charnockpro
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- Aug 25, 2005
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O'Grady says golf technology makes Woods great
The former PGA Tour pro says the clubs and balls of today help average golfers do what only skilled players of years ago did.
By Krysten Oliphant, Detroit News
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. - Tiger Woods would not have stood a chance against Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
That is what former PGA player Mac O'Grady, 56, said Monday at Fieldstone Golf Course about the No. 1 golfer in the world.
O'Grady, who failed to qualify for Thursday's Buick Open, said Woods, the three-time PGA and four-time Masters Champion, is the worst driver to win the Masters.
"When Nicklaus and Palmer played, when [Ben] Hogan played and Sam Snead played, on a scale of zero to 10, they were a nine-plus," he said. "Tiger Woods is not even a one-plus."
O'Grady said technology is the reason for players' success today. A change in the drivers' grooves from a V shape to a box shape allows golfers to hit the ball farther with more spin.
When in the rough, players go straight for the hole instead of trying to reach the green. This, he said, has ruined golf.
"The reason why [Woods] can hit it on the green is because he has square grooves," he said. "He doesn't have that, he's dead. He cannot do it -- it's impossible. For him to go after Nicklaus's records is cheating. This is like steroids."
O'Grady, who shot a 1-over-par 73, has studied the swing for 23 years and plans to turn his research into a book.
"The problem is the teaching hypothesis," O'Grady said. "All the teachers have different theories, and anybody can say anything. It's unregulated. One of the reasons I've done the research study is to bring in the sciences, to try to clean up some of that hocus pocus. I did the research and the science because I think there's a lot of questions that have been unanswered."
He said technological advancements in clubs and balls have eliminated curve problems.
Balls used to have what he called a concentric arc dimple configuration, meaning their indentions were in a circular shape and each dimple was the same size, allowing for even dispersion of air across them. Now dimple sizes and positions vary, eliminating the balls' curve.
"It allows all these guys to come into the game that ordinarily couldn't do it," O'Grady said. "This ball is designed for the 30-handicap. It's not designed for the pro tour. The 30-handicapper hits the ball and it goes up to the apex, it comes down straight. It doesn't slice. So when the tour pro gets it, it's robbery. It's not fair."
He said there should be a special ball for PGA players with the concentric arc dimple pattern, which he said showed who had natural ability and who did not.
"The degree of athleticism has changed," he wrote in notes he took during qualifying. "What was humanly impossible is now technologically possible."
O'Grady, who won two PGA tournaments from 1983-89, made his own nearly impossible shot Monday when he hit into a hazard on the fifth hole.
He called an official after a disagreement with a player in his group about where McGrady had to drop, which he did three times before making the shot.
Monday was O'Grady's second PGA qualifying attempt this year. He quit the tour in 1990 because of a condition called spondylolisthesis, which he noticed when he started golfing left-handed.
A disc had broken in his back and moved forward on his spinal column, and he suffered nerve damage in his feet and other areas. It took three surgeries to correct.
"We started this project in '84, then three years later I said, 'OK, I'm going to take all this research and start applying it to my left-handed game. How long would it take me to develop the skills to go left-handed?' " he said.
"In 1987, I started really practicing left-handed, and three or four months later my back started bothering me really bad. If I had to do it all over again I would never touch a club left-handed."
O'Grady said he used the qualifying event as research for his book, taking note of driving distance and players' performance.
"I still love the game," he said. "I don't enjoy the technology because what's happening is these kids now are shooting 63s, 62s. What Michelle Wie is doing is not humanly possible. It's technologically possible because the balls go too straight, they go too far."
O'Grady said in the Champions Tour, what he called former "powder-puff" players such as Jay Haas are defeating "dinosaur guys who had the best technique."All those big players, they can't say anything because they're being paid by the manufacturers [for sponsorship]. But they know it's wrong. This is the worst dark chapter in the history of professional golf with this technology.
"Steroids [are] not in the athletes today -- [they're] in the balls and the drivers. Guys don't have to hit it far. The equipment is going to do it for them."
