The golf ball that made golfers too good
Golf’s distance debate, explained.
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
These days, pro golfers are hitting the ball far. Really far. And it’s creating a problem: because modern golfers can reach the hole with fewer shots than before, older courses — like Augusta National Golf Club, Oakmont Country Club, and others — are becoming obsolete. Now, professional organizations, like the United States Golf Association, are struggling to find a solution for big powerful golfers like Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, and Tiger Woods. While the jump in distance is due to lots of factors, conversation is centering on the controversial possibility of redesigning the golf ball to reduce distance. It’d be the latest turn in the ball’s long history: Golf balls have evolved from “featheries,” to gutties, to balata balls, and eventually dimpled modern balls. But the biggest, and most recent change? The almost-instantaneous switch from wound balls to solid core multilayer balls like the Titleist Pro V1.
A previous version of this video contained an audio glitch at 2:35. The error has been corrected.
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what’s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com
Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Or our podcasts: https://www.vox.com/podcasts
Follow Vox on Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H
Or on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o
Man I sure do love Wii golf
Antler Coco so do Wii
Yo I shot par playing Wii Golf for the first time in years. Absolute professional here.
I hear the music
Golf; fun to play, excruciatingly boring to watch
Unless you’re watching Achievement Hunter.
+Matt Cassie 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
It’s not that boring, but Basketball is way more boring if you wanna start
Save for Tiger Woods’ dramatic 2005 Masters chip-in.
Depends on the situation
The only golf I’ve ever played is Wii sports golf
I’ve always been of the opinion that golf is a sport that’s best played, not watched.
It’s one man against himself, basically, and that doesn’t make for exciting watching.
What’s with the audio? (2:35 etc.)
+Wimbold almost forgot to wear my tinfoil hat, thanks for the reminder
The editor probably forget make a transition between the songs, so it started way to loud in the video. Wich make super distracting in headphones too.
The video bust a nut ~~~
+S U P R E M E
You wanna be like me 😉
what noise??
2:35 ; The sound guy falls asleep on the board
Na, he was just jammin out
I didn’t notice anything can someone explain, please.
+Aidan Hamilton music is too loud for the narration
the time stamp is off by 4 seconds, you have to notice the music beat 2:30 and after there is a short pause
I don’t hear it but I’m viewing on the smartphone
1:31 The real reason Woods was so heavily penalized in the pro circuit was because of his illegal use of telekinesis on the field
Hey Jop
This explains why they are hard af but jump like a bouncing ball
I’m having audio issues and 2:36 made me think I was going crazy! haha
+Faizan Khan they prob fixed it.
They did. It doesn’t sound like that any more.
Now it is just a myth.
You need stereo headphones for it I think?
I don’t hear anything.
So a multilayered ball is basically the power of “Yeet!” + the power of “Kobe!”?
Got it!
ah yes, the fabled Yobe
if i had the money to make youtube have a medal system, i’d have given you one
Jamaleum Years of space age technology has gone into the golf ball
I hate how accurate this is. I hate it so much.
Starfeeesh1 or a Keet
The only golf I’ve ever played is mini golf
That’s because golf is a sport for rich white men
+Caro Tea anyone can pick up a club : )
Wii sports golf :/
The end is the best: when you go to the newspaper library, the same thing always happens. You may not remember it, but almost always the debates are the same;)
Happy Friday everyone, thanks for watching our vidyas!
+tobi maru whats wrong with the sport?
Hey dudes! Great vid! Can you do a video on how racket technology has changed tennis since wooden rackets?
Yeah nice vidyas.
I think the chart of “Driving Distances on PGA Pro Tour” uses deceptive framing. By starting the Y axis at 250 instead of 0, it looks like there is a much larger increase in driving distance, percentage wise, than there actually is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misleading_graph#Truncated_graph
“flied farther” I’m no English teacher but I think it’s “flew further”
This is cool but you guys also forgot stuff. The technique Also has changed over time. Another thing is that tour players don’t got the farthest in terms of distance but the longest drive players do. For example Mike Austin holds the world record for the longest drive in professional play, driving 515 yards at the Winterwood Golf Course in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1974.
