77 - Second Monday Rant - The Arms Race…

If you look through golf magazines they give a disproportionate amount of column inches to drivers in my opinion. If for example Callaway put a new groove in the sole of their latest driver it is front-page stuff with a comment in the editors piece and a whole spread hastily assembled showing why this groove will revolutionise your game. Tosh.

I’m convinced that most of the ‘developments’ dreamt up by the equipment manufacturers make absolutely no difference whatsoever to the average muni-hacker. The only reason there is a change is to convince us mugs to part with £250 a year for a club that, on the whole, performs exactly the same as the one we already have. There are exceptions to this rule though.

Nike has recently brought out the STR8-FIT adjustable driver that can be configured eight different ways to force the ball to hook or slice (below). Not to be out done in the driver arms race, TaylorMade have released the all new R9 which has movable weights and an adjustable shaft which, like the Nike club, forces the ball to bend one way or the other from the tee.

I’m all for anything that makes golf easier but where do we draw the line? With these drivers it is possible to hit the ball straighter and further despite not actually being a better player.

Now 28ers can smash the ball 250 yards up the fairway as straight as a die after picking up the game just a few months before. Those with handicaps in the teens unwilling to spend a fortune on the new drivers will struggle to keep up off the tee.

I know that there is more to golf than driving but mastering that first shot is one of the fundamentals of the game. The new breed of adjustable clubs makes the tee shot that bit easier thus giving the advantage to people willing to shell out the sort of money usually used to buy a set of irons on just one driver. Why not go the whole hog and pay someone to hit the ball for you?

Surely it would be better to spend the £300 (the price of the STR8-FIT and R9) on lessons from a pro to help hit the ball properly rather than just go out and buy the latest technological gimmick? For that kind of cash the pro would be able to look at not only your driving but your iron shots, short game and putting too. To me that is a much better use of the cash but the problem is that we live in a society where shortcuts, workarounds and quick fixes are the norm.

Soon we won’t even play golf, we’ll simply reach for the Wii controller and hit perfect shot after perfect shot. No doubt Nike and TaylorMade will then come up with a £300 controller incorporating ‘revolutionary technology’ that will allow us to undo the last shot until we are happy. Is that really progress?