"For those who love the game."

About Preserve Golf Welcome to PreserveGolf.com, a website for those who love the classic game of golf. The purpose of this site is to provide a safe forum for opinions relating to the direction that the game of golf should take.  Hence, PreserveGolf.com. Of course, the primary issue at this point is the rapid technological advances that are allowing several PGA Tour players to average over 300 per tee shot (Click here for recent distance statistics, then click on archived years going all the way back to 1980 to compare). This could be due to increased athletic prowess in some cases. However, there is great evidence that the primary cause of this distance explosion is the evolution of golf equipment. With the game changing so rapidly, one is led to ask, what is next, a lighter, stronger metal that can allow the average Tour player to hit the ball 350 yards without much effort? Classic courses have become "driver and a wedge" courses for many pros. Back in 2001, Jack Nicklaus pointed out that before Augusta National was lengthened, his youngest son Michael had hit a pitching wedge or less on half of the 10 par 4's in a round there.  He also called St. Andrews a joke because of how far players were hitting their tee shots, which was taking most of the hazards and bunkers out of play. Nicklaus, who has called for a shorter flying golf ball for many years, was upset that the only solution appeared to be to lengthen Augusta. Driver heads have gotten even larger since then. Like Nicklaus, some believe ball flight limits should be rolled back. Others look more to the clubs.  Our position is that the best solution is to first ban the use of the lighter titanium for golf clubs.  These are complex and sensitive issues, probably with a wide range of opinions and points of view. Wherever you stand, you have to agree that it is something that should be discussed.  Golf's governing bodies (GB's, hereafter), and even players, appear to be afraid to stand up to club and ball makers out of a fear of financial repercussions. This could also be true for the major golf publications, which cash in on the average golfer's quest for more distance with countless advertisements promising as much.  You probably won't see any very serious challenges to the direction technology is taking the game from these publications.  Hopefully, the GB's have not waited too long to really do something. It has been said that those who are critical of the technology should use hickory shafts themselves. Such a statement is hopefully just a playful barb, and not a serious argument. If so, it is a flimsy straw man that totally misses the point of what those who want to address the issue are really saying. The question of concern is how to level the playing field for everyone. The question is also what are we going to let the game of golf become in the future. It seems like common sense that everyone should basically have equipment that can do the same thing. Granted, this is a very difficult goal to achieve because of the freedom that has traditionally allowed players to find and tinker with their own equipment. However, this could still be done with Tour-issued equipment, but within parameters.  Your help is needed to make this website the best it can be. Your submissions are welcomed and your views will be placed on-line if possible (it is best if you e-mail your submissions). We don't claim to have all the answers about the direction that golf should take.  But, what was wrong with the game that Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino played in the 1970's? Why does the ball need to go any further?   Should we roll back to genuine persimmon woods and metal shafts with new approval standards policed by the GB's?  Should we have an official Tour-issued ball like the other major professional sports?  Should different standards be applied to professionals and amateurs?  A lot of questions to address.  It seems that at the very least, the advances should be frozen and ball flights restricted. The GB's have appeared to address these problems and claim to be trying to thwart super clubs and super balls from taking over the game. Savvy equipment manufacturers and good ol'  fashioned  ingenuity, however, seem to unbeatable foes for the GB's.  They will always figure out a way to make the ball fly further. It is fun to hit the ball far. But enough is enough.  As Ben Crenshaw has pointed out, this is fundamentally changing the game. Crenshaw says he is hitting the ball about the same distance he did when he was in his prime, and added that it is not supposed to be that way as a player ages.  They should hit it shorter, he said.  There are examples of older pros who are hitting further than they ever have (Tom Purtzer is averaging 299 yards on the senior Champions Tour Click Here). Look no further for the primary reason so many players in their 40's won on the PGA Tour in 2003.  It appears that they figured out how to use the technology like the youngsters already had. The space-age clubs always wind up in the hands of touring pros, who really know how to use them to their advantage.   Many of the game's top players, including the probably the two greatest of all time, have voiced concern over the distances that players are hitting the ball.  Critics of what technology is doing to the game have included Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw and Nick Price. Even Tiger Woods has called for COR testing for spring like effects. There are most certainly others. With your help, we hope to find out others as time goes on.  We also hope that players are not selling out to their sponsors on this critical issue to the detriment of the game. Players, this is the forum to express your opinions and get them on the record. We will publish all opinions of touring professionals, and as many other opinions as we can. We can even protect a player's identity if so desired.  We agree with USGA Technical Director Dick Rugge that the USGA's mission is not to preserve golf like a "museum piece."  However, we feel that it should be preserved by getting a better rein on technology while we can, similar to what baseball did with the aluminum bats years ago. Was the game of baseball fundamentally being preserved when these decisions were made? We believe so. Such concerns are the mission of the USGA and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, golf's GB's.  Rugge, who was responsible for the development of new products at TaylorMade for 11 years before coming to the USGA, may have misspoken.  Technology has made it so that it in and of itself, over-emphasis can be placed on one facet of the game, almost overnight. This overemphasis can dramatically change what the game has been historically. It ought not be.  For the full opinion of PreserveGolf.com, please click here.

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