BLAINE McCALLISTER: Obviously you are designing the golf course, but I think the conditions can dictate the play of a golf course, too, as far as that's concerned. And if you've got a lot of rough grown up and the fairways are narrow, you're going to have to be a good shot maker to put the ball in play. Otherwise you're going to hit some long irons off the tee. You've got to understand, the way the equipment is designed nowadays, the ball has a tendency not to curve as much as it used to.
And so then you add that, plus the higher launch with the new club, okay, now you're taking away from some of the talent in my opinion. I think if you could take the old golf clubs and the old golf ball and you played golf courses like we are playing nowadays, Holy Cow, it would be a different scenario because the ball would not go near as far, we would be playing these golf courses that feel like they are 17 Miles long and two, the ball wouldn't spin as much. And so now your shot making comes back, having to create the ball landing a certain distance short of the hole so it releases to the hole, that's what makes the shot making conditions. That's when the conditions and the equipment change so much over time. I really believe that the golf equipment has gotten so much better and the talent has gotten so much stronger and bigger, needless to say, you put those two together, what do you get? It's the fastest runner, the bigger, the stronger, they are the faster. It's the same way in the game of golf, the evolution of time, the athlete has gotten bigger, the golf ball is going further. It's just the way everything is.
I'm gaining 20 yards in 20 years. I gained 20 yards. Now, you figure that one out. I gained 20 yards and guess what I've lost 65 (Inaudible.) Have I increased my distance? In my theory, no. Because as far as my distance is concerned, I've lost position, but yet I'm 20 yards further. So I counter balance that by saying, no, I haven't. I'm an average. So it's an interesting scenario, where do you draw the line.
I mean, last week if you look at the U.S. Open, and I have to say this because I saw the scores on Monday, but when you look at guys that are up there, the U.S. Open got exactly what they wanted. You got your No. 2 player in the world, you've got your No. 4 player in the world, whatever they were, they were at the top of the leaderboard. They proved that. That's why they were there. Put them on I don't know how anybody can complain when you're playing for $6 to $7 million, let's go play down 495 and we'll see some shot making. We'll have to do something, won't we?
But the game has changed. We just have to accept that. Conditions have changed. The greens are faster, the mowers are better, the equipment, the work on golf courses is better. The superintendent learns so much more now. You go back and look at the old films of old golfers when they putted, especially at Augusta, when they putted at Augusta, it was bermuda. A downhill putt, man, they are hitting like that. It's just the way time has changed. In my career I never thought you'd see Augusta grow rough. It got rough.
But, I mean, this is the game and you accept it and you play it and I love it, part of the competition. Just wish these kids weren't so damned long.
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