The golf ball that REALLY “made golfers to good” came out two years before the Pro V1. It was called the Lady Precept. It was a cult phenomenon and great players’ dirty little secret all around the country. Men would draw their putting line over the Lady script on the ball so people didn’t tease them but you could still recognize it by the maroon font. No pro shop in the country could keep them in stock. Titleist effectively rebranded the Lady Precept for men. FWIW.
If it within regulation. In the end, golf still tricky sport. One day you might play well the other you might be suck.
Caleb M IMHO the revolutionary change in golf balls led by the success of the Lady Precept, and culminating in the development of the Pro V1, was a reimagining of what made a golf ball perform. This is what I meant by my use of the term “copying”. I by no means meant to belittle Titleist and the staff who developed the Pro V line, it was an incredible achievement, or did I mean to suggest they ripped off Precept . But I believe Titleist’s success started with the ball industry throwing out the old rules of golf ball design because of the Lady Precept. If I remember correctly conventional wisdom back then was to play a ball with a compression that matched your swing speed to achieve maximum performance. The original Pro V through out that dated model because the Lady Precept proved it inaccurate. My memory isn’t what it use to be but I think that first ProV had a mid 70’s compression, that was unheard of at the time for a “tour ball”. The Lady Precept also had an incredible tough cover for its time because women’s focus groups wanted more durability. Back then the thinking was harder cover meant less feel but that wasn’t and isn’t the case, we now understand many other factors are at play. The credit I believe the Lady Precept deserves comes from the fact it broke the mold and sent the industry in a new direction. And the Laddie came out well after the success of the Lady in order to appease men to ashamed to play a women’s ball.
yoonit78 the balls you mentioned were incremental technological improvements in the make up of the golf ball. The revolutionary idea the Pro V1 capitalized on, that led the industry in a new direction, IMHO started with the Lady Precept. It forced a complete reimagining of how a golf ball reacted to the club and its subsequent performances. The old rules of golf ball manufacturing couldn’t explain the outstanding performance strong players were seeing with the Lady Precept. All the old rules of compression, “feel”, and top to bottom spin had to be recalibrated. The re-evaluation and discarding of previously conceived notions was the catalyst for change and I believe it started with the industry attempting to explain why the Lady Precept worked
Eric Gold my 6 y.o. is learning the game with the Maxfli Revolution. I recently found a cardboard box of Revolution I got off the range after a USGA event in the 90’s
+Caleb M Yeah I think Tiger Woods and his revolutionary way of doing the Athletics is the big part why golfers today are hitting further and further. up till the 1990’s golfers were not getting in shape like they are now by hitting a weight room for specificity golf training and a training room that has the tech to decipher how the player is hitting the ball and if it is the best for that player. Even now one can find indoor training facilities for people looking to learn to play golf better.
How do you go about finding random news articles about golf from 1936?
Newspapers.com. The have every archived newspaper. The content in archived papers from the early 1900s are rather interesting. Go back to the 1800s and readers today would be amazed at what was printed.
just google it duh
Same as anyone who need news article from 1936.
That hole is also a bit easier for Bubba because he’s left handed
Cornwall1888 I would disagree because playing a slice usually makes the ball go a bit shorter
Jared Ponmakha yes but a slice is easier to control and bubba doesn’t lack distance
Disagree, a draw is easier to control. A slice tends to fly farther awry on a golf hole.
They make it longer now so it don’t matter anymore.
+Cornwall1888 yes, easier to control and promotes a high ball flight which would be needed to get it over the trees so quickly
The thumbnail looked like a chad version of a golfball
I just watched a video about “Golf Balls”
OilyDumplings — same, and I don’t even play golf
+Jackie L Vox somehow makes it interesting though!!!
My favourite part of this video is at 3:16 🤣🧔🏻
Hahahahha rick in this video 🤣
After he finished cutting the golf ball, he did cut by half his own BALLS 🙂
SCSA wants to know your location
Never though I would see you here
#disapointment
Ayeeee
I wish I had the problem of hitting it too far.