British Open bluster trumps technology's drive

It's one of the oldest rivalries in sport. The two adversaries have done battle on tennis courts and motor circuits, tussled on the high seas and the ski slopes, and fought it out in stadiums and velodromes.

Now they are contending on the golf course.

From the elegantly manicured pastures of America to rough-hewn links of the British Isles, technology and tradition are vying for preeminence.

And so far, technology has the upper hand.

A series of recent design breakthroughs in both clubs and balls - some of them highly controversial - has enabled golfers to hit farther and farther. Some courses are looking tame, anachronistic even, when exposed to the power of the new giant hitters.

Even the Royal St. George's, where the British Open started Thursday, has added 250 yards to try to hold off the charge. But this venue has another, better equalizer. On the rugged British "links" courses, with their treeless fairways, coastal gusts, and knee-high fescue, nature becomes tradition's ally.

"The UK Open is always one of the toughest tests around because of the courses that are played on," says Stewart McDougall of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which governs the game outside the United States and which organizes the British Open. "The courses are different from a lot of the American courses.

"They are designed to make it an overall test of golf that makes you go through the whole armory, not just long driving and not just pitching and putting," he adds from the venue for this year's 132nd British Open championship, near Sandwich, in southeast England.

Nature has certainly been the deciding factor in recent British Opens. The course at Carnoustie in 1999 was so savage, with the narrowest of fairways and the deepest of rough, that it was nicknamed "Car-nasty".

Last year, at Muirfield, some of the roughest weather the tournament has ever seen blew in from the North Sea and blew away the best. Tiger Woods, the world's number one, recorded the worst round of his professional career.

Woods was gracious about the weather that day, but is less so when discussing the issue of advances in technology. A golfing natural with one of the longest drives in the game, Woods has seen his advantage disappear as new designs help the rest of the field catch up.

Lightweight titanium drivers, graphite shafts, and solid-core balls are revolutionizing the sport. Club heads are fatter and broader, with a larger "sweet spot." And in one hugely controversial development, some drivers are purportedly being crafted with "springy" faces that compress when they strike the ball and trampoline back into place as they propel it, greatly increasing the distance the ball travels.

Page: 1 | 2