Question of the week [January 1-7]: What one area of your golf game — or golf as a sport — would you like to see improved in 2024?
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To get better, I have to hit more greens. My current average is only 4 1/2 per round. I bought a new set of irons in the fall and had a couple of really good rounds, but new irons can’t fix lousy swings. A close second is putting from the 25- to 40-feet range has been terrible. I’ve got to get it closer and eliminate a few of those three putts.
Barry Duckworth
Knoxville, Tennessee
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I'm still trying to figure out how rolling back the ball is going to grow the game of golf.
How do you explain to a 70-year-old golfer, who over the past 10 years has lost 25 yards on his drive, that you're going to take another 5 to 7 yards from them.
I've been fortunate enough over the years to be able to hit a pretty long drive comparable to my playing partners. Just over the last year I easily have lost 20 yards. Fortunately I'm still able to hit driver and wedge into shorter par 4s. This has provided me a nice advantage while my playing partners are hitting 7-plus irons on those same holes. Losing additional yardage is not going to bother me as much since I'll still be hitting 9-irons into these greens. I'll still will most likely be keeping a short iron in my hand compared to my playing partners.
In some cases I can see them dropping down to 5-irons on these same holes they were once hitting 7-iron approaches in to. Just how does that concept advance the game of golf?
Why can't we just cap the technology at its current place. Sure it's going to make a few of the older courses a bit obsolete, but it's not going to take away advantages so many golfers have become accustomed to.
This whole thing is silly
You are instituting bifurcation because pros are hitting the ball to far and running up scoring totals never seen before. So because 125 PGA Tour pros hit the ball on an average of 300 yards you're going to change everything regarding distance for the other 25 million golfers. Sounds pretty counterintuitive to me.
Good luck with growing the game.
Robert Fish
Sun Lakes, Arizona
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Get rid of Ian Baker-Finch [as a CBS Sports golf analyst].
Jon Woolstencroft
St. Catharines, Ontario
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