PGA Golf – Can technology change the essence of golf?

Out of all modern sports, golf must ranked among the most frustrating games to play. If you are able to make it pass the barrier of a game that looks as boring and less action frilled as this, if you still find an excuse to wear the silly looking clothes and find get invited to play, and even find a buddy to lend you the clubs, well then you can make it into the slow-paced, mentally challenging and somewhat spiritually diminishing first round of golf.

As a sport that is broadcasted over the TV, it probably meets up with Winter Olympics' curling and Tour de France live coverage among the least exciting sports on the news. The thing with golf is that you realize how stressful and mentally demanding the sport is until you play it. Or until you make a bet on a golf matchup, or on the golf's odds to win a tournament, or by any reason have an extra affiliation with the sport then the average Joe watching TV.

Technology on the other hand is here to make our lives easier. Right? And all though technology sometimes has worked in favor of a sports evolution (lets think of the video reviews in both NFL Football and ATP tennis) in other cases, the sport has resisted the introduction of hi technology in certain sports (Think football soccer were the cleats are made of space-age materials but the game still depends on the human eyes of 3 men in charge of dictating what happens in a 100 meter long field).

And this might be where the game of golf could be seen under a different light. How much has changed? The courts are almost the same. Heck, they have been playing golf at St. Andrews at least since the XVI Century. And yet you cannot expect that the use of super accurate true-flying balls and titanium and fiber carbon clubs has not affected the performance and the accuracy of the game.

And yet, the game remains as technical and difficult as ever. Technology has made it a bit easier, but it has yet to really affect the spirit of the game. The PGA has made its rules and legislation in order to preserve the uniqueness of the sport. The materials and the weights of the clubs have to meet certain standards. The golf courses have adopted more challenging designs. Still, in the recent weeks, a couple of players have hit the magic number and managed to hit the 59 mark.

Hitting the 59

Just to get things into the right perspective, there have been only three official scores of 59 since the PGA exists as the governing body of goal. That is back since 1916 in case you were wondering. Despite all the recent technological improvements to equipment, no one had hit the mark since 1999. That's until now. In a span of 24 days, 2 more players have hit the mark and 3 other have closed in on official tournaments with a 60.

Stuart Appleby became the fifth player to hit the 59 on his way to win the Greenbrier Championship on Sunday. The Aussie player now will join Paul Goydos who hit the mark on July 8th at the John Deere Classic and David Duvall who made the mark in 1999 Bob Hope's tournament. They will join no other the Al Geiberger who became the first player ever to hit the mark in 1977's Memphis Classic.