The former PGA Tour pro says the clubs and balls of today help average golfers do what only skilled players of years ago did.
By Krysten Oliphant, Detroit News
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. - Tiger Woods would not have stood a chance against Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
That is what former PGA player Mac O'Grady, 56, said Monday at Fieldstone Golf Course about the No. 1 golfer in the world.
O'Grady, who failed to qualify for Thursday's Buick Open, said Woods, the three-time PGA and four-time Masters Champion, is the worst driver to win the Masters.
"When Nicklaus and Palmer played, when [Ben] Hogan played and Sam Snead played, on a scale of zero to 10, they were a nine-plus," he said. "Tiger Woods is not even a one-plus."
O'Grady said technology is the reason for players' success today. A change in the drivers' grooves from a V shape to a box shape allows golfers to hit the ball farther with more spin.
When in the rough, players go straight for the hole instead of trying to reach the green. This, he said, has ruined golf.
"The reason why [Woods] can hit it on the green is because he has square grooves," he said. "He doesn't have that, he's dead. He cannot do it -- it's impossible. For him to go after Nicklaus's records is cheating. This is like steroids."
O'Grady, who shot a 1-over-par 73, has studied the swing for 23 years and plans to turn his research into a book.
"The problem is the teaching hypothesis," O'Grady said. "All the teachers have different theories, and anybody can say anything. It's unregulated. One of the reasons I've done the research study is to bring in the sciences, to try to clean up some of that hocus pocus. I did the research and the science because I think there's a lot of questions that have been unanswered."
He said technological advancements in clubs and balls have eliminated curve problems.
Balls used to have what he called a concentric arc dimple configuration, meaning their indentions were in a circular shape and each dimple was the same size, allowing for even dispersion of air across them. Now dimple sizes and positions vary, eliminating the balls' curve.
"It allows all these guys to come into the game that ordinarily couldn't do it," O'Grady said. "This ball is designed for the 30-handicap. It's not designed for the pro tour. The 30-handicapper hits the ball and it goes up to the apex, it comes down straight. It doesn't slice. So when the tour pro gets it, it's robbery. It's not fair."
He said there should be a special ball for PGA players with the concentric arc dimple pattern, which he said showed who had natural ability and who did not.
"The degree of athleticism has changed," he wrote in notes he took during qualifying. "What was humanly impossible is now technologically possible."
O'Grady, who won two PGA tournaments from 1983-89, made his own nearly impossible shot Monday when he hit into a hazard on the fifth hole.
He called an official after a disagreement with a player in his group about where McGrady had to drop, which he did three times before making the shot.
Monday was O'Grady's second PGA qualifying attempt this year. He quit the tour in 1990 because of a condition called spondylolisthesis, which he noticed when he started golfing left-handed.
A disc had broken in his back and moved forward on his spinal column, and he suffered nerve damage in his feet and other areas. It took three surgeries to correct.
"We started this project in '84, then three years later I said, 'OK, I'm going to take all this research and start applying it to my left-handed game. How long would it take me to develop the skills to go left-handed?' " he said.
"In 1987, I started really practicing left-handed, and three or four months later my back started bothering me really bad. If I had to do it all over again I would never touch a club left-handed."
O'Grady said he used the qualifying event as research for his book, taking note of driving distance and players' performance.
"I still love the game," he said. "I don't enjoy the technology because what's happening is these kids now are shooting 63s, 62s. What Michelle Wie is doing is not humanly possible. It's technologically possible because the balls go too straight, they go too far."
O'Grady said in the Champions Tour, what he called former "powder-puff" players such as Jay Haas are defeating "dinosaur guys who had the best technique."All those big players, they can't say anything because they're being paid by the manufacturers [for sponsorship]. But they know it's wrong. This is the worst dark chapter in the history of professional golf with this technology.
"Steroids [are] not in the athletes today -- [they're] in the balls and the drivers. Guys don't have to hit it far. The equipment is going to do it for them."