Detailed Discussion on Technology's Impact on the Game with Craig Thomas
In this discussion, Craig Thomas discusses his consumption of golf content and the influx of youth in professional tournaments. He mentions that he gathers most of his content from social media, golf publications, and PGA magazine. While Thomas mainly participates in senior events now, he acknowledges the presence of talented young golfers and their impact on the game.
Thomas also highlights the increase in recreational youth players, attributing it partially to the pandemic. Many individuals who previously showed little interest in golf took it up during the lockdown and have continued with the sport. The conversation then shifts to the obsession with distance in golf and the role of technology in achieving it. Thomas mentions how golf balls have evolved, allowing players to hit longer distances and enhancing the significance of fitness in the game.
The course setups in tournaments have adapted to defend against longer drives by increasing the length of courses and implementing challenging roughs. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the possibility of distance rollbacks and the concept of bifurcation in equipment rules between professional and recreational players. Thomas expresses doubts about the feasibility of enforcing different equipment rules and emphasizes the enjoyment that comes from being able to play with the same equipment as professional golfers.
Overall, the interview highlights the impact of technology on golf, from content consumption to equipment advancements, as well as the growing interest in the sport among younger generations.
Craig Thomas
I don't consume as much golf content during my season, which is really, I would say, from mid May through mid September, I don't have the opportunity to watch as much as I would like. That was pre social media and all that other stuff. That's how I gathered all my content. And the golf publications as well. I get all the publications at the golf shop, also get PGA magazine that PGA sends out. So I try to keep up on as much as possible, put them in my backpack, and when I'm traveling, you know, browse through everything, try and see what's new out there.
Sajiv Mehta
Yep. Okay. And I know you've played a lot of golf tournaments in your career and a lot of professional tournaments. Would you say you've seen an influx of youth in those tournaments more recently, or do you think it stayed mostly, like, the same demographics in these tournaments?
Craig Thomas
Well, now that I'm one of the older guys, I could say, yeah, there looks like there's a lot more youth out there, but they're almost all younger than I am. But most of the events that I compete in now are senior events, so I'm not seeing the youth. But when I do go to events and when I do watch, I was fortunate enough to get down to the masters last year, spend some time watching Cameron young. Yeah, there's a lot of young guys out there that you see these swings that look incredible, and you're googling them, trying to figure out who they are and where they go to school, and there's a lot of good golfers out there coming up.
Sajiv Mehta
And in your experience as a head pro, have you seen more recently that youth are coming and just playing recreationally more? Is that something that's, like are they taking more of an interest in the game?
Craig Thomas
I think so. I think actually, the pandemic led to a lot of that as well. We had some of our members, as you know, you being a member at Metropolis, some of our members kids anywhere between the age, I would say 14 and 24 who never really showed much of an interest in golf prior. Now they couldn't really do anything else, and all of a sudden, we had people taking up golf that had never really shown an interest, and to their credit, they've stuck with it.
Sajiv Mehta
And we've all seen this sort of obsession or this obsession with distance that's started recently. Right. How do you think that's come about, and how do you think that technology has affected that, and has it affected the way you practice or the way your game has?
Craig Thomas
Yeah, distance is the thing. People are hitting farther now. Literally, as I was waiting to come on here, I was flipping through Facebook, and they showed and I'll just call it up here. It went somewhere else, but it was showing one of the young guys on tour and his carry distances, everything from his driver down to his 58 degree wedge, and he's carrying his pitching wedge 155 yards. That's crazy.
Sajiv Mehta
Yes.
Craig Thomas
So distance has become more of a focus for a lot of people, but it's always been a focus. I mean, I remember my first trip to Tour school. I was playing second stage out in Indiana, and there was this guy behind me that on a par four where I was hitting a driver and nine iron. A driver, eight iron. He was hitting a driver. And we're standing on the green looking back, and there's a ball rolling like 60 yards from the green. And long story short, that was John Daley. So distance has always been a thing, and people that can hit it far, but yet can still get the ball in the hole and have good short games, you definitely have a little bit of an advantage, I believe.
