Golf's Digital Divide 228
theodp writes "Are $50,000 simulators and $4,500 sensor vests driving a wedge between golf's haves and have-nots? That's the question posed by the WSJ, who reports that a new generation of expensive high-tech tools is stoking a costly arms race among golfers looking for an edge in a sport that already has an elitist reputation."
And lo, the day has come.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I just hope the same never happens to... (Score:3, Insightful)
Eve
No way (Score:5, Funny)
My life is over. Anyone want my user id before I go to end it all?
Re:No way (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a saying among photographers: the amateur says "gee, I wish I had better equipment." The professional says "gee, I wish I had more time." The master says "gee, I wish I had better light."
Applies to lots of things, including golf, except you might have to change the light thing. Or maybe not.
Re:No way (Score:3, Interesting)
They make contact lenses so you can change "the light thing".
..., and grey-green for sports like golf, where the background environment is what's visually important. Both colors filter out a significant amount of overall light, but they also sharpen and improve contrast, so they have a brightening effect, says Alan Reichow, who
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70154-0.htm l [wired.com]
"The lenses come in amber
Re:No way (Score:2)
Buddy... if this is your idea of being "rich", I wonder if you're not serving latte's at Starbucks for a living.
Re:No way (Score:2)
Re:No way (Score:2)
What's important isn't [always] necessarily the purpose of the game.
It's the chitchat which goes on whilst playing. You aren't going to talk about various things going on whilst you are swimming laps or hanging out at the local go-kart racing.
If you are good enough to play [and have enough to pay], you're stepping up to a higher level of access others may not have. Michael J. Fox steaming opening corporate mail as well as sneaking into executive meetings doesn't happen every day of the week. And sho
Running (Score:2)
Clothes - about $50 for an outfit (top/shorts/socks).
Re:Running (Score:2)
why would people want WATCHES with computer sync?? if you're life's THAT important that your watch needs to stay in sync with your computer, you need a vacation.
Re:Running (Score:2)
Re:Running (Score:2)
Three reasons.
1: To sync the time. Modern PCs automatically correct their clocks with various atomic-clock based schemes.
2: To record the data from the heartrate / GPS / whatever system on the watch.
3: To set the alarms on the watch.
Re:Running (Score:2)
-Z
Re:Running (Score:3, Informative)
Swimming can be really inexpensive, especially if you forget about the swimsuit !!
Re:Running (Score:2)
That said, I haven't played golf in like 4 years because it's more expensive where I live now.
I have been to the driving range a couple of times, but that was with the Cub Scouts (my assistant works at the course, and they let us in for free!).
Re:No way (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No way (Score:2)
Hmmm, my ID is lower than his.
Re:No way (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No way (Score:2)
Huh? Isn't "TubeSteak" the cause of goatse?
Oh wait, with an ID like mine...
This Just In! (Score:2)
Re:This Just In! (Score:2, Funny)
Thus, I propose a NEW sport, which I humbly name "money-ball".
The way it works is, you have a big bonfire. Throwing $20 into the bonfire gives you one point. The game continues until one side forfeits. Whoever has the most points at the end wins!
Fun for hours!
Re:This Just In! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This Just In! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This Just In! (Score:2)
Re:This Just In! (Score:2, Insightful)
I am shocked... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I am shocked... (Score:2)
Re:I am shocked... (Score:2)
Re:I am shocked... (Score:2)
Golf sucks anyway (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Golf sucks anyway (Score:2)
Doesn't help (Score:5, Informative)
That's not to mention the fact that in golf a fair bit of the skill is in knowing what to do, not just how to do it.
You almost got the main point (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're a Tiger woods then perhaps equipment that gives you an extra 1% edge is worth it, but most people would not tell the difference. The biggest success determining factors are ability and practice. Expensive kit does nothing unless you actually use it.
Marketers understand what drives buying for premium spending sports (golf, fly fishing,...). Most of the sportsmen don't have enough time to get out and practice sufficiently and feel a bit guilt about it. Being able to buy the toys helps alleviate that feeling of guilt rather than actually improving the game directly.
