The Great Distance Debate, with Lucas Herbert and Mike Clayton
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Herbert. Clayton. Persimmon. Balata.
Mark Hayes is joined on the 18th tee at Commonwealth Golf Club in Melbourne by Aussie young gun Lucas Herbert and former Australian touring pro-turned course architect Mike Clayton for a fascinating experiment.
After setting a base level with his current driver and golf balls, Lucas mixes things up with some old balata balls and a persimmon driver straight out of Clayts' collection!
Thanks Guys. A great vid. Well done and huge thanks to all involved..
Great 👍 information
Interesting video! Iron Byron tests indicate that there is not much difference between modern and persimmon when hit out of the centre (or screws!) at the same club head speed. The difference is that to be sure of hitting out of the screws players used to throttle back to 80% of power. No such limitations with bigger more forgiving heads and probably +3 inches in shaft length to assist too! The driver used to be the hardest club in the bag to hit, now it is the easiest which I think is what this video proves.
I had a Greg Norman tour edition persimmon driver . Combine that driver with a balata ball struck on the screws ; what a feeling . Gosh , I miss those days. Used to play a hole with the tee box set back in the woods on a tree lined fairway . Put a good pass on the ball and " Crack " what a feeling. Those days were the best !
That was a nice test. It highlights how less important driver strike is now than it used to be. If we want to roll driver distance back, just limit driver volume to 250 cubic centimetres - or even 230 cc (half the current!). That would take it back to being a strong three wood, instantly. Lucas' 263 m blast with his 460 cc TaylorMade driver would drop back to 235 to 240 m with a 250 cc mini driver, even without a change of ball. Apart from courses perhaps becoming shorter again, and rounds getting quicker, nothing else would change. So keep the current ball, limit driver head size and require golfers to hit a smaller sweet spot. Easy.
Congrats Lucas on the Irish Open!
That was beautiful. Shows how much technology has allowed the top players to become complacent with their swing and strikes. No more Bomb and Gouge.
Great experiment. I think you gotta really tighten up the swing with a persimmon and steel shaft.. Its a completely different state of mind swing...
Would love to see what Norman and Hogan and guys like that would do with modern equipment.
Great clip. The ability to hit driver was much more of a competitive advantage than it is today. It won a bunch of tournaments for Greg Norman no doubt.
Shame about what it has done to some great courses, but hitting it straighter a further is much more fun for the average Joe.
I disagree with your last point, i switched to blades & persimmon woods a few months back, golf is twice the fun now. You have to plot your way around the course. I found i loose a lot less balls and my scores have improved as a result. ( i play off 16 ) soon be a 12 i reckon
I'm with Liam on that. I too play blades and persimmon off a similar handicap and find it as far more enjoyable game. Finesse and strategy are lost in the modern power game. For me technology has moved the game back not forward.
Its important to realize that if the golf balls you are testing are old, they will have lost a lot of their properties and come off the face slower. If you had brand new, made today versions of all of the old golf balls, ball speeds should differ no more than 2-3 mph + or - compared to modern ball. Spin won't be thousands of rpm difference, but potentially significant. Not enough to make you lose a ton of distance though. Not the amounts a lot of people claim.
This never goes well. The wooden driver in the hands of someone who never used one before. New Drivers are springy face for hard balls. Old Drivers are hard face and springy balls.
Lucas has the balls tee'd up too high and trying to hit up on the ball. That is/was not how to do it. He even said not fitted for my swing? They were never fitted. He also mentions his angle of attack was up - this produces right to left high draw and that is what he got. 2nd round with the old club and balls he still has the tee too high. The idea is to sweep the ball off a tee no more than 1/2 inch out of the ground. If Jack, Sam, and Arnie could hit over 300 yds...then you know Lucas is not doing it right. I used to carry 280/290yds easy the ball never went much more than 30 feet off the ground. I can still do 260 aged 64 using my persimmon driver and chrome soft ball or Volvics. The rest are way too hard.