Dechambeau Hits 400 Yard Drive (the CARRY was)

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4shotB

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This has been a number of years since I read it in Golf Digest or equivalent but Nicklaus, when asked about the difference in yardages between players of his era and the modern players claimed it was equipment related, with 20% of it being the drivers (new materials, larger heads,etc.) and 80% being improvement in golf balls (ever hit a rubber wound balata Titleist?). Jack, aside from being the GOAT player, also has been involved in design and manufacturing of golf equipment with Golden Bear and McGregor. In that same article, he said that a lot of old courses that were in the major rotation back in his day that are now obsolete could still be played if players would be forced to do play with special balls made as they were 30+ years ago. he said that is still possible to do but the players would not accept hitting 270 yard drives and mid irons into greens.

Here recently, I saw an old match on TV somewhere between Hogan and Snead. I believe they were playing at Doral iirc. One of the closing holes was a 440 yard par 4. One of them hit driver - 4 iron. The other hit driver - 5 iron into the green!!

One thing Jack didn't mention was training and physical fitness. At the time I read the article, Tiger was really the only one involved. We have seen with Bryson what a difference that can make to the individual.
 
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