Your Views

Distance, distance, distance is all we seem to hear these days.

- 

LESS = MORE

Distance, distance, distance is all we seem to hear these days. It seems to be the macho buzz word. Balls that will give you an extra 10 yards, drivers that will help the amateur gain 30 yards, courses weighing in at over 7,800 yards.

It makes me a little sad that this is the road that golf manufacturers have taken – I think they have taken a wrong turn.

Harry Vardon and Seve Ballesteros, to name just two legends of the game, relied on pure instinct and talent to become the very best. I am not sure they would have appreciated the new technology. The game to them was about the sublime skills they painstakingly nurtured.

I hope golf takes a long hard look at itself. I would love to see players using their own skills to perform, not products that make them something they are not. Simon Thorpe, Southampton

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

I don’t argue with Stephen Rochester (letters April 2017) about joining a golf club as opposed to the ‘nomadic existence’, but I believe part of the answer to golf’s future lies somewhere between.

‘Growing the Game’ initiatives don’t address joining clubs. Single membership has merits and partnerships exist encouraging players to support other clubs with reduced green fees, albeit with limitations.

Might it be possible that for clubs’ futures, golf cooperatives with multi-club memberships might enrich players’ experiences? Club collectives could, for example, allow the purchase of common goods and services at more competitive prices.