"Grand Slam"

[Hawgon]

I just read the book "Grand Slam" about Bobby Jones.  He was pretty amazing, especially considering that he only played part time, rarely hit the practice tee, and only played in the major events.  Even so, he won 61% of the majors he entered.

Another thing I found interesting is that there are lots of misconceptions today about golf back then.  We have the idea of guys in funny clothes dinking their way around courses hitting the ball 230 yards with extremely whippy and inferior hickory shafted clubs.  Most of that is untrue.

Sure, the clothes were funny by today's standards but the clubs weren't all that bad.  It seems that main problem with hickory was consistency and the fact that it would warp instead of the way it played.  Jones played with hickory well after most had switched to steel and a good hickory shaft wouldn't be much different than a graphite shaft today.

Second, those guys could hit the ball.  Jones regularly drove over 300 yards and farther and routinely drove short par 4s if he thought it offered him an advantage in a given situation.  Even back as far as the first decade of the 20th century and the teens, guys like Ted Ray could hit it well over 300 yards. 

It seems that in the early years, ball manufacturers were not limited to the specifications we have now on the ball and they made balls that were smaller in diameter and heavier, thus making them go farther.  And even after the the modern specifications were put in 1920s, balls were made for the top guys like Hagan and Jones that were wound to special tighter standards than balls made for the average player.  The only way they were that much inferior to balls of a few years ago is that they weren't as consistent.

Anyway, I'm sure that guys like Jones and Hagan and some of the others could compete today given modern equipment.  I'm not so sure that a lot of today's players could compete back then with the equipment they had to use.

[gotyacovered]

Sounds like a good book, may have to pick that up. I got the same feeling about old school golf in the secret. It's a good one, if you havnt already... Pick it up.