Woods Apologists

Hey, Bunt, if you're skying the ball a lot, it means you're releasing too early on your downswing and "scooping" the ball.  I had a problem with that until I learned how to delay my release.  If you look a video of your swing, I'll bet your clubhead is ahead of your hands at impact.  A few lessons with your local pro should do wonders...especially if you already hit a one-iron!  As Lee Trevino once famously said..."Only God and Jack Nicklaus can hit a one-iron!".

Thanks for your well-intentioned advice, but I don't sky the ball, and I don't have a "scooping" motion, I simply have a high launch angle with a lot of spin.  I am a better than scratch golfer who played at a NCAA D-1 level, who has played in several USGA Championships (although admittedly have only made the national cut once).

The 1-iron is a personal choice, when the course and conditions dictate.

As Lee Trevino once famously said..."Only God and Jack Nicklaus can hit a one-iron!".

Actually...  Trevino said "Not even God can hit a 1-iron!".

Here is the full quote from Trevino...  "If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron."

Here is the full quote from Trevino...  "If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron."

It's one of the greatest quotes in golf history.  And Lee should know, He was hit by lightning twice.

I have been very lucky on several occasions.

here Noko, so you don't think I made it up.... Or am telling LIES....

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/mast
ers11/columns/story?columnist=harig_bob&page=110329-RTTMasters

Can you show me where it specifically says that altering courses were introduced to prevent Woods beating Jack's record?

They have done everything to protect Jacks record, Change grooves, added rough at the Masters

Charlotte, how did the bunker on the left side of 18, come to be at Augusta?


Answer: Jack Proofing, it was put in because of Jack's ability to overpower the golf course, and on 18 Jack used to just hammer it down the left side, rendering the 18th obsolete.

I've been quietly following the misdirection of this thread for some time now; and it seems to me, this is a debate about interpretation.  I must agree, if you look at what has been done to the course, one "could" say it was a way to protect records; however, there's been no article written that can blatantly state that as the factual reason behind changing any golf course.  Records may be protected as an indirect result, but I can't believe tat was the major goal when changes began.  Therefore, I, being as empathetic as the next person, can see the justification both ways.


My belief is the changes were brought about for the same reason other courses have also under gone major changes; modern equipment is making golf courses easier as each year goes by.  It used to be when the likes of a Jim Dent and John Daly could hit a golf ball 300+ yards they were the only ones doing it.  Today you have many players routinely doing that all the time.  Now you have the long-drive guys hitting the ball over FIVE HUNDRED yards.  

Trust me, today's golfers aren't doing this through physical training and the honing of a perfect swing.   They're doing this through the sheer use of the modern day equipment.  Golf courses don't stand a chance any more.  Just as Hogan didn't understand how Jack Nicklaus played a game that Hogan had never seen before, Jack now see TOUR players playing a game Jack never saw before, too. 


Comparing the old clubs that old Tom Morris used to what Palmer / Nicklaus once used is like comparing the Palmer equipment to today's equipment.  Technology has brought courses to their knees.  If you can keep your shots down the middle of every hole, there isn't a golf course around that ISN'T HARD  ......   .......    if you can keep it in the middle.


My opinion .. . .. ... ...  This has nothing to do with Woods and Augusta; it has everything to do with equipment and Augusta.  The Nicklaus records also have nothing to do with this.  Golf was DESIGNED based upon old technology.  Golf was not prepared for modern technology.  Records are nothing more than a byproduct of the combination of the two, equipment and courses.

DGM,
  I agree that changes were made in an effort to  preserve the integrity of courses that were being outgunned.   I've no problem with that thought.

   
 But the suggestion that these changes were introduced to  keeps Jack's record intact is bizarre to be. I have never heard one comment to back this up?  And the suggestion that the change in grooves is part of this ploy is  a new one to me. I've never heard this being suggest apart from on here.
  Regarding Tiger-Proofing Augusta...how did making it longer and the greens harder and faster do anything but play into the hands of the longest hitter and finest putter?

  There is no logic to the idea.

  

The changes they members began making did, in fact, play into the hands of the long hitters.  It took just about every hole out of reach for all except the very long hitters; so they toughened-up the course for the average hitters.  Rather than hit driver - 8-iron, they now have to hit driver - 5-iron.... or something like that.  Adding length just added to the pressure of hitting long irons to fast greens for the average hitters; the long hitters still use driver  -  but their lofted clubs hold better. 


  Augusta has it's own set of problems to deal with, let alone, the equipment problems.  If I recall, the course is built in a very shallow bowl which was once an orchard or something.  Being built in a shallow bowl keeps wind to a minimum; therefore, allowing for good scores today.  But the real problem is what's been happening to the trees throughout the course.  All that use of chemical spray around the roughs has had an effect on the lower growing branches of all those trees.  Normal pine trees naturally lose the lower branches as the lower branches lose their needles from lack of sun and old age; therefore, as the pine trees age, the canopy gets higher and higher.  Only the canopy is a problem for golfers anymore, while the bottoms of those same trees afford the golfer clear and open shots to the greens when around them.


