will play a round with the old set ... everything from blade irons with heavy steel shafts, persimmon woods (might have to find those though) & a circa 1980's ball. I will keep all the stats ... fairways, GIR's, & putts.
Then I will play a round with my current equipment of today. Then I will compare the two rounds. I can bet that the rounds will be very close (to within a few strokes) of each other.

Now I'm not saying that they will both be good rounds ... but they will both be around the same score. Point being is that (at least to me), golf is all about how much you want to get out of it. If you really want to improve, it doesn't matter if you are using the most forgiving club in the world or the straightest muscle back blade with the microscopic sweet spot, you have to practice. And when you think you've practiced enough ... practice some more. That doesn't mean go beating balls at the range either. Practice with a purpose ... practice the short game.
Does equipment make a difference ... absolutely! Especially for the general hackers like the most of us who don't get to play as often as we would like. But would it really make a difference to that player that hits 5,000 balls a day until their hands are sore ... to the player that is trying to improve not just for the Club Championship, but for his livelihood ... not so much. Yes the clubs nowadays are more forgiving but ... Tiger could still go out with a hickory shafted mashie set & kick me up and down the course with my GI irons all day long & twice on Sunday.

Ok I'm off my soapbox ... fire away! :act-up:
 
Longhorngary said:
Yes technology advances in equipment from 1991-2007 saw average USGA Men's handicaps drop from 16.4 to 14.5 almost 2 strokes. However the last 10 years, handicaps have remained basically flat with little to no improvement on average. Have we reached a plateau on just how much the equipment can help a player?

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/a-...ow-much-golfers-have-improved-in-recent-years
Click to expand...

Courses have become harder with length and greater trouble. Balls travel further (straight and right/left). And most importantly, technology has greatly improved, but the ability of a golfer to not fat/thin/slice/hook etc hasn't changed.

To answer the question, I think it's no, not yet. MOI on putters over the last couple years is a great sample. Hollow body irons is another great sample. But, help is subjective.
 
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