Sajiv Mehta
And in tournaments, how have you seen the course setups change to try and defend against that?
Craig Thomas
They just get longer. Any of the courses now they're building. They're building them longer. The tour doesn't really go back to very many of the old classic courses. I mean, Westchester Country club, when I was your age and younger, they had had the Buick classic there. It used to be the manufacturer's handover, Westchester Classic. It's a very short course given today's standards, but the guys never really went super low there because it's kind of an old traditional course. I think that the USGA playing in the senior open this year had a little bit of length to it, but the way they get around that is the rough. They don't mind you hitting it long, but you better hit it straight, because if you weren't hitting it straight, you were having a difficult time moving anything other than a wedge out of that rough.
Sajiv Mehta
Okay. And distance has obviously come as a result of technology, but what do you think technology has had a role in other parts of golf, like not specifically distance, but training, whether it be launch monitors or cameras. Do you think that's made it easier to improve, or do you think it still requires the same amount of hard work?
Craig Thomas
I think it still requires the same amount of hard work. I mean, you might get to the answer quicker, but I still think you need to put in the work to make an effective change. But talking a little bit more about technology and everything, I think the biggest change is the golf ball. The golf ball. You never played a Balata golf ball, a soft Balata golf ball with a persimmon wood that if you swung as hard as some of these guys do now and you hit it a little bit offline, that ball just curved forever. I mean, you wouldn't even find it. So the fact that the golf balls don't spin as much, don't curve as much, they don't spin offline as much. I think that has allowed fitness to kind of really add so much to the game. I mean, guys are just younger, stronger, they're working out, they're not hanging out, and they just hit it and it goes.
Sajiv Mehta
Yeah. And speaking of distance, the USGA and PGA have been proposing distance rollbacks for a while now. Do you think that's a possibility, that that's going to happen? And if it does, do you think that it would be a good thing for golf?
Craig Thomas
I don't know how they could possibly do that. I know they've talked about they've been talking about it for a long time, for decades, honestly. And then they talk about this bifurcation of the rules. Having the Tour have to abide by one set of rules and equipment, and everybody else who's playing amateur golf at the club could play other equipment, but that's one of the beauties of the game. I mean, you can basically play the same clubs Rory Mcllroy is playing, and people enjoy they, whether it be the putter, the ball, the irons, the wedges, whatever, they feel as though they're using the same.
Sajiv Mehta
And that definitely gives people a way to compare yourself to Rory Mcllroy. Them obviously, you're not in the same league as them, but you can still see them on the golf course. You can say, oh, I was in that same position yesterday, or something like that.
Craig Thomas
Especially when you go when you have a chance to go out and play Beth Page Black and you've seen the guys play there, and now you go out and play there and you remember so and so this is where his drive was, and he hit it onto the green, and you're standing there. There's no way I'm getting on the green. But guys like to try. It makes the game of golf a little bit different than everything else.
Sajiv Mehta
So you'd say that it's not likely that they're going to roll back distance, and even if they do, you don't support, like, one set of rules for the pros and one set of rules for recreational golfers.
Craig Thomas
I find that would be very hard to enforce. Take our club, for example. Am I standing on the first tee and making sure everybody's playing the right equipment? I don't want to tell one of my members that they can't use you can't use that driver or you can't use that ball or whatever it mean. You want everybody to enjoy the game.
Sajiv Mehta
Okay. All right. Thank you so much.
Sajiv Mehta
That's all I had for today. I just wanted to get your opinion on the technology part of what's happening.
Craig Thomas
Yeah, I mean, I think it's good. I don't know how they keep coming out with new stuff every year, but these companies, every year they've got something new, and right now. I was just out at Callaway and they're already working on things not that are coming out in 2023. They've got 2024 stuff that they're already making three D models on. It's very impressive of very smart people out there.
Sajiv Mehta
Yeah. It's becoming more of a science than ever before. 100%.