What Augusta needs to do is plant new pine trees where things have gotten thinned-out.  Augusta needs to think about what he course looked like 50 years ago and begin to fill it in to what it used to be.   The course doesn't have the real estate to "out-lengthen" modern equipment.  Rather than make the fairways faster allowing the balls to role further, they should be lengthening the fairway grass as well as physically lengthening the holes.  Frankly, the way technology is advancing, every course has seen better days.  It is a course of beauty, but it can't keep up with the equipment.

Just have to throw in my favorite Lee Trevino quote....since y'all were talking about it above.


The story goes that he once was approached by an Am, that played with him in the Wednesday Pro-Am and after their round together he was asked what he thought he should do (to improve his game)...

Trevino paused for a minute and said, "Take two weeks off and quit 

"Take two weeks off and quit 

LOL.....

.....sorry about "Sid the Kid"......gone for the Playoff's.....OUCH.

I haven't been on in several days.   Unlike you Jokodork, I have a life.  I can name many great players that can't stand playing Eurotrash golf.  Kenny Perry for one.  There are many more.  Scott hoch comes to mind.  He called St. Andrews the worst "piece of mess" he'd ever seen.  Sam Snead was said to have disliked playing the British Open.  He was quoted as saying  "Down home, we wouldn't plant bow beets on land like that".  Bobby Jones wasn't too fond of playing Links golf in blustery conditions.  Legend has it that Jones tore up his scorecard and stormed off the course the first time he played the Old Course saying the conditions were not suitable to play the game.    He forced himself to adjust to the conditions and went on the win the Claret Jug there six years later.   

Not everybody loves cow pasture golf.  

LMAO,

  Here is what Hacker said...Tons of world class players despise the British Open rota courses.

  Given he is speaking in the present tense "despise" not "despised" , one might have hoped for a bit more than Kenny Perry!! "Tons of World class players" ...and Hacker comes up with Kenny Perry!!...PRICELESS  Even cutting you a bit of slack regarding modern golf you come up with Hock the Choke. For the first 20 years of his professional career he he played once in The Open....man, that is a wealth of experience. In that sense he was like you Hacker, MYOPIC and narrowminded.

  Hacker ...how about telling us about Ireland, Scotland & the UK??  Also about the courses being brown all year round? And maybe more info on Ian Baker-Finch and his one win?

Hacker,

 Just to add a bit of balance to your constant lies here are a couple of other comments. Oddly enough one from Bobby Jones....but you simply ignored that as it didn't suit your brand of drivel.

"The more I studied the Old Course, the more I loved it; and the more I loved it, the more I studied it."
--Bobby Jones, on St. Andrews

And these words from the great Ben Crenshaw.

"I do not think I could go on living unless I felt that one day I might win the Open Championship at St. Andrews."
---Ben Crenshaw

Want to argue with Jack's words?

"When the British Open is in Scotland, there's something special about it. And when it's at St. Andrews, it's even greater."
--Jack Nicklaus

    Jones, Crenshaw and Nicklaus and you stack up TONS of players with Kenny Perry and Scott Hoch?? LMAO.

I've always loved quotes. Here are a couple more that carry a bit more weight than Perry and Hoch.

Any golfer worth his salt has to cross the sea and try to win the British Open.
 - Jack Nicklaus

To me, the Open is the tournament I would come to if I had to leave a month before and swim over.
 - Lee Trevino

   Yep .....Nicklaus & Trevino V Perry & Hoch.

Jack Nicklaus would gladly trade 10 British Opens for ONE US Open, or one back nine on Sunday at Augusta.  

Any golfer worth his salt has to cross the sea and try to win the British Open.
 - Jack Nicklaus

    I wonder why Jack bothered opening his mouth when Hacker knows more about Jack's thoughts than Jack does?

Jack Nicklaus would gladly trade 10 British Opens for ONE US Open, or one back nine on Sunday at Augusta.

 There again,Hacker believes because Kenny Perry doesn't like Open courses ( no proof of this )  that Tons of World Class players DESPIRE The Open Courses.

     Hacker...I'm thinking you are on the electric soup again?  You admit to drinking 27 beers when you normally golf, so I would guess you are pounding down a case and a half each day. Not too surprising your posts are slobbering gibberish.

You asked me to name some world class players that didn't like the Open, or links courses, or the playing conditions, or the slow greens etc etc etc.  I named Hoch and Perry.  Did I say they were Trevino and Nicklaus?  No I didn't.  But they are indeed world class players that have won 30 Tournaments and 50 Millions dollars playing the game, and the HATE playing over on goat tracks when thay can played the greatest courses and against the best fields, and for the MOST money right here in the good ole' US of A.  

Everyone knows that our National Open was the most important and coveted event in the world to Jack's father and therefore, to Jack.