Stuck in a divot: Golfers have stagnated despite tech changes

During the past 35 years, golfers have moved from persimmon drivers to large (460cc) titanium drivers, and from rubber-wound balata balls to Pro v-1 and similar balls. In the meantime the availability of e-instruction on the Internet and smartphones has zoomed, golf-specific workouts at local gyms have mushroomed and the thousands of golf magazines and books are better than they’ve ever been.
There is no comparison between how much better the top-brand golf clubs (in total) are today than they were even 10 years ago. We don’t need to look at sprinkler heads or walk-off yards every time, since we all (or should) use laser scopes and GPS units and watches. Match those advancements and with many professional personal club fitting stores, and we realize just how much the technology in golf has exploded in the past three decades. The only thing that hasn’t improved is the average recreational golfer’s game. How can that be?

I have thought about this for some time and decided it’s a puzzle. No, it’s a mystery. A puzzle has a possible solution. The notion that the two-rounds-a-month guy or gal who forks over $50 at the counter hasn’t graduated out of golf third grade in 30 years is truly a mystery. I’ve asked a lot of very knowledgeable folks in golf to tell me what’s going on, and nobody really knows.

One possible factor is the golf courses themselves. I’ve been playing golf for over 66 years and I’ve found a vast difference in golf courses that we play today compared to the golf courses we played decades ago. For one thing, modern designers (and re-makers), like Tom Fazio, Gil Hanse and Jack Nicklaus, lay out their golf courses with great respect to the land, but also great respect for the defense of par, and subsequently incorporate insidious hazards, bunkers and visual illusions to disturb and unnerve the golfer. The greens are tougher and faster, there are more treacherous sand bunkers, penalty native areas, intimidating water hazards and more gimmicks to contend with.

Some golf guru once said that the most important technological breakthrough 80 years ago was the power lawnmower, and I believe it. Greens are much faster and trickier today than ages ago, and they’re maintained better. Still, it’s a harder game now.

Although I didn’t approach the “average golfer” dilemma with the surgical fervor of a detailed research dissertation, I have arrived at some considered speculation. I think the mischief begins with how folks take up the game to begin with. In my case, I learned golf from my father and my grandfather. As an aside, my dad was an accomplished golfer who once made a hole-in-one on a 250 yard par-4 hole in Cleveland in 1934, and my grandfather won many large trophies by winning Cleveland golf tournaments, which stand presently in my living room bar area. Both were always tinkering with swing ideas.

I still have a shoe box full of newspaper clippings of golf tips from the 40s and 50s. We played munis back when I was a kid that would be considered dog tracks by today’s standards. When I was 12, I caddied at one of the plushest country clubs in Cleveland and I learned how a golf course should look, and how golfers should behave. At 13, I knew how a golf swing should and shouldn’t look. Over recent years, fewer and fewer folks who take up golf start out learning the game from an elder or a mentor. One PGA teaching pro I know made this observation: “Hardly any recreational golfers start out learning golf from the ground up, around the putting green. Hardly any folks set up personal improvement program that involves goals, practice, lessons and structure.” Perhaps it has to do with the difference between those who see golf as a competitive sport, and those who view it as a passing fancy. Should we strive for mastery, like the Scots? Or should we just hit, giggle and have fun?

As for “differences” in golfers, I found a telling quip in the latest issue of Golf Digest by a longtime resort looper: “I can tell within two shots if you’re a player or a hacker.” Be a player.

Dr. Charlie Blanchard is a licensed psychologist specializing in sports and leadership. Contact him at docblanchard71@gmail.com.