rcade - I see your point, and to a degree I agree with you - I don't think having the pros playing with inferior equipment compared to the amateurs is the way forward - if it were up to me, the ball would be slowed down for everyone. I'm not quite old enough to remember the details of what happened with small balls and big balls in the 70's, but I do know that things moved from a situation of people being able to chose which one they wanted to play, to tournaments stipulating which ball would be used that week, to the whole game adopting the bigger ball and making the smaller one illegal. What I can envisage happening is something similar to that - rather than a return to the gutta percha (can you imagine the mess if you tried hitting one of those bad boys with a titanium headed driver that looked as though it had been made by Fisher Price?). I liked the quote at the end of the article - I want to watch people who have mastered the use of the equipment, rather than invented something new to solve the problem. I tune in to see people struggle, and largely to see them fail - that's what makes it special when someone succeeds - I don't tune in to see birdies and eagles. Mind you, I suppose I should concede that my arguments are somewhat paradoxical - for example, I wouldn't dream of suggesting that athletes should revert to running on gravel tracks in heavy shoes. I suppose I'm just a traditionalist and I don't like to see a wonderful old course having to be tricked up to make it a challenge for the pros. I've been lucky enough to play Prestwick, where the first ever Open championship was played - it's a good test of golf, and a beautiful place to play, but you couldn't have a professional tournament there now - which is a shame as far as I'm concerned.
I don't believe in limiting techonology. Make the balls go farther, use giant tennis racquets, break out the aluminum bats! Obliterate all records so Sportscenter doesn't have to talk for an hour about the lateset BB homerun.
