Equipment
Forum Thread of the Day: “Courses that are now obsolete on Tour due to power in the game?”
Today’s Forum Thread of the Day comes from Titleist99 who asks WRXers if they feel some golf courses are now obsolete on Tour due to the ever-growing power element in the game. Some of our members list tracks which they think will struggle to host majors again, while others explain why they feel every famous course still has its place on the calendar.
Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.
- oikos1: “The courses aren’t obsolete because most fans enjoy seeing a course overpowered. Golf traditionalists may not like it but just look at other sports today. Sure, a no-no, once it gets to the 7th becomes interesting, but most fans want to see homers and runs scored. Same in basketball, no one wants a pro game ending at 60-54 and football clearly is shooting for high scoring passing affairs. The majority of golf fans just don’t want to watch pro’s grind it out every week. They want to cheer for birdies and eagles. They want to see if the impossible is possible, the potential for crazy good. Bring on the 54 in golf! So no, golf courses aren’t becoming obsolete. PGA Tour attendance has been on the rise the last three years. If anything, they are looking at ways to make the events bigger and will seek venues that allow for just that.”
- LICC: “Some former Majors courses that are now too short for the majors: St. Louis, Canterbury, Northwood, Prestwick, Myopia, Five Farms, Wannamoisett, Chicago Golf Club.”
- Obee: “The problem with the shorter courses is that the Tour players don’t like having driver taken out of their hands. And that’s really all it is. They get ‘bored.’I get it; it does take away a large part of the game. But I would love to see them play more short courses were drivers taken out of their hands on a good number of holes. But as far as ‘obsolete’ goes. None of the courses are obsolete. They are just different.”
- NJpatbee: “Course design and not just length add to the difficulty of a course. Pine Valley will never host a pro tournament because of their inability to handle the crowds; I would speculate that even the regular tees would be a challenge for the PGA Tour pros. The Championship Tees would be a bear. Now, I have never played there, but I am available if any member wishes to invite me!”
- Titleist99: “PGA TOUR might want to add a little rough to protect our classic courses..”
Entire Thread: “Courses that are now obsolete on tour due to power in the game?”
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- Adam Scott what’s in the bag accurate as of the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 6 TX
Driver: TaylorMade BRNR (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 7 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees), TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 9 X, Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 9 X
7-wood: TaylorMade Stealth (21 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI Black 9 X
Irons: Srixon ZX Mk II (3), Srixon ZX5 Mk II (4), Srixon ZX7 Mk II (5), Srixon Z-Forged II (6-9)
Shafts: Graphite Design Tour AD DI Hybrid 105 X (3), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (50-12F, 54-08M), SM9 (LW), WedgeWorks (LW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-54), S400 (LW)
Putter: L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 Proto
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
See the rest of Adam Scott’s WITB in the forums.
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Driver: TaylorMade Qi 10 (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K White 70 TX
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi 10 Tour (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 80 TX
Irons: TaylorMade P790 (3), TaylorMade P7MC (4-6), and TaylorMade P730 (7-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (50-09SB, 54-11SB, 58-08LB)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade TP Reserve Juno
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
Check out more in-hand photos of Pierceson Coody’s WITB here.
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Ben Griffin might be a little too young to remember some of the iconic Maxfli golf balls that won on tour, but that isn’t stopping him from putting the newest Tour X ball from the brand in play. Today, Maxfli and Griffin announced an exclusive partnership that will see the PGA Tour player using the company’s four-piece golf ball.
While Griffin might be the first PGA Tour player to put a new Maxfli golf ball in play, he isn’t the first profesional golfer to do so. Lexi Thompson has been playing the Maxfli Tour golf ball on the LPGA Tour since the beginning of the 2024.
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We caught up with Ben at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas this week to ask him about the new ball switch.
“I was able to finally get my hands on some and try it and immediately I saw faster ball speed with the driver, which is always something every golfer wants to see.
“Then I had to test a lot around the greens and test irons, test spins, test everything like that. Basically, I came to the conclusion that I thought this was probably one of the best golf balls for my game.
“And so I decided to make it official and partner with them and very excited to help kind of launch this golf ball and see where it takes us.”
Griffin’s ball of choice is the Maxfli Tour X, a four-piece golf ball that is made for highly skilled players that want consistent distance off the driver and spin around the green. An updated core design helps add the ball speed that Griffin mentioned and two ionomer mantle layers separate low spin driver shots from higher spin iron and wedge shots. Maxfli uses Center Of center-of-gravity balancing to ensure each ball has consistent flight in the air and roll on the green. Like all golf balls on tour, the Tour X features a cast urethane cover for maximum performance, and it has a tetrahedron dimple pattern to enhance aerodynamics.
It is exciting to see a golf ball at a lower price point — $39.99 at Golf Galaxy — being used by a top 100 ranked player in the world like Ben Griffin, and equipment junkies will be keenly watching his performance with the new ball.
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Adam Scott what’s in the bag accurate as of the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (10.5 degrees)...
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Moosejaw McWilligher
Nov 21, 2019 at 3:09 am
No such thing as an “obsolete” golf course. A tournament requires that the winner takes one or more fewer strokes over 72 holes than everyone else. Whether that winning score is -30 or +10 makes little difference to most golf fans, and zero difference at all to the integrity of the game itself.
It DOES however, mean a lot to the enormous egos and enormous pocketbooks of golf course architects – who can pad their resume and their bank account by declaring courses “obsolete” and then getting paid to “re-design” (ie, lengthen) those courses. And the egos of members of private clubs who compensate for other shortcomings with their “big bad” golf course.
It also can affect the egos of old former pros who don’t like seeing their scores and records broken – which also makes zero difference to the integrity of the game.
“Obsolete” is fake news.