Should we roll back the golf ball, is square the future of shoe design, and what brand would you NOT let sponsor you? All this and more on episode 42 of No Putts Given.
- 0:52 – Bryson Dechambeau’s impressive drive distances has revitalized the argument: Should we roll back the golf ball?
- 37:44 – If you think the word “SQAIRZ” looks strange, wait ’til you see their shoe. Is square the new shape of golf innovation?
- 47:57 – What brand or product would you NOT let sponsor you?
- 53:56 – Getting Knighted by Sir Nick, and the verdict on square shoe designs
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Chris R
4 years ago
I’ll be the contrarian here. I don’t know that rolling the ball back for everyone or bifurcating the ball is the answer here, but I also don’t think allowing nearly every great venue to become obsolete is the right answer either. Other sports have modified their game when it became less interesting (yes, I think smash and wedge is boring to watch). Basketball added the 3 point line in part because the game got boring with everyone playing above and close to the rim. A bombed drive on TV isn’t really observable. The viewer only knows it’s long because the announcers tell you how long it was, or you can sort of see it with shot tracer. The shots that you can really see on TV are the shaped irons, clever bump and runs, or sliding putts. I watch pro golf to see the venues as much as the tournament; it makes me think about how I would play the course.. And most important in that is observing how the players used to take on the risk reward calculation that most of them now can overpower. It would be great if MGS brought on a couple course designers for their opinion. I heard Bill Coore on another pod talk about how he shortened a course and cut down the rough for a major just so the pros would be worried about smashing one through the fairway into trouble; so there are some options besides just long rough to keep a course relevant. But… if the discussion does come back to the ball, I would think that there’s a way to engineer a golf ball to stop performing well if over compressed. So for example once the swing speed exceeds 110 MPH, make sure that there are seriously diminishing marginal returns and loss of control with that added speed/compression. Kinda like hitting the cover off the baseball..
I enjoy listening to the podcast, and rarely wish I could call in and comment; but on this topic… I want to keep seeing todays golfers take on the classic courses as well as new ones.