BOMB AND GOUGE:(PART ii)
How Power took over:
Bomb and gouge- the term popularized by instructor Chuck Cook-starts with monster drives, which in large part can be tracked to new technology. Average driver size on the tour is approaching the maximum 460 cubic centimeter head, and most players use a modern lightweight shaft. Pure hits rocket of the face, but off-center strikes lose only a fraction of the distance lost with the previous generation of drivers. But that’s only part of the distance explosion. The tour’s new power players are optimizing their driver ball flight by using computer launch monitors that measure take-off factors but the entire flight as well as the bounce angle
Another major factor is modern ball. Tour players today hit multilayered, urethane-cover balls that spin less of the tee than would ball of decade ago. With the right impact conditions, players launch the ball high but with a lower spin rate, which lengthens but also straitens the flight. We have seen tiger take on the relatively short par 4’s by bombing the driver of the tee with so mach height and also being able to stop it as soon as it pitches on the green. That’s what Bomb and gouge is all about. But still bombers miss more fairways than shorter hitters, but that’s where sharp clubface grooves come in. Today’s box shaped grooves are cut so sharp they can scuff the cover of even the harder modern ball. The result is players can gouge the ball out of the thick rough lies and still spin it enough to stop it on the green.
As hot as the power game is, it’s hardly new. Top players have often had a distance advantage, but they’ve usually used it cautiously. Jack nicklaus was the bomber of his generation ,but he played a decidedly conservative game .Nicklaus was famous for plodding his way around with 3-woods and 1-iron off the tee until he needed a big drive .then he’d hammer one 50 yards by his playing partners.
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