"DVD of the 2007 Masters could, and should, be marketed as a 100% guaranteed cure for insomnia."

Sunday on The Scotsman's Scotland on Sunday's John Huggan notices a trend since 1997: majors gone awry. Seven "dodgy" majors to be exact. Which he revisits in detail.

Ever since the greatest golfer the world has seen annexed his first major title at Augusta in 1997 - blitzing the field by 12 strokes and wedging seemingly every approach on to what used to be distant greens - those in charge of the four most important events seem to have engaged in an unofficial contest to host the daftest Grand Slam event in history.

Unofficially at least, they call it "Tiger-proofing". I call it golf's so-called administrators attempting to disguise their incompetence over the shameful non-regulation of the modern ball.

You know I've suggested it many times, but Huggan gets the credit for actually coming out and saying it.

And bad news for the "so-called administrators." More and more people are making the connection between extreme setups and faulty equipment regulation. And that's before I they even hear me ramble on!

Most were consciously ruined in order to deflect attention away from the men who were 'asleep at the wheel', when they should have been paying closer attention to the dangerous and unlit technological road that golf was travelling. The rest were merely the playthings of those who take a one-dimensional delight in watching the best players suffer.

And so, golf at the very highest level is today too often a pedestrian and penal game designed to punish even the slightest indiscretion. Forget the spectacular and interesting prospect of watching a skilled practitioner attempt a risky recovery shot. They are long gone. Veer from the increasingly straight and narrow fairways, and the only option available is more than likely the chip back into play: penalty one stroke.

How tedious. Tennis anyone?

Comments

[Bob G.]

Thank you John Huggan for telling the truth.

[Seasoned Observed]

The article doesn't tell us anything we already didn't know.

[Hawkeye]

Seasoned Observed, we may already know it, but there are several people with lots of influence in the game who don't know it, and they need to know that we know it... whatever, it's great that this site has an established, albeit unofficial, mouthpiece into the mainstream press. Heck, I even thought I heard one of my own sentences from a previous comment during Huggans' "debate" with Ken Schofield on the Masters last week! Keep it up, Huggy!

[NRH]

Wow, strong (paraphrased) words from DL3 for a couple of guys that have won as many majors as he has.

Of course Huggan is correct about the ball, this more wouldn't have been written if Tiger had won. "Forget the spectacular and interesting prospect of watching a skilled practitioner attempt a risky recovery shot. They are long gone." Tiger apologizes for rinsing his ball on 15; funny how he still made par from the same distance that a lay-up would have given him a birdie.

Lawrie, Micheel, Curtis, Hamilton, Beem and Johnson aren't world beaters, but in the ten years prior to Tiger's 97 Masters the majors gave us Sluman, Finch, Grady, Brooks, Jones, Simpson and Mize. They also gave us Couples, Azinger, Elkington, Pavin, Kite, Woosnam, Calc and Lehman. Interesting how time influences the collective conscience when it comes to assigning merit.

Oh, and John, Norman's trouble on 17 happened during the second round and (even though he did get hosed), it was more than a yard off the fairway. Despite his triple, only four players posted a lower score that day.

A real "Tiger proofed" course levels the field by playing short, hard and fast where shot-making, thinking and discipline are rewarded. We have to go way back in time, all the way to July of 2006 at Hoylake to remember when we saw such a display of talent. There weren't any trees, but the guy who won hit a lot of irons of the tee.

[chico]

Has any pro, just for the heck of it, played Augusta, or some other major venue, with an old Titleist wound balata ball? I saw a "playing lessons from the pros" with Mark O'Meara where he hit a persimmon driver off one tee. Of course he couldn't believe he used to use such a club.
I also saw a highlights show of John Daly's PGA win at Crooked Stick (?) where he was routinely hitting 300 yd drives with what I assume was the "old" ball.

Just wonderining..

[adam]

Re Chico's question....Didn't Geoff Ogilvy do something similar recently?

[Smolmania]

That's an interesting question about which ball JD used at Crooked Stick. Since he clearly doesn't care much about which ball he uses (the LOCO?), is it possible that he was not using the Titleist standard of the day, and was using one of the 3-piece predecessors being made in his day? Maybe Hawkeye or 4 Putt can dig into their way-back machine and let us know?