The Lost Art of Shotmaking

March 14, 2005

Bob Rosberg has a good column on the lost art of shotmaking in golf. As he points out, the new balls and clubs have nearly eliminated the kind of golf we saw in the fifties, sixties and seventies.

One of the things that I think has gone away in the modern game on Tour is shotmaking, the ability to hit different shots. The main reason is that you don’t need it anymore because, with the new dimple configurations, the ball gets up in the air so much easier.

When the ball gets up in the air, it tends not to curve as much. In fact, it’s kind of hard to curve the ball when you try to do it. That’s why you see so many guys just hit it straight and high. There are no low shots. You don’t see shots like Lee Trevino used to play.