Sustainability in Golf, Value of Angles, and Messi
Sustainability in Golf
Golfers today hit the ball significantly farther than they hit the ball decades ago. Technological advancements in equipment play a large role in the distance increase. Some people within the industry attribute the distance increase entirely to progress in strength/flexibility of modern-day athletes, but there are many examples to the contrary. Fifty-year-old golfers (Ex. Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh) hit the ball 10-20 yards farther than they did 20 years ago in their physical primes.
The implications of the distance increase are cause for concern. For starters, today’s professional golf events do not test a professional golfer’s long irons on Par 4s, which leads to a duller television product. Players hit driver-wedge on repeat. Cameron Champ, last week’s winner at the 3M Open, is one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour. Of Champ’s 44 approach shots into Par 4s last week, 34 came from inside 165 yards. En route to his victory, Champ hit one approach shot from longer than 200 yards on a Par 4. One! The shot measured 207 yards, which was likely a 6-iron for Cameron.
A few weeks ago, former pro golfer and esteemed golf course architect Mike Clayton tweeted Arnold Palmer’s approach distances during a round at the 1969 U.S. Open:
On the 12 Par 4s, the long-hitting Arnold Palmer hit at least 6-iron on 10 of the holes. It’s worth noting that the 1969 U.S. Open measured similarly in yardage to the aforementioned 3M Open. The game has changed drastically.
The distance increase has adverse impacts on golf from a competition perspective, but the repercussions are not isolated to competition. To remain relevant given how far today’s golfers hit the ball, golf courses must add length. This is expensive, both in construction costs and in maintenance. As one example, the USGA Distance Insights Report indicates that adding a single new tee to increase the length of a hole costs about $11,900.
And when you add distance to a golf course, you add land that must be watered and tended by a maintenance staff. So do you think golf courses are spending more money on water over time? Absolutely.
In some regions of the United States, the median water cost of a golf course is approaching $200k per year, which gets passed to the consumer.
Again from the USGA Distance Insights Report:
In 2012, the U.S. intelligence community projected that freshwater availability would not meet the demands for food and energy production in many countries by 2040, hindering global food markets and economic growth, especially in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
There is currently a water shortage in the Southwest, but we need to make sure TPC Scottsdale can accommodate technological advancements in the game of golf? This is an irresponsible position to hold, and it leads to sentiments like the following from Rainn Wilson who reaches millions of followers on social media:
My favorite charity is Charity Water, an organization that brings clean water to some of the 785 million people on the planet without access to safe water. Building wells in dozens of countries, Charity Water has brought clean water to over 13 million people. The wells start at $10,000 to construct; they’re cheaper to build than a new tee box!
The world is trending towards sustainability and golf should follow suit. Impose regulations on equipment manufacturers to limit the distance the golf ball travels. If golfers were hitting the ball 500 yards, surely everyone would agree that distance should be reeled back. Why are 385 yard drives not a problem?
With limits on distance, the competitive landscape of golf would improve. Far more importantly, golf would take a step in the right direction towards sustainability. In addition to lifting financial burden, limits on distance would be a healthy acknowledgement that golf courses accommodate and enrich a community instead of competing for its scarce resources.
Do Angles Matter in Golf?
Yes.
There is some dialogue in the golf strategy community around the value of angles and whether “having a good angle” benefits a golfer. Simply put, if a golfer has an unobstructed view of the flag with room to roll her golf ball towards the pin, we would expect her to outperform another golfer who has an obstacle in her path close to the hole (like a bunker).
It is common sense. A golf ball bounces and rolls, so it must hold true that having more room to bounce the ball benefits a player. When a player hits a wedge, she launches the ball up into the air with high backspin. When she hits a long iron, her ball will approach the green on a much lower trajectory and with less backspin, so it will bounce and roll more than when she hits a wedge. Therefore, in theory, angles matter much less at short distances than they do at longer distances.
The data agree. From 100-150 yards in the fairway, it is of nearly zero benefit for a PGA Tour player to have an advantageous angle. From 180-250 yards in the fairway, a good angle provides a player with about 0.15 strokes of an advantage.
Angles matter much less in today’s game than they mattered decades ago. Since players hit the ball farther, they will have more wedges into holes, and angles do not matter on a wedge shot. Furthermore, to accommodate modern players, most golf courses have lengthened and narrowed, which removes the option of aiming for an advantageous angle.
The Fried Egg has an excellent article on the evolution of Augusta National, site of The Masters. The following screenshot of Hole #11 at Augusta is from their article:
As you can see in the above picture, today’s version of the hole varies quite a bit from the architect’s original design. With the original design, players could hit tee shots down the right side of the fairway, leaving themselves an advantageous angle into a green positioned against a pond. The architect intended for the hole to play this way: reward players who find the right side of the fairway.
Since today’s players have shorter yardages into the hole and hit the ball higher, finding an advantageous side of the fairway is no longer necessary. It is no longer possible either, as you can see in the second picture of the side-by-side. In response to observing players dismantle the hole in the 1990s, Augusta planted trees down the right side of the hole, halving the width of the fairway.
In addition to negatively impacting the environment, distance increases remove strategic elements of a golf course. Maybe something should change.
Messi
This past week FC Barcelona formally announced that Lionel Messi, one of the greatest soccer players of all time, will be leaving the team after spending the entirety of his career with the club. The team cited financial reasons. Going back to last summer, some of the writing was on the wall.
FC Barcelona has a history of signing players to massive contracts, much of which is paid on credit and facilitated by banks. This ESPN article from June 2020 explains an eyebrow-raising transaction that illustrated the financial stress of the club. Last June, FC Barcelona agreed to sell a player to Juventus for €72m and Juventus agreed to sell a player back to FC Barcelona for €60m.
The transaction took place for (solely?) accounting reasons. By selling a player, teams book immediate income, yet they are also able to amortize the incoming player’s salary over the duration of his contract. The tactic results in booking a large profit for each team, but their debt does not disappear. Without completing the transaction, FC Barcelona’s board would have been personally responsible for 15% of the club’s financial losses.
So yeah, if you are resorting to transactions like that, you are probably not in great shape to resign Lionel Messi during a global pandemic.
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Email: Joseph.LaMagnaGolf@gmail.com
Twitter: @JosephLaMagna
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Peyton Manning’s Hall of Fame speech was spectacular.
No Laying Up’s conversation with Peter Kostis on the evolution of modern golf. Very relevant to today’s newsletter!