The Loop

Fodder for the anti-technology crowd

July 30, 2009

Crooked Stick Golf Club is playing up to 7,316 yards for the U.S. Senior Open, longer than it played for the PGA Championship when John Daly won it in 1991. Then it played as much as 7,295 yards, making it the longest course in the history of the PGA Championship.

UPDATE: Greg Norman, in his news conference following the first round of the Senior Open, said he's hitting the same irons into greens that he did in the '91 PGA Championship. "I'm hitting the ball farther on this golf course today than what I was in '91,"he said. "I'm carrying the 14th hole without a problem, the big chop dogleg to the left, driving farther down on the par 5s than I did in '91. That's got a lot to do with technology, obviously. From pure technology we picked up some yardage. The same clubs I hit in '91 I'm hitting now into the greens, and there is, what, 20 years separation? My clubhead speed isn't as fast as what it was in '91, so technology has made up the gap."

-- John Strege