Re: ShopTalk: Face Milling

[Bernie Baymiller]

Ed,   >My point being; If the USGA used their heads ( Yeah, like that is likely to happen! (;-) Only the winner of the tournament would have to have his club tested.   Well, in professional golf, they pay a lot of money to a lot of places...and if I were fifth and I thought the guy who got fourth were playing an illegal club, I'd challenge that one, too. Plus, standings at the end of te year determine whether you get back to the tour or not. They might have to test the top 20 or more at every tournament to stisfy everybody.   In amateur golf, qualifying for the USGA Amateur Championship (and many of the State Amateurs) is a big deal and there is good incentive to cheat in every level. Might have to test all the qualifiers in those events, too.   The USGA has screwed up on this rule from the very beginning, since there is no way to test any club easily on the first tee. And, nobody I play with even cares, since there seems to be very little benefit at senior and the great majority of swingspeeds. Let everyone hit any COR head. There's a limit on that at about .90, I think. The player has to play the golf course the way it's designed. Most holes don't adapt well to drives over 300 yards...too little margin for error at those distances. So, they have to hit 2-irons or 3Ws off the tee to stay out of trouble. No problem with that. It makes golf a game of strategy and shotmaking for all (or most, and is as the game was originally intended, I think), instead of some having a great age, strength and height advantage. If a player is so talented that he can hit drives 325 yards accurately, as Ernie Els did in Hawaii, his skill should be rewarded. That requires almost 0� error at that distance except on the widest fairways.   Now, the USGA is contemplating the club length rule. I don't see much sense in that one, too, because longer, lighter clubs let those of us with less flexibility than we've had in younger years compete with younger players for distance. That, I would think, is an asset to the game. Then, a club length rule will require a standard way to measure club length. Don't know if there is one in the USGA rules or not, but the Long Driver guys just invented a rule for their competitions that sounds like a dumb one. Instead of measuring from from the ground to the butt in a playing position, as we do, they've gone to standing the club against the wall and measuring from the floor to the butt...which factors in the length of the clubhead. Strange way to do it, I think. May bring back those short  "hammer" shaped heads. :-)   The rules of Golf were pretty solid back in the 1960s. Somehow the USGA has gone way off track with their ideas on how to "protect the game." The rules they need to consider are those that speed up play...instead of slowing it down....and rule simplification, instead of making the game more and more complex. Actually, the present USGA seems to be making golf a different game than it was intended to me...IMO.    Bernie Writeto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]