Take UNFAIR Advantage!

As Clint Eastwood ALMOST said,

“Go ahead, make my day, take UNFAIR Advantage.”

 For most of us recreational golfers (and in the US only 20 percent of golfers get competitive and maintain a handicap), there are three things which make golf a joyful occasion.

1. You hit it long off the tee
2. You shoot a low score
3. You beat your buddies, even if you didn’t manage 1 or 2

To do this you seek an advantage (don’t we all).  Better yet, you seek an UNFAIR Advantage which is simply an advantage that other people don’t have (yet).

Now there are limits to what you can do and those fine folks at the USGA are the ones who make and administer the rules; well, some of the time.  Actually, the USGA’s authority covers only North America and Mexico. Everywhere else in the world the rules authority is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, Scotland. 

And the two don’t always agree, especially where new technology is concerned.

Longer is better

Most golfers want to hit the ball better, which means either longer or straighter, or preferably both.  They don’t want to knowingly break the official rules of golf but since, for the most part, they don’t actually know much about the rules, this is not a major problem which causes them deep anguish and loss of sleep.

So, if technology, in the form of a large face (up to 400 cc) driver with trampoline effect can help you get extra yards off the tee (and trust me folks, it can), why not increase your golfing enjoyment and go for it?

The R & A has examined the workings of such drivers in detail and has no problem with them.  As far as they are concerned they conform to the rules.  But that’s not how the USGA sees it.  They have declared them to be “nonconforming” and banned their use in competitions or even for just posting a score for handicap purposes.  These drivers give their users an UNFAIR Advantage, says the USGA.  

There are advantages everywhere

 So, let’s look more closely at the concept of UNFAIR Advantage.

Don’t professional golfers have an UNFAIR Advantage relative to the rest of us because: 

1. They have talent.
2. They can practice any time they like.
3. They don’t have to pay for their own clubs and balls.
4. They don’t have to “go to work”.
5. They have a professional caddie.

 What is the USGA doing about this disgraceful state of affairs?

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

And what about the situation where the technology of the latest wonder ball is giving professionals 5 to 20 extra yards off the tee.  But not all professionals, just those contracted to the manufacturer.  Isn’t this an UNFAIR Advantage that requires swift action by the USGA?

And when we mere mortals eagerly buy the ball for its delicious advantage, what happens? We find that if our swing speed isn’t fast enough to compress the ball by the required amount (and most of us hackers fall into this category), then you don’t get the benefit of the extra distance anyway.  How unfair!

Of course technical advances have been helping golfers since the days of the gutta percha ball and wooden shafts.  But new materials don’t always bring the results you might expect.  Over the past 20 years the average score for the recreational golfer in the US has improved by less than one shot.  So much for technology making the game too easy!

New technology can of course, make parts of the game “less difficult” for recreational golfers.  However, our major problem remains the variety of weird and wonderful swings that we exhibit out on the golf course.  No amount of technology can make up for faulty technique and advancing years.

 Support from the King

No less an authority than Arnold Palmer has publicly supported the principle of recreational golfers using so-called nonconforming drivers.  Why shouldn’t ordinary golfers get all the benefits they can, he says.  After all they are only playing for fun (plus a modest $2 Nassau perhaps).  But for all competitive golf he believes the existing rules should remain.

This didn’t make him very popular with the USGA which says that golf cannot be divided between recreational and competitive players, each with its own version of the playing rules.  This is the way to anarchy they maintain. Unfortunately for them, their current practice concerning the use of GPS devices for yardage information makes a mockery of their “one rule for all golfers” philosophy.

It is currently illegal in competitive golf to use global positioning satellites linked to a computer to determine distance information.  So, that’s easy then, the USGA bans the use of GPS for all golfers.

 Well no, not quite.  

The exception to the rule

 There are some 500 courses in the US that provides GPS distance measuring systems on golf carts and the USGA happily accepts scores from these courses for handicap purposes.  In this case they allow precisely the difference between recreational and competitive golf that they are firmly against where “nonconforming” drivers are concerned.

 Confusing isn’t it?

So, how might one designate the USGA’s stance in this situation?

Well, some have likened it to the ostrich stance (bent over with its head in the sand) which, they say, does rather expose the USGA’s thinking parts!

 We could not possibly agree with this sentiment; but you might.

The practical advantage

What practical difference is there between an electronic device giving you valuable distance information and the current methods of maps, charts, yardage markers and marked sprinkler heads?

In principle none at all, but in practice the GPS system’s instant readout means you don’t have to waste time searching for a marker or pacing off your distance from it.  Using GPS actually speeds play, and isn’t dealing with slow play at the top of every USGA annual to-do list?

So, all you recreational golfers the decision is yours.  Do you want to have more fun by getting extra yards off the tee or are you more interested in the technicalities of the USGA’s treatise on the trampoline effect of a new breed of high technology drivers which the rest of the world is already using anyway?

Conclusion

Our view of this confused and contradictory position is simple.  Why not “take UNFAIR Advantage” and have the golfing time of your life.  After all, it’s not the taking part that matters, it’s the winning.