Re:You almost got the main point (Score:2)
Re:You almost got the main point (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, 15 yards can be the difference between using a 5 iron or a 4 iron. This makes a big difference for some people.
As for putting you're dead on of course. If these same people were really serious about improving their game by 7 strokes or so, they would spend at least an hour every day practicing a routine of puts. Or better yet, spend the money on a putting green for the backyard. It's the best way to improve your game. count how many 10' putts you miss in a game. You would probably be amazed.
Another thing with many of those huge drivers is they have a much larger sweet spot. This will keep you out of the woods a couple times as they are more "forgiving". This is a classic example of equipment improving a score instead of skill, prevalent in bowling as well (all the new cover stocks to improve hooking on oily lanes to create better pocket entry angle resulting in less 10 and 7 pins hanging around, etc).
The most amazing thing is the shafts people buy. So many people buy those ultra flexible shafts but they don't have enough club speed to use them so their hands get too far in front of the ball and they end up decelerating when they make contact resulting in shorter shots.
Gold junkies are known to go nuts and pay way too much for things. I love the game but have never bought anything but balls. Luckily I have a brother who's all too obsessed with the game and passes down decent equipment. He's really good at the game at least.
Re:You almost got the main point (Score:2)
Re:You almost got the main point (Score:2)
I'm happy though - there's only th
Re:Doesn't help (Score:2)
Re:Doesn't help (Score:2)
Re:Doesn't help (Score:2)
O RLY? (Score:3, Insightful)
If we draw a line based on income, what else does that set a precedent for? Genetics can also provide an advantage; how should that be resolved? What about in other situations? Do I want my doctor to have inferior training than another, because having access to expensive training tools gives him an 'unfair' competitive edge in the health market?
Re:O RLY? (Score:2, Informative)
Oh boo hoo! (Score:3, Insightful)
At a cost of $60 for green fees (the lowest around here), the wedge between golfing "Haves" and "Have-nots" begins before you even reach the gilded gates of the course. Add in golf-cart and clubs, plus drinks afterwards, it's easy to drop $120 to go golfing.
Phooey...
Re:Oh boo hoo! (Score:3, Insightful)
I take it you haven't been to a baseball game lately either.
Re:Oh boo hoo! (Score:2)
You wouldn't have to have 17 friends for soccer, various disc sports, basketball, tennis, racquetball or running. These things won't cost you
Re:Oh boo hoo! (Score:2)
Re:Oh boo hoo! (Score:2)
Re:Oh boo hoo! (Score:2)
I've found the best times to go out are at the ass crac
Re:Oh boo hoo! (Score:2)
OT Story (Score:2)
I had some nice equipment and good fitness (180 miles/week) at the time and consistently got my head handed to me by guys much older than me on what would be considered "ordinary" kit for an American bike racer.
Practice is the great equalizer. I have a hard time believing it's that different in golf.
Re:Uh, I hate to tell you this... (Score:2)
Re:Uh, I hate to tell you this... (Score:2)
silly (Score:2, Insightful)
As a golfer (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:As a golfer (Score:2)
The Middle Class Brat Experience (Score:5, Interesting)
I golfed for 18 years. It's a great head game, really almost zen like, but championship calibre play doesn't come from expensive toys. Expensive toys can hone natural talent but that's about it. For all that, expensive toys can ruin natural talent.
Micheal Jordan was touted a a "physical genius", whatever that is. When Jordan turned to baseball it was said his physical genius would allow him to achieve the same greatness in baseball as he did in B ball. Did not happen, and it's likely Jordan had access to every toy available.
The X factor will always be part of championship play and all the toys for all the boys won't replace it.
Re:Soccer (Score:2)
perfect golf ball (Score:2, Informative)
So good it was immediately outlawed. Which is fine but, you have to admit, golf is a pretty artificial sport.
Re:perfect golf ball (Score:2)
Re:perfect golf ball (Score:2, Informative)
Backspin makes the air on top move faster than the air on the bottom - relative to the direction of ball flight I think. Faster air has less pressure than slower air and generates lift.
