As might be expected, the marketing men are winning. With their attention very firmly on golf-ball sales, they are getting high-handicappers to spend far more on those little white pills than could be justified either by talent or financial resources. All are incurable victims of the great obsession.
"Ego and marketing are the key factors," said Peter McDonald, a golf instructor based in Westchester, New York. "Some guys are really bad golfers but think they're Norman, so they buy balata. Whereas our best-selling ball should be a cheap rock."
The problem is that cheap rocks are not very stylish in golfing circles these days. And as players around the world attempt to buy a better game, the spending on equipment has doubled in the last 10 years to around $5.5 billion.
McDonald added: "For the average golfer, you put down any ball and you're going to get the same result." Which reminds me of John Mehigan, an American-based friend of mine, who emigrated there from Mullingar. When an irate player is tempted to blame his equipment, Mehigan will caution: "Remember, it's not the arrow, it's the Indian."
From the turn of the century until the late 1960s, almost all golf balls were made of a core of wound rubber, with a balata cover. Then, in 1968, the Spalding company introduced the durable, two-piece ball made of a solid rubber core and a rubber and polyurethane cover.
In recent years, only about 25 per cent of the roughly 850 million golf balls sold around the world each year, have been core wound. Of these, the biggest manufacturer is Titleist, which has trademarked the word Elastomer for the cover material on the ball Tiger Woods uses.
Meanwhile, each company tries to convince golfers that its latest model combines the distance and durability of two-piece balls with the feel of a balata. "What we're seeing is more emphasis on technology in advertising," said one expert. "They will have actual photographs of what the core of a golf ball looks like, which was of little or no interest to the golfer years ago."
The philosophy is, if it's different, it'll sell. Which explains the success of the Wilson Staff Titanium, currently promoted as "Golf's first titanium core ball," and "The greatest event since that sliced bread thing."
All the while, the most popular marketing pitch is that the ball goes further. And does it? Jack Nicklaus is among those leading players who believe it does. But the USGA insist they will not approve a ball that goes further than 296.8 yards in laboratory tests, a limit that has been in place since 1975.
"We want to play better without the effort," said USGA technical director Frank Thomas. "We believe in magic."
A. W. Tillinghast, who designed 14 courses in the Westchester area, including Winged Foot and Quaker Ridge, was a remarkable character, truly larger than life. Apart from being one of the game's most celebrated architects, he was actively involved in a variety of associated activities.
An accomplished player, he was also a writer, editor, photographer, promoter, historian and businessman. And for good measure, in a manner of speaking, he would engage in extensive drinking binges, punctuated by a penchant for waving a pistol.
As the spoiled, only son of wealthy parents, he became a backer of Broadway musicals; claimed to have invented the clipboard - which he failed to patent - and went on to become an antiques dealer to pay his bills during the American depression. He also played cricket and a crude form of street hockey but got hooked on golf when it invaded Philadelphia at the turn of the century.
Soon, he was making periodic trips to Scotland and taking lessons at St Andrews from the legendary Old Tom Morris. He later recalled: "Playing around the Old Course at St Andrews with the patriarch, made me feel as though my own game must seem glaringly new, just like walking up the church aisle in new, squeaky boots."
"He enjoys that perfect peace, that peace beyond all understanding, which comes at its maximum only to the man who has given up golf." - P. G. Wodehouse.
Given the demise of Austria's Hohe Brucke Open, won by Paul McGinley last year, it seems extraordinary that increased prize money of £800,000 should be at stake this week in the neighbouring Czech Republic. But the fact is that the Czechs have outstripped the Austrians in terms of golf development.
There are now 4,500 professional and amateur golfers in the Czech Republic, compared with 1,110 in the whole of Czechoslovakia 10 years ago. Granted, this is considerably fewer than the more popular sports of soccer and tennis, but it still represents dynamic growth.
Czech golf owes its beginings to the British monarch, Edward VII, who opened the country's first club in 1905 in the spa town of Marianske Lazne, where the Czech Open was launched three years ago. Very much an elitist sport, it was blacklisted by the communist regime in the 1950s as a middle-class anachronism.
After the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, however, golf became distinctly fashionable and over the next seven years, the total number of clubs rose from eight to 45, while the number of players has been increasing by 800 annually.
The cost of club membership varies from $6,500 for the cheapest to $80,000 for the most expensive, including a course that is actually covered for winter golf. A further 10 courses are currently under construction.
This day in golf history . . . On August 9th, 1977, Beth Daniel progressed to the third round of the US Women's Amateur at the Cincinatti CC. The 20-year-old from Charleston, South Carolina, was in a field that included future professionals, Patty Sheehan and Lori Garbacz. Daniel, who had captured the title at the first attempt in 1975, went on to win it for a second time and has since earned over $4 million on the LPGA Tour.
The 1965 Walker Cup clash at Baltimore CC, was unique in the history of the series, in that it marked the only time the match finished in a tie. It held added appeal from an Irish perspective insofar as Joe Carr was captain of the visiting team.
It was the occasion when Downing Gray, captain of this week's US team, lost to Ronnie Shade on the opening day but then gained a nail-biting, one hole win over Peter Townsend in the second-last match on the course. The outcome would be decided between the American, Mark Hopkins, and England's Clive Clark.
Many took the view that Clark's idea of grittiness was to speed down the MI, letting a white scarf tail from his Jaguar. But they were forced to radically alter that view, by the manner in which he handled one of the most tense finishes imaginable.
In the event, Hopkins seemed set to complete a remarkable American resurgence from 8-3 down after the opening day, when he was one up on Clark with one to play. Drives of equal length were hit down the 18th, but when it was deemed to be Hopkins's shot, he argued and won his point. "A tactical mistake - he wants to get on first and let his opponent stare at that white ball," mumbled Ed Tutwiller, a veteran of the US side.
He was proved right when Clark hit the green and Hopkins's approach landed in a rear bunker. Clark then sank a remarkable, 34-foot birdie putt for a halved match. The elusive, "Historic Tie" had happened - and the fear of the Americans had been surmounted. Had it not been for Baltimore, the historic victory at Peachtree in 1989 might never have happened.
Looking towards next week's USPGA Championship, it is interesting to note that the last European winner of the title was Tommy Armour. At Fresh Meadows CC, New York, he beat Gene Sarazen by one up to claim the 1930 championship. He was only the third European winner of the USPGA. The number of Europeans who won the major championships: British Open - 46; US Open - 17; US Masters - 6; USPGA - 3.
Teaser: In a match, A and B were all square playing the last hole. A had a short putt for a four. B holes a putt for a four. A, mistakenly believing that B had holed out in three strokes, shook hands with B, conceded the match and lifted the ball. At that point, B told A that he (B) had scored a four. What is the ruling?
Answer: A conceded the match. Even if A had not conceded the match, he lost it when he lifted his ball without marking its position and thereby incurred a penalty stroke under Rule 20-1.
