Should You Wear a Golf Glove?
What does science say about water and the human hand? You may have noticed that when your hands are soaked your fingers wrinkles. Wikipedia describes it as: “The wrinkles that occur in skin after prolonged exposure to water are sometimes referred to as ‘pruney fingers’ or water aging. This is a temporary skin condition where the skin on the palms of the hand or feet becomes wrinkly. Some researchers have proposed that this wrinkling response may have imparted an evolutionary benefit by providing improved traction in wet conditions.”
Human skin on the gripping surfaces of our hands and feet, furrows up creating tire tread-like traction certainly an “evolutionary benefit” but also in my experience a golf benefit: here is the rule of thumb for your golf game: When the water comes from the inside in the form of perspiration, the golf glove works well but when it comes from outside [rain] then a glove, unless its specially treated, probably doesn’t work as well as your own skin.
The Surly Pro has a Go at the Architects
Now its official – the guy who helped caused the problem is now part of the solution! No I’m not talking about Barney Frank and the housing industry collapse – I’m talking about Jack Nicklaus and the slow play crisis. When Jack was playing you could time him with a sundial; like Lots wife Nicklaus stood frozen over every shot – and millions copied him. But that wasn’t his biggest contribution to slow play; that is reserved for the almost impossible course layouts he built. The Nicklaus course design philosophy was recorded in an interview with Golf Week writer Bradley Klein a few years ago “I don’t take a lot of special consideration for women. Its like, “how do you design a course for a man who shoots 110?”
The Surly Pro answers that instead of shooting 110, and losing seven balls over five hours you could design the course so he shoots 80 and it only takes him two hours and one ball to do it. Granted that as Nicklaus aged and his ability to play his own courses diminished he softened his layouts but not so with other architects like Pete Dye who still builds courses that are so hard it takes five hours+ to play even if you’re an expert.
So what is the suggestion to ease slow play”? To speed up play, some including Nicklaus, are suggesting playing only 12 holes as was done last week in a golf tournament at a Nicklaus course in Ohio. Say what? That’s like wanting to shoot 72 and then ending your round when you get to 72 strokes – a solution that accomplishes the goal but destroys the process.
A tip from the Surly Pro: Never mind playing 12 holes --- instead, stop building such difficult golf courses.
