COLTART A VICTIM OF THE
TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS
FAVOURED BIGGEST HITTERS,
NOT THE STRAIGHTEST
+An article well worth reading from "The Guardian Unlimited" website. It tells you so much about the way top-level men's professional golf has gone over the past decade.
By LAWRENCE DONEGAN
Glance down the entry list for this year's European Tour Qualifying School, which starts today on the Old and New courses at the San Roque club in southern Spain, and it is remarkable how many familiar names catch the eye, but in the midst of them one name stands out from the others.
Eight years ago Andrew Coltart was teeing it up against Tiger Woods in a Ryder Cup singles match at Brookline. The Scotsman was thought by many in the game to be on the verge of a great career, a judgment he shared. He was sweet-swinging, hard-working and smart, but somewhere along the way he discovered that sweet-swinging, hard-working and smart may no longer be what is required in an age when changing technology has given a big advantage to players blessed with brute strength.
"When I played with Tiger he was a brilliant player but he was also very physically imposing, so I went away and tried to work on hitting the ball further. That was 1999. We're now in 2007 and I'm still trying to get more distance," he said. "If I don't try and hit the ball further, the way technology is going I'm going to be left way behind."
The truth is that Coltart, now 37, whose trip to tour school comes after his failure to make the top 115 in the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit, may already have been left behind. Last year he was 181st in driving distance, hitting the ball 268 yards on average - a full 40 yards behind the longest hitters. In the Italian Open in the summer he had to play a five-wood shot into the green on seven of the first nine holes.
"How the hell can I get a five-wood shot close to the hole consistently? If I'd shot two under par I would have done really well - the winning score was 16 under par," he said sarcastically. "I don't want this to come over as bitterness but I feel technology has allowed guys to prosper who 15 years ago wouldn't have been able to make a penny. But because of technology and the way the courses are set up they are going to do really well.
"A guy might be able to dunt the ball 260 yards down the middle but that guy is constantly being outdone because the bigger hitter - the animal, for the want of a better expression - hits it 330 yards and it doesn't matter if he is in the rough because he has only got a wedge in his hands for his next shot. And the greens are saturated, so whatever he can lob up on to the green is just going to plug and stop somewhere near the flag.
"There is one statistic that is very curious to me - you have guys who are 150th in driving accuracy yet are 10th in greens in regulation. How can that be right? I thought hitting the fairway was part and parcel of golf. Silly me."
This is a lucid, if depressing, analysis of the modern game, especially for anyone who thinks this "bomb and gouge" style, which places little value on golf's subtler arts, makes for boring viewing. Yet if Coltart is quick to identify himself as one of the casualties of the modern trend, he is also quick to identify his own faults.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm in the position I'm in because of things I did wrong," he said. "At the Ryder Cup in '99 I was looking forward to the rest of my career and genuinely believed I would end up playing in four or five Ryder cups. I didn't sit back and think, 'Well, I have made it, I can sit back and relax.' Quite the opposite, in fact.
"One of the things that happens when you get to a certain level is you just want to get better, rather than realising what you have got is about as good as you are going to get and maybe just consolidating is the thing to do, strengthen what is strong. Instead you embark on trying to improve an awful lot of things and when that happens you begin to focus more and more on what is wrong than what is right."
Coltart soon found himself in a downward spiral of negativity. The nadir came in 2004, when he dropped out of the top 115 in the money list, but he kept his card because he was inside the top 40 all-time money winners on tour. He finished 168th this time and there was no safety net, which leaves him battling 155 others for one of the 30 tour cards on offer over the next six days. "I am actually looking forward to it, as opposed to dreading it," he said. "Maybe it is just what I need to kick-start things again. After all, I'm still young and fit. I should still be employed."
Eight years ago Andrew Coltart was teeing it up against Tiger Woods in a Ryder Cup singles match at Brookline. The Scotsman was thought by many in the game to be on the verge of a great career, a judgment he shared. He was sweet-swinging, hard-working and smart, but somewhere along the way he discovered that sweet-swinging, hard-working and smart may no longer be what is required in an age when changing technology has given a big advantage to players blessed with brute strength.
"When I played with Tiger he was a brilliant player but he was also very physically imposing, so I went away and tried to work on hitting the ball further. That was 1999. We're now in 2007 and I'm still trying to get more distance," he said. "If I don't try and hit the ball further, the way technology is going I'm going to be left way behind."
The truth is that Coltart, now 37, whose trip to tour school comes after his failure to make the top 115 in the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit, may already have been left behind. Last year he was 181st in driving distance, hitting the ball 268 yards on average - a full 40 yards behind the longest hitters. In the Italian Open in the summer he had to play a five-wood shot into the green on seven of the first nine holes.
"How the hell can I get a five-wood shot close to the hole consistently? If I'd shot two under par I would have done really well - the winning score was 16 under par," he said sarcastically. "I don't want this to come over as bitterness but I feel technology has allowed guys to prosper who 15 years ago wouldn't have been able to make a penny. But because of technology and the way the courses are set up they are going to do really well.
"A guy might be able to dunt the ball 260 yards down the middle but that guy is constantly being outdone because the bigger hitter - the animal, for the want of a better expression - hits it 330 yards and it doesn't matter if he is in the rough because he has only got a wedge in his hands for his next shot. And the greens are saturated, so whatever he can lob up on to the green is just going to plug and stop somewhere near the flag.
"There is one statistic that is very curious to me - you have guys who are 150th in driving accuracy yet are 10th in greens in regulation. How can that be right? I thought hitting the fairway was part and parcel of golf. Silly me."
This is a lucid, if depressing, analysis of the modern game, especially for anyone who thinks this "bomb and gouge" style, which places little value on golf's subtler arts, makes for boring viewing. Yