This continues a new category of posts: Guest columns where friends and readers share how technology is reshaping their hobby – basket weaving, rugby – whatever.
This time it is Jim Rafferty, my colleague from PwC, then IBM, now an executive recruiter. He writes about chasing that frustrating little ball around miles and miles of grass.
“Tiger Woods hasn’t mastered the game. That’s his own comment, not mine. Golf is easy and fun to play, but it is difficult to master. Often the game seems to play with us rather than the other way round. Exactly the challenge technology needs! Enough of a challenge for the whizzes at MIT to organize golf technology conferences.
Satellite communications, the internet, web sites, PDAs, 3D graphics have all made the game easier to play and helped shorten the time it takes to play and watch and understand the game.
Tiger and hackers like me and everyone in between has benefited – let me explain
Golf Equipment.
Ever place a ball on a sand tee? Still do in some places in Europe and the Middle East (for good reason in that part of the world). We have evolved from sand tees to wooden tees, to tall tees, to organic tees to plastic tees with cup tops that guarantee the ball will go further. Next they’ll make the tee part of the ball!
Ever swing a Hickory shafted club with a real leather grip and hand forged metal head? No way the ball could possibly go straight (sometimes it did not go in the air) and yet many great and legendary players used those clubs and did well. Today, we have clubs that correct every swing flaw imaginable and some that may even help Charles Barkley with his swing.
Golf shoes today have more tread designs than tires. Some golf shoes pump-up, some tighten the laces from the rear of the shoe, some shoes are for slicers, some for hookers, some for flat courses, still others for hillier courses. What happened to plain sneakers? Plastic or rubber spikes replaced the metal spiked golf shoes and with it, arguably, helped the Green Superintendent maintain the course better.
Golf bags have come an equally long way - from a leather bag that might hold 6-7 Clubs and 2-3 balls to Caddy Shack bags with direction finders and radios to the those with solar panels which could charge your cell phone, should you run out of that juice first!
The ball technology is incredible. We went from The Wooden ball of 1590 to the Feathery to a Gutta Percha to the synthetic cores of today. Then you have dimpled/non dimpled, spin control left, spin control right – you need an elaborate inventory system just to keep track of golf balls.
We thought we had it all when laser technology afforded courses with the ability to very accurately measure all distances from a specific point. The courses placed the measurements on sprinkler heads or on plaques imbedded in the ground. Now we have GPS Golf for even more precise distances. Most of us do not score better, but we are having more fun trying – and the technology has made the measurement process so much quicker.
Training, Food and Medicine.
Personally, this area has helped me enormously. Not that Clubs and Balls and Shoes haven’t, but a proper exercise program to increase swing speed, stamina, stability, balance, flexibility have kept me in the game. PowerBars on the course have taken the place of cookies (well, most of the time) and the sugar highs.
Elliptical machines used for indoor cardio in winter months have helped our knees as opposed to the constant pounding of tread mills. The physical therapist’s ability to get us back in the game after an injury is simply amazing. Ibuprofen has eliminated inflammations of our elbows and shoulders due to faulty swings or the occasional lifting of a beer or two :)
The Courses
I remember playing in the LIGA events on the Black and Green courses in Bethpage State Park. While the Black will host the US Open (again) this year, the Green is supposed to be designed for the novice. Yeah right!
John Feinstein’s “Open: Inside The Ropes at Bethpage Black“ is a great work that explained in detail what it took to convert this public golf course to US Open golf quality in a very short period of time. Without technology and the understanding of how to use the technology this would never have happened.
Quite an advance from the past - “guess we can place this bunker here, and move this stream to circle the fairway at this spot, and use this insecticide to kill the spores on #6 green (but do not lick your ball to clean it, or you will have a new wart in the middle of your forehead) and use zoisia grass in June and use Sherwin-Williams paint on this fairway and green”
Golf is also one of the most environmentally correct games – hey, show me a Greener sport:)
Seriously, schools like Penn State, Purdue, University of Wisconsin, University of Nebraska and University of Florida have helped graduate many Golf Course Superintendents. Their curriculum includes plant physiology, plant pathology and entomology. Sorry, Bill Murray’s Carl would not qualify :)
Technology has even helped grand old Augusta. Did you know about the underground heating and cooling coils on several of the greens? Without them there would be significant playability concerns and we would not have the, Sunday afternoon oohs and aahs as the balls roll off of the back of the green or come up short and roll back off the green.
3D Graphics:
In the past, the best you could do was walk and play and walk and play and repeat again to get a feel for the course. Today, high-def TV technology in concert with enhanced 3D graphics have made the topology and topography of golf courses easier to visualize. It has helped golfers get a better view of the fairways and greens and it has made explaining, viewing and playing the game easier.
Talking of TV, I would be remiss to not mention the huge payback the large technology outsourcer, Accenture has seen from its sponsorship of Tiger over the last few years.
This piece could go on and on - but suffice to say, the game continues to challenge in spite of all the technology. As Gardner Dickinson said “They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that.”
Don't forget about shoes. Brands like Adidas and Nike are now making golf shoes so comfortable that I don't even notice I walked 18 holes!
Posted by: Sarah | October 13, 2009 at 04:32 PM
Unfortunately, with all the advancements in golf equipment the average golfers handicap has not improved during the last 30 years or so. Apart from flexibility, fitness, and proper swing mechanics, golf always come down to how well you manage the mental game of golf.
Posted by: Simple Golf Swing | February 17, 2010 at 12:50 PM