Tiger's Sounding Old In A Good Way: On Changing Technology

While the sports fan in us hates to hear an athlete waxing nostalgic, signaling the end most likely, it's fun to hear what things Tiger Woods notices about changes in the game. While he's too tactful to ever say what he's really thinking, his recent comments about the cut-missing propensity of the millennials was pretty revealing.

So was this, penned by his ownself in a year-end PGATour.com exclusive:

Also the technology. When I beat Davis Love III in a playoff at the Las Vegas Invitational in 1996, he had a 43-inch persimmon head driver. The transition to metal to where we are now with 460 cc drivers and 45-inch shafts being the norm, and the ball going from wound to solid construction … the technology has changed dramatically.

I had a conversation the other day with some of my friends who play golf. They're a little bit younger than me, but are amazed how much technology has changed. I said go back to when Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player and that generation of guys played. When they were in their prime and the end of their careers, technology never really changed except for the golf ball. It was always persimmon and steel. That was the reality. Now, some companies are asking guys to change equipment twice a year.

Oh to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation!

It is a profound point he makes though: Tiger excelled during a time of incredible change and adapted quite ably to the times. As much as golfers love to tinker and try the latest, greatest thing, his point is a sound one in that he adapted to some big changes as he was cranking out 14 major wins.