60th Anniversary: The Top 60 Innovations Of Golf's Modern Era: Golf Digest

In 1950, Everest lay unclimbed, the moon had not yet been visited by earthlings, and the human population was less than half of what it is today. The McCarthy era was kicking off, an away-game Cold War war erupted in Korea, apartheid was formalized in South Africa. The world's first credit card, TV remote and telephone answering system were born. Nat King Cole sang "Mona Lisa"; 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor had the first of what would be eight wedding days.

If we weren't so modest, we would have to say that the biggest happening of the year was the founding of Golf Digest. A rudimentary 16-page black-and-white local magazine was produced that spring -- cover price, 15 cents -- out of the suburban Chicago bedroom of founder Bill Davis, shortly joined by partners Howard Gill and Jack Barnett. Ever since, the magazine has served as teacher, advisor, entertainer, touchstone, transmitter, interpreter, filter and trusted friend to golfers the world over.

To commemorate the magazine's 60th birthday, we're paying tribute to the leading innovations that it has witnessed in its lifetime. The game was entirely different in 1950. There were 4,931 golf courses in America -- less than a third of today. (Myrtle Beach had two.) There were four million golfers -- less than a fifth of today. The game was largely private, white and male. There was no golf on national TV. Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open -- a year after almost being killed in a traffic accident -- but it was Sam Snead who was the tour's leading money-winner in 1950, earning $35,000 -- a mere poker hand to Tiger Woods.

So much has changed. How to choose which innovations to include -- and which to leave out? Erasers on golf pencils? Olympic golf? The World Golf Hall of Fame? Stack & Tilt? Loudmouth pants? Twitter? How about the shotgun start, instituted at Walla Walla (Wash.) Country Club in 1956? (No, none of the above made the cut.) On the following pages are our 60 most important innovations in golf since 1950, ranked in reverse order.

We don't know what the future holds. Innovations will continue. Last year almost 1,000 golf-related patents were issued. Equipment, coaching and fitness will improve, courses will be presented in ever-better and more environmentally friendly conditions, digital and electronic services and applications will continue to proliferate. But some things won't change. The hole remains the same size. The satisfaction of a crisply struck approach to a well-guarded green is always the same. The game was fun long before 1950. It's still fun now. Long may it continue.

A Swiss engineer, George de Mestral, got the idea while walking his dog when burrs kept sticking to his furry friend; his patent was granted in 1957. Now Velcro keeps golf gloves snug -- not to mention making changing diapers easier.

Frank Chirkinian started having the cups painted white at tournaments in the early 1960s so that TV viewers could see them -- one of the countless innovations from the legendary CBS producer. In the early days, players complained that when they retrieved their ball, they'd get paint on their hand.

Hale Irwin and Tom Kite proved you can win a U.S. Open while wearing prescription glasses, but the invention of corrective eye surgery rendered eyewear unnecessary. Lasik, the most common procedure, became popular in the 1990s, when its cost dropped below $1,000 per eye.

Legendary ABC "Monday Night Football" director Chet Forte is considered the innovator of slow-motion replays, in the 1970s. Today, super-slow-mo ("X-Mo") cameras record up to 6,933 frames per second (regular TV cameras do only 30), allowing amazing up-close-and-personal impact shots.

Versions of the stroke-stabilizing long putter first appeared in the hands of Paul Runyan in the 1960s, but it went mainstream in the '80s on the senior tour -- especially after Orville Moody's U.S. Senior Open victory. Although controversial -- some say it violates the spirit of the game -- the "broomstick" and a shorter version, the belly putter, have kept yippers in the game and salvaged careers.

Modern, durable, padded golf-club travel bags mean that our tools of the trade can travel safely in the belly of an airplane, allowing us to enjoy new golf experiences all over the world. Early ones used to be virtually disposable. Now, for the average golfer, they last a lifetime. So do the memories.

Synthetic turf, called Chemgrass (later AstroTurf) was first installed in 1964; today low-maintenance synthetic greens allow golfers to hone their stroke in the back yard.

Starting in the late '80s, there was an explosion of high-end public facilities. They charged three-figure green fees and laid on all the amenities not available at your local muny. They helped turn architects into brand names. Too many were built -- there has been much consolidation lately -- but public golf never again has to mean bad golf.

Though cut-down clubs have been part of the game since Young Tom Morris learned from his dad, it wasn't until the 1990s that clubs began to be designed specifically for youngsters' size and strength. Leading the way was Dan Van Horn, who established U.S. Kids Golf in 1997; major manufacturers soon followed.

The first smartphone -- one with functions beyond a portable phone -- was developed by IBM in 1992. Today, smartphones allow golfers to keep in touch during a round via text, e-mail and yes (sorry), the occasional call, but also to download a dizzying array of apps that can track your scores and stats, find places to play and even offer yardages and read greens.

Your swing, clubs and golf ball are real, but everything else is virtual reality. For more than 30 years, indoor golf simulators have allowed people to "play" the best courses in the world -- in downtown bars, basement rec rooms, at the local club. All the hassles of golf -- dress codes, slow play, bad weather, looking for balls -- miraculously vanish.

In 1978, the Legends of Golf tournament was a surprise hit: The mass of America's middle-age golfers were enthralled to witness the heroes of their youth in action again. Two years later the Senior PGA Tour was born. (The less-pejorative Champions Tour name was instituted in 2002.) The "second-chance tour" gets a boost every time a legend turns 50; Fred Couples is the star of 2010.

Knowledge is power: GPS or laser range finders, on the market for more than a decade, allow golfers to get exact yardages. They're like a caddie who is never wrong and doesn't require a tip. Cheap range-finder apps are available for smartphones, too.

Perhaps the most enduring impact Tiger Woods will have on golf: Late in 1997, Woods' first full season as a pro, the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, USGA, PGA of America and Augusta National used Tigermania to create this program to bring the game and its life skills to disadvantaged children.

There are a million golf instruction books, but Penick's slim 1992 contribution, published when he was 87, is the best -- and the most widely read -- book in sports. His innovation? Golfers need to keep it simple. Remember: Take dead aim.

Originally conceived as passenger airships -- the Hindenburg shuttled travelers between New Jersey and Germany throughout 1936 before its tragic demise -- a main use of "blimps" today is filming sports events. (National TV images, of Miami's Orange Bowl, were first shot from a Goodyear blimp in 1960.) Blimp shots at tour events have improved dramatically with belly-mounted cameras that can follow the ball. Camera towers also offer sublime bird's-eye views -- some of the cranes at the British Open are 200 feet tall.

In 1979, short-game guru Dave Pelz showed Tom Kite that he was relatively poor at half-wedge shots, so Kite added a third wedge with 60 degrees of loft. The move was swiftly copied on tour. Today, consumers can choose wedges with lofts of up to 73 degrees.

Legions of golfers, including Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, have had joint-replacement surgery since its invention in the 1960s. Using metal and plastic polymers to replace fragile bones means it's possible for golf to be a lifetime sport.

The 2007 Masters was broadcast in high definition; now almost all tour golf is available in HD, which offers one million to two million pixels per frame (five times the resolution of ordinary TV pictures). The next horizon is 3DTV -- portions of the 2010 Sony Open were shot in 3D, and the first 3DTV sets, most requiring special glasses, were unveiled over the winter.