The Hickory Shaft of Sports-League Disciplinary Codes?
brinkley | March 9, 2010Steve Eling recently called the PGA disciplinary policy “the hickory shaft of sports-league disciplinary codes” and “an antiquated joke, the vestiges of a flawed philosophy that dates back to an earlier era“. While I agree that John Daly, the subject of the Eling’s disdain, should be disciplined, I find the “hickory shaft” and “antiquated joke” lines a cute and inaccurate literary reference.
Hickory wood has a unique combination of strength, toughness, and elasticity with a shock-resistancy that makes it an ideal choice for a golf shaft. While I’ve broken more than a couple of shafts (due to a poor swing execution), I’ve got more a couple hundred shafts that are still going some 90 years after they were installed. Properly installed on a classic Stewart iron or a Jack White wood you’ve got an instrument that in the hands of a master brings rounds of ohs and ahs and in the hands of a rank amateur performs as well as first year student on the violin.
It’s quite different form the composites shafts and clubs we have today. Clubs and shafts that have made the game so easy that golfers with really poor swings are sporting low single digit handicaps. If they would use a hickory shafted club they would quickly find out how poor of a golfer they really are. Today’s clubs and shafts are a product of our “everyone wins” society. No longer are there winners and losers, just winners. No longer can you miss a shot a 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the sweet spot and it have a major impact on your distance, it still goes 95% of your distance. There is no penalty for a poor strike, for hitting the ball into the rough, for screwing up.
No, I think the PGA disciplinary policy is more like the clubs of today. Daly is missing the sweet spot significantly and PGA is acting just like modern clubs by punishing with just a mere 5% loss. What Daly needs is a good session with one of those strong, tough, elastic, shock resistant (to the deliverer not the delivery) hickory shaft meetings of the minds out behind the wood shed from a bygone era.
I wonder how close that swing would be to a golf swing?