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Yardages vrs score - long hitters vrs short hitters.

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Garland Bayley:

--- Quote from: Thomas Dai on April 12, 2013, 11:41:24 AM ---...

Thinking outside the box never hurts.
...

--- End quote ---

It does when you start talking about tightening courses. That is actually in the USGA box thinking for a long time.

Thomas Dai:
GJB,

My use of the 8,500 yds you mentioned was not meant as a criticism, more as illustrative.

Now that you've got Dustin Johnson fizzing it 357 yds over the trees on the corner of the 13th at ANGC I reckon the figure is probably more like 10,000 yds for the modern day super-fit athletic gym-junky giant size player who eats the most appropriate food, drinks the most appropriate fluid, travels in a way that is less tiring, is generally pampered and uses a technology backed custom fit ball and clubs.

All the best.

Jason Thurman:

--- Quote from: Thomas Dai on April 12, 2013, 02:01:47 PM ---Now that you've got Dustin Johnson fizzing it 357 yds over the trees on the corner of the 13th at ANGC I reckon the figure is probably more like 10,000 yds for the modern day super-fit athletic gym-junky giant size player who eats the most appropriate food, drinks the most appropriate fluid, travels in a way that is less tiring, is generally pampered and uses a technology backed custom fit ball and clubs.
--- End quote ---

So he works his ass off and lives a lifestyle based around exceling at his profession but he's "generally pampered"? How do you rationalize those two points of view?

Dustin Johnson is a freak athlete, not much different than Lebron James or Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps in the way that he's built perfectly for the sport he plays. He also trains ferociously. Why you want to penalize him for that by making him play a course that results in him hitting the same clubs you hit is beyond me.

Jud_T:

--- Quote from: Jason Thurman on April 12, 2013, 02:13:16 PM ---
--- Quote from: Thomas Dai on April 12, 2013, 02:01:47 PM ---Now that you've got Dustin Johnson fizzing it 357 yds over the trees on the corner of the 13th at ANGC I reckon the figure is probably more like 10,000 yds for the modern day super-fit athletic gym-junky giant size player who eats the most appropriate food, drinks the most appropriate fluid, travels in a way that is less tiring, is generally pampered and uses a technology backed custom fit ball and clubs.
--- End quote ---

So he works his ass off and lives a lifestyle based around exceling at his profession but he's "generally pampered"? How do you rationalize those two points of view?

Dustin Johnson is a freak athlete, not much different than Lebron James or Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps in the way that he's built perfectly for the sport he plays. He also trains ferociously. Why you want to penalize him for that by making him play a course that results in him hitting the same clubs you hit is beyond me.

Jason,

The difference is that when Lebron comes along and can elevate 6" higher above the rim, he faces the next generation of player, the best of whom can elevate 6" higher to defend him.  In golf, either we lengthen the courses ad infinitum, and suffer all the attendant knock-on effects that come with that, or we essentially alter the very nature of the game.  We might as well just get the top 10 ReMax Long Drive guys and get 'em to work on their chipping and putting a bit.  Either that or make golf a contact sport.


--- End quote ---

Jason Thurman:
Jud, professionals at every level play a different game from the rest of us. The pickup games I play at my local gym are nothing like an NBA game. Hell, Division 1 college games are nothing like an NBA game. The athleticism and physicality combined with the modern game's focus on statistical efficiency creates a "game with which I am unfamiliar."

There's no reason to lengthen courses ad infinitum if we just accept that the world's best play a game with which we are unfamiliar. The same ego that tells handicap golfers that they deserve a chance to reach every hole in regulation is the ego that says we need to make the big boys play from 7800 or 8100 or 8500 yards. If we all just got over the fact that we don't hit it as far as Dustin Johnson and he consequently gets to hit shorter clubs than us, then we'd have no reason to build courses longer than 7200 yards. We could just accept that he's going to hit short irons and move on to the part where we marvel at his dedication to fitness, strength, flexibility, and the power that results.

We talk a lot about "giving these guys a thorough test," but that's a load of crap. A 470 yard par 4 is a thorough test, and if you can attack it with a 350 yard drive followed by a wedge then you've accomplished something with just as high a degree of difficulty as hitting a 270 yard drive followed by a 5 iron. What we really want is to feel better about ourselves when we have to pull a long iron every now and then. Sorry, but you and I just aren't as good as the pros. They're always going to crush it and shoot low scores. Who gives a crap if they don't have to hit a 3 iron to do it? It's much harder to do what Dustin Johnson does than it is to hit a solid long iron shot, especially in 2013 when long irons are really just high MOI cannons with gigantic sweet spots.

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