"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

July 20, 2004

Golfers are either getting a whole lot better than they used to be, or equipment has dramatically altered the landscape of the game at the higher levels of play.

As the Southern Amateur progressed last week at The Honors Course, it became more and more apparent that a new breed of player had been unleashed on the game. Australian Michael Sim, just 19, pretty much had his way with the course in shooting rounds of 71-66-70-71 for a winning score of 278, 10 under par. At no time after his second-round 66 did Sim appear in danger of giving the tournament away. He kept his bogeys to a minimum and didn’t come close to making a double bogey, perhaps the most impressive thing he did all week. It’s nearly impossible to make it 72 holes at The Honors without a dub.

Was Sim’s dominance just a case of a hot golfer (he’d finished third and seventh in significant amateur tournaments the previous two weeks) having his way with the course? Not really. Twelve players finished the tournament under par.

Contrast those scores to those shot the last time The Honors played host to the Southern Amateur, in 1986. Rob McNamara won with rounds of 74-71-72-76—293. That was five over par. Lest anyone wonder whether the field was weak that year, well, it wasn’t. Future PGA Tour players Billy Andrade, Len Mattiace, Dudley Hart and Brian Watts were there. Andrade came in as the hottest amateur in the country after having won the Sunnehana and North-South Amateur that summer. He shot 296, including a final-round 80.

Consider also two other stroke-play tournaments played at The Honors. Rex Kuramoto, then East Tennessee State’s top player and a future stalwart on the Asian Tour, won the 1989 Tennessee Amateur with a four-day total of 298, 10 over par. Seven years later, fans who turned out in record numbers to watch Tiger Woods in the 1996 NCAA Championships thought he was tearing the course apart after his first three rounds of 69-67-69. But even Woods fell victim to The Honors, shooting a final-round 80 for a 72-hole total of three under par.

Eight years later, an unheralded Australian teenager seemingly coasted en route to winning the Southern Amateur at 10 under. What gives?

The Honors hasn’t gotten any easier. The course played more than 200 yards longer for The Southern Amateur (7220) than it had for any previous stroke-play tournament. The extra yardage turned the always-difficult par-4 15^th in a 475-yard, nightmare-inducing monster. New tees were used at other holes, too. The greens were running 12 on the stimpmeter, or just slightly slower than if the players were putting in a hockey rink.

Trip Kuehne, who played in the Southern Amateur and the 1996 NCAAs, said the rough wasn’t as tough last week as it was then, but make no mistake, no one wanted to find their tee ball nestled in it.

Given all the red numbers shot, one can only surmise that players are getting better. How much of that improvement is a natural evolution in the game and how much can be traced to improved equipment? That question is difficult to answer.

Without question, players are longer, off the tee and with their irons. Just out of curiosity, Honors greens superintendent David Stone went back and watched tape from the 1991 U.S. Amateur, which was played at The Honors. Few players tried to reach the par-5 11^th hole in two shots. Last week, everybody tried to reach, and most did.

Most observers of the game say the golf ball has gotten too long. Others point to oversized drivers and exotic shafts as the reason players are bombing their tee shots.

"I used to be considered long," said Chattanooga’s burly Andrew Black, who finished third last week. "I’m still pretty long, but I’ve played with guys I outweigh by 60, 70 pounds hitting it way past me."

Black could have been referring to Chattanooga junior Adam Mitchell, who at 5-8 and 125 pounds can crank out 320-yard drives with no effort.

Could equipment be the reason Mitchell told the press that he doesn’t consider The Honors a long golf course? Perhaps.

There is a compelling argument in behalf of golfers getting better on their own, however. Young players have a lot more opportunity to play now. The American Junior Golf Association is run like a mini PGA Tour.

"Players are learning how to play touring golf in high school," said Jay Coffin, who covers amateur golf for Golfweek. "They’ve gotten used to traveling and living on the road. And they aren’t afraid of anyone, because they’ve been playing the best competition."

Players are also getting better instruction. Teachers have taken advantage of advancing technology that allows them to film their students’ swings and break them down on a computer. It’s a huge advantage to be able to see your swing, especially compared with the swing of an accomplished player. Teachers can place them side by side on a computer and make them move in simultaneously.

Another possible reason for improvement is what could be called "The Tiger Effect." Woods’ dedication to improvement has filtered into the golfing public. More and more golfers have incorporated weight training and cardio-vascular exercise into their daily routines.

The advent of the sports psychologist is another reason that golfers, especially young ones, continue to improve. From an early age, players can now be coached into thinking their way around the golf course. As Woods and Jack Nicklaus can tell you, the ability to think clearly and stick to a game plan is a tremendous advantage in the heat of a tournament.

There are some who believe golfers at large aren’t improving, because the average handicap of all players hasn’t dropped in years. But clearly, at the game’s highest level, dramatic improvement has occurred. Those scores shot in last week’s Southern Amateur are proof of that.

The entry deadline for the fourth annual CDGA Four Ball Match Play tournament is Tuesday, July 27 6:00 pm. Partners must be from the same CDGA club. Brainerd (Richard Keene and Jimmy Watkins) is the defending champion.

The quarterfinals will be played at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club and Saturday afternoon, Aug. 21. The semi-finals and finals will be play on Aug. 22 at The Honors Course.

This year there are two significant changes to the event:

• The entry fee has been reduced from $80 per player to $45 per player. Players will then pay cart fees per match.

• The first two rounds will not be played on Thursday and Friday as in previous years. Instead, each round will be played over a 10-day period at various area CDGA courses.

Pairings will be announced no later than Friday, July 30 on www.ifyoulikegolf.com. First-round matches must be completed by Aug. 10. Second-round matches must be completed by Aug. 19.

In the first- and second-rounds, the top-seeded team will choose the location of the match from among Council Fire, Black Creek, Lookout Mountain, Signal Mountain, Bear Trace or Valleybrook. The top-seeded team can’t play its home course.

Tournament director Mike Jenkins hopes the changes will allow more teams to participate. The field is limited to 32 teams.

Entry blanks are available at www.ifyoulikegolf.com.

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