Major Manufacturer Minimizes Technology
Wally Uihlein President
and CEO
Acushnet Company
"Yet in spite of all of the above and in addition to the space age golf balls and golf clubs available to today's PGA Tour players, the fact is that the average score on the PGA Tour has improved but one stroke over the past seventeen years. How can this be?
PGA TOUR Scoring Average 1980-1997
If there was to be a trend towards Armageddon, the first place this would be seen would be in the average scores generated by the greatest players in the world. During the period 1980-1997, the average scoring per round has just barely improved by one stroke plus.
Vardon Scoring Average 1980-1997
The winning Vardon Trophy average has only improved marginally, which concurs with that trend reflected by the overall PGA TOUR Scoring Average."
"Driving Accuracy 1980-1997
The topic of a past editorial suggested that oversize drivers were responsible for the coming end of the world as we know it. Driving accuracy has, in fact, shown a demonstrable improvement yet this has not carried over into ...
Greens in Regulation 1980-1997
... any significant improvement in the number of greens hit in regulation per round, which has remained fairly constant during the period."
In Defense of Technology- Part I , Part II, Part III
Mr. Uihlein made no effort to determine precisely where (which part of the game) average scores declined by one stroke spread over the span of the past two decades. Scattered throughout the three articles, he lists other factors besides technology that he believed contributed to the one stroke average reduction. He clearly recognized and acknowledged that whatever effect there might have been from technology, the effect from technology was small and that other factors played a significant role in the small scoring reduction that was observed. Is this acknowledgement by the CEO of the company that owns Titleist Golf Clubs sufficient confirmation?
We will continue our study with a look at some derived evidence.
Editor's Note: The graph above entitled Unadjusted Vardon Scores is my own creation. Since 1987 or 1988 the Vardon scores have been adjusted to the field to account for differences between courses and other factors. Reminiscent of "proforma earnings" of wall street analysts or the "hedonic deflator" of the government, this has had the overall effect of lowering the reported scores for recent Vardon Winners. Prior to 1948, winners were determined based on a point system. The 1945 score is the average score of Byron Nelson during his epic year. The scores in my graph are unadjusted and differ from the reported winning scores for the Vardon Trophy.