I also think it generates less drag, but I don't remember why.
Partial side-spin creates hooks and slices. So less spin overall creates less hook/slice, but in some cases less distance.
For a club like a driver, backspin can actually cause a l
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:perfect golf ball (Score:2)
And there are sports that are more "real"? The very nature of sport is artifical.
Re:perfect golf ball (Score:2)
Natural "sport" - Sex (Score:2)
Have's and Have Nots? In Sports? (Score:2)
I'm not going to be using it. Does that make me a have not?
They're professional. And if an amateur can afford such a luxury, then all the power to them. Just like some can afford top of the line golf clubs and balls, and others can not.
Just like Lance Armstrong is able to have bikes custom made, helmets custom made, practice with out having a day
New Poll (Score:2, Funny)
What's new? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's new? (Score:5, Funny)
No that's the whole point of the wall street journal.
None of this matters... (Score:5, Informative)
The only things you need for golf are a swing you can repeat, and knowing how to putt. Neither require anything more than a normal set of clubs, and some practice.
Ben Hogan said it best that there is no reason the average person can't break 70. And there was no tricks, no $50k electric vests, no goofy clubs that collapse when you swing the wrong way, or anything else. It's just having a swing that repeats, and includes the fundamental things you need to have that all great golfers do.
Best thing to be a better golf game is get the Ben Hogan book about the 5 fundamentals. About $5-$10 at any bookstore. Ben Crenshaw has a video on putting that's also good, and it's about the same price if you can find it.
Re:None of this matters... (Score:2)
Re:None of this matters... (Score:2)
Other than that it's a great book.
Grip the club right. Stand at address properly. Keep your lower body still in your back swing. Make sure your shoulders turn so your left shoulder near your chin during the back swing. Follow through by not hitting the ball but swinging through it and release all the while keeping your lower body still.
Re:None of this matters... (Score:2)
Re:None of this matters... (Score:2)
Cinderella story..... (Score:2, Funny)
But does that simulator include using flowers for driving practice? Oh, I think not.
Besides, most of the folks I know golf because it's a good excuse to swill something from the beverage cart, enjoy being outside instead of in their offices/cubicles, and fire off jokes that would otherwise score them a 30 minute meeting with their manager and an HR rep.
Obligatory (Score:2)
So which wedge are we talking about here: pitch, sand, lob? Inquiring minds want to know.
Oh, and overall, golf is a very very expensive game, both because of the cost of maintaining the course and the amount of stuff designed for rich people who think their problem is with their equipment and not their skill at the game. This fits neatly in the second category.
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Homer: Mmmm, open-faced club sandwich.
Wha? (Score:2, Funny)
Or did you mean "Gorf"?
delusional (Score:2)
Very few of the have nots can even afford to buy the clubs and balls, much less the green fees, necesary for a good game of golf. Therefore, the have not, in the classic sense, are not even an issue. What we are talki
Keeping up with the Wilshires. (Score:3, Interesting)
The expensive tools aren't about "having an edge" on the green. It's a way of trying to create a new layer of socio-economic separation in the group of players. Golf has been a pasttime of the affluent and powerful for awhile. And it used to be a game that stayed in that domain. But the more people have been shouldering up the cost of equipment to get started (partially as part of corporate ass-kissing to try to get a leg up in office politics) and with more and more public golf courses springing up the game just isn't "exculsive" enough for the Good Ol' Boys anymore.
So they take it up a notch. How hardcore a golfer are you? "Oh, well I spent $1000 on this space age driver." "Oh well, I have a $4500 simulator."
It's just a new game of keeping up with the Jones's with an entry price set high enough to keep the riff-raff out.
Re:Keeping up with the Wilshires. (Score:2)
But, for golf I don't think that's the primary driver. Golf is such a frustrating and addicting sport (which is a very bad combination). Addicted golfers will do or pay just about anything to improve their game.
No faking a good score (Score:2)
Are $50,000 simulators and $4,500 sensor vests driving a wedge between golf's haves and have-nots? That's the question posed by the WSJ, who reports that a new generation of expensive high-tech tools is stoking a costly arms race among golfers looking for an edge in a sport that already has an elitist reputation.
If you play golf regularly you see how ridiculous this notion is. Golf is the most honest test of skill in all of sports. There is no faking a good score or hiding a bad one. The advantage of th
This only matters if you care. (Score:2)
If you're so competitive that you have to "beat" other golfers (let alone spending thousands of dollars to do so), it's time for you to take up an actual sport. You know, where you break a sweat...or at least have to walk from one point on the playing surface to another.
Won't someone think of the millionaires?! (Score:2)
computer needed to make tee times (Score:3, Interesting)
It used to be done over the phone, but now my godparents had to buy a computer and internet access exclusively to reserve tee times at their local course.
It can be pretty rough if you have never used a computer before...
Then and Now (Score:5, Interesting)
1. persimmon woods
2. hickory shafts
3. blade irons
4. something called a "mashie niblick" (look it up, for a trip down memory lane)
5. leather balls stuffed with feathers
Now, thanks to new technology we play with:
1. oversized titanium drivers
2. graphite shafts
3. cavity back irons
4. 60-degree wedges
5. four layer solid-core distance balls
Now for the kicker - according to the USGA, the average handicap hasn't dropped significantly. What does that tell us?
Re:Then and Now (Score:2)
It tells us that a lot more people have taken up golf, people that lack the talent or time to become decent, but who thanks to technology can keep their scores under 100 anyway, having a good time.
Remember what the equipment (r)evolution has done for the PGA tournaments - the courses have to be changed in order for the game not to look like miniature golf.
Golf is a rich man's game ? Ha ! (Score:2)
Like, Polo.
With a buy-in in the multi-million dollar range for a decent day-to-day selection of horses, grounds fees, and to cover vet bills, you can get rid of all the pesky dollar-competitive issues you have in golf.
Not that I'm playing much polo - I'm still saving up for the Polo shirts
Dosent matter... (Score:2)
That said... Money DOES matter. If you have enough income that you can spend 20 hrs a week riding a bike or hitting a golf ball, you're going to be better off
Old story... (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, this haves vs. the have-nots thing is a bunch of hogwa
Algorithms (Score:2, Interesting)
Come on! I wanna know what sensors they put on people and in the clubs, and then I wanna know how they turn the raw data from those sensors into usable data like position in 3d space and orientation.
Is this stuff patented? Patents are public record...
Haha! Reverse patent trolling!
1) Search patent database for good patents
2) Come up with awesome idea using the patent
3) License patent from owner cheaply
4) Rele
arrggghhg the sun!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Haves and Have-Mores (Score:2)
Dinghy Sailing's just as bad... (Score:2)
Me? I just try to make sure I'm somewhere in the middle of the field... I have plenty of fun anyway... plus people are amazed my boat is still out there every year
If you want to see the real gap between the haves an
And then Tiger uses two drivers in one game (Score:3, Insightful)
Silicon Valley started to go downhill when executives started playing golf instead of raquetball and tennis.
Re:pain in the ass (Score:2)
Re:pain in the ass (Score:2)
To be fair, consider how Slashdot gets its news. I'm a Nintendo fan boy. I run around finding all kinds of Nintendo related news. Often times, I find those news here on Slashdot as well. Doesn't bother me for the simple reason that I know how Slashdot gets its stories.
Re:its not the equipment (Score:2)
I've always hated the sticks that weren't all wood. Aluminum was the rage when I was really playing, and they have moved up to composite. I never felt I could feel the puck well on the stick with anything but wood.
And the blade will fall off my skates before I get another pair. My Tacks are the perfect shape of my feet. Hell, when the blade falls off, I'll have them rivet another blade on there.
Re:OT: Golf Joke (Score:2)
A: Because they'd already invented golf and curling
Re:Who cares? (Score:2)
I can't stand the "get in the hole!" guys at the PGA, myself.