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Saudi World Golf Tour 2022/2023 Thread

DCDeac said:
Look no further than the Scottish Open a couple weeks ago. They had some rain early, didn't mow the fairways much, weather was a little cold for the final round... Not one player in the top 50 averaged 300 yards off the tee. Only 2 guys even came within 10 yards of averaging 300. I saw Noren and McDowell both nail drivers on #1 right down the middle of a flat hole without much wind - one was 258 and other 264.

Olds love to grumble, and technology has certainly improved, but it's just a piece of the equation. Players are better, stronger. Courses are firmer and faster. Club fitting improvements allow players to understand optimal launch statistics and get closer to them than before. And yet amateur handicaps aren't getting any lower, and short-knocker Jordan Spieth won two majors last year before Dustin Johnson won his first in almost 30 attempts.

There's no single thing you can do - not rolling back the ball, not reducing COR, not limiting shaft materials - that would have as drastic an effect as altering course conditions. Just having bunkers that were actually hazards in the Open was refreshing. In the U.S. players aim for bunkers.
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Good points, but Jordan Spieth is not exactly a short-knocker. He's currently tied 42 on tour in driving distance at 295. That's seven yards behind Jason Day, which is about half a club.
 
Shorty said:
Good points, but Jordan Spieth is not exactly a short-knocker. He's currently tied 42 on tour in driving distance at 295. That's seven yards behind Jason Day, which is about half a club.
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He was like 80th last year. Didn't realize he'd jumped up that far - then again he hasn't won a major yet this year so maybe he should go back to hitting it shorter...
 
DCDeac said:
He was like 80th last year. Didn't realize he'd jumped up that far - then again he hasn't won a major yet this year so maybe he should go back to hitting it shorter...
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Seems like usually when a "shorter" hitter starts chasing distance, their game falls off.
 
liveanddiedeac said:
Seems like usually when a "shorter" hitter starts chasing distance, their game falls off.
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I doubt Speith's really chasing distance. He's still really young and his body is maturing.

He's also ranked #3 in the world.
 
But I think Spieth's lack of "power" (in terms of relative to the PGA tour) will prevent him from being a dominant player for the next 20 years. He will be good and good often. Really good. And he will be ranked high. But he won't collect a pile of majors. But personally, I would rather have Day's or McIlroy's next 10 years. I think to be at the top of the heap for an extended period, these days and in the future you will just have to have length and power. Spieth relies a LOT on his putting - and even his 100 yards and in game can be very inconsistent - and putting is hard to maintain at that level for long periods of time. There is no substitute for power. Drive it long, advantage. Miss fairway, you're 40 yards closer than others and still have wedge in hand. Advantage. Not confident and hitting driver well? Hit 2 iron off tee right next to other players' driver in dead center of fairway. Now you're 170 yards in and you hit 9 iron, and pro next to you hits 7. Power and length is almost a must IMO if you won't to be a dominate, long term winner over many years. Just IMO
 
From what I have seen, and I could be wrong, Spieth's problem isn't distance as much as he's not sure where it's going.
 
BiffTannen said:
I doubt Speith's really chasing distance. He's still really young and his body is maturing.

He's also ranked #3 in the world.
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Oh, I agree. I've chuckled at how some of the golf commentators have acted like he's having a such a disappointing year, when he's won twice and was a brain fart short of winning back to back Masters. The kid is just basically getting started with his career and he's already won more majors than guys like Fred Couples and Davis Love III. Heck, Freddy and Davis were 2 of the biggest names on the tour for a long period of time and they only got one major a piece. That's pretty disappointing when you think about it.
 
With rare exceptions, you can't win at most pga courses without distance. The game has changed A LOT
 
Poor Steve Wheatcroft with the skullfuck out of the bunker on 18.
 
Sand looked pretty thin too.. Bad combination of nerves, thin sand, relatively long shot requiring him to try and hit a touch closer to the ball. If it were a super star I wouldn't care. But you feel for the journey men
 
 
Shorty said:
He looked real shallow coming into the ball on that swing.
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Yep. Short and quick, bottomed early and bounced the club into the ball. Clearly a case of nerves going +2 in the last 3 holes with two par 5's.

The sand was fine, plenty of players were in that bunker with no issues. It was an easy shot and he simply blew it.
 
He should have been able to feel how little sand there was with his feet and use less bounce coming into the shot. I feel bad for him because a par would have likely locked up his tour card for next year.

In his defense, a few other pros were all over that tweet in support.
 
Liquid Karma said:
He should have been able to feel how little sand there was with his feet and use less bounce coming into the shot. I feel bad for him because a par would have likely locked up his tour card for next year.

In his defense, a few other pros were all over that tweet in support.
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Sucks for the guy (I mean, kinda... He still won $200,000 for playing golf), but whining about bunkers not being perfect is one of my biggest tour pro pet peeves. God forbid a bunker has a little less sand than usual, has a narrow/steep side that limits options, has heavy sand, etc... You're not supposed to dump your approach into that bunker and make an auto-birdie. Most amateurs play in bunker 10 times worse than that every round.
 
Yeah, God forbid the best players in the world want to play the best conditioned courses. Selfish assholes
 
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