Time to rein in the game

Fears that ever-improving technology is on the verge of wrecking the traditional fabric of the game of golf are being borne out by events of the new year.

With many fine old courses already devalued, or even rendered obsolete, by the advances in equipment, it has become imperative that officials of the Royal & Ancient and the United States Golf Association take strong action to “keep the game in bounds.”

Essentially the problem is that golfers are hitting the ball so much further with clubs and balls that limit the effect of faulty striking that ever lower scores are being achieved – this in spite of enormous advances in the type of challenges golf course architects can lay before players.

Added to this there is also the influence of Tiger Woods – a factor that makes it doubly ironic that he has not played a part in the recent assault on previously unchallenged frontiers.

Improved equipment is one thing, but there can be little doubt that Woods has altered perceptions of just what is achievable. As Tom Watson said; Woods has raised the bar - but that does not alter the fact that equipment that skirts the border of illegality – or simply breaches it – could severely damage the game as we know it.

Recent results show that things are getting out of hand and the only plausible explanation is that it must be the equipment – not just forgiving titanium drivers but balls that perform so remarkably that one senses an embarrassment on the part of the professionals using them.

These are some of the extraordinary achievements so far this year: ● Mark Calcavecchia returned a total of 256 to win the Phoenix Open in Arizona to break a record that had stood since 1955 when Mike Souchak won the Texas Open with a score of 257. Souchak’s tally however was set on a new course, that was short by today’s standards, with little rough, and fairways baked stone- hard during a drought. Players were also allowed to place the ball whereas Calcavecchia’s scores of 65 60 64 67 were achieved on a modern course primed to tournament conditions.

At the age of 40 Calcavecchia, the 1989 British Open champion, also broke the record for scoring the most birdies – 32 – in a single tournament and beat Tiger Woods by 15 strokes.

● At the 90-hole Bob Hope Classic the little known Joe Durant, a 36-year-old from Florida who had won just once in 132 previous PGA Tour starts, won with a PGA Tour record total of 36-under-par 324. Durant’s red-hot form enabled him to get the furthest under par of any player in Tour history.

Tom Kite had set the old 90-hole mark at the 1993 Hope Classic with a winning total of 35 under par.

● The Nissan Open at the famous Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles produced the largest play-off in PGA Tour history with six players going to extra holes to decide the winner – a sure sign that more players are playing better. In the end Australian Robert Allenby triumphed over Toshi Izawa, Brandel Chamblee, Bob Tway, Jeff Sluman and Dennis Paulson.

● Annika Sörenstam recently became the first player to shoot a 59 in an LPGA tournament when she carded an incredible 13 birdies in the second round of the Standard Ping Register event over the Moon Valley CC course in Phoenix, Arizona. Her round included 13 birdies – including eight in succession from the first – and no errors as she re-wrote the LPGA’s record book by claiming every mark over one or two rounds.

The 59 by Sörenstam, the 30-year-old Swede who is considered one of the best woman players of all time, was two shots better than the old 18-hole record of 61 she shared with Karrie Webb and Se Ri Pak.

● Al Geiberger was the first to shoot 59 on the men’s PGA Tour, but his feat has recently been matched by Chip Beck and David Duval – with the latter’s score over the difficult PGA West (Palmer course) at La Quinta, California during the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic held up as one of the best rounds ever as it was achieved over what was previously considered to be a difficult course.

● In a qualifying round for last year’s US Open Japan’s Shigeki Maruyama carded a 13-par 58; the lowest number recorded in an official event although not recognised as a PGA Tour record.

On the seniors tour Larry Nelson shot a 12-under-par 58 in the pro-am of the 2000 Kroger Senior Classic and David Gossett fired a 59 in the fourth round of the 2000 PGA Tour national qualifying tournament.

Notah Begay and Doug Dunakey have recorded 59s on the BUY.COM Tour.

● The phenomenon of ever lower scoring is also evident in local amateur golf where recently Richard Sterne returned an exceptional total of 266 after rounds of 64 68 67 67 over the Oppenheimer Park course in Welkom to smash the SA Amateur record that had stood since 1994 by 11 strokes.

In the same Klipdrift SA Amateur Dean Lambert had opened the tournament with rounds of 62 67 to win the Proudfoot Trophy and erase a record of the great Bobby Locke’s that had stood since 1935.

Small wonder the world’s greatest player, Jack Nicklaus, has called for the velocity of modern balls to be reined in and for authorities to be more strict on curbing design innovations to preserve the integrity of the game’s traditions.

Players such as Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson and Nick Price are concerned that better equipment is having the effect of trivialising the human skill element and making it possible for less accomplished players to be competitive.

Although this is not yet manifest in the Majors – thanks to Woods winning three out of four last year – it is a phenomenon that has to be addressed; especially as the escalating price of real estate surely dictates that the game of golf should be played on smaller, simpler courses rather than on vast man-made monstrosities made possible only through massive expense, earth moving equipment and the use of buggies so players can ride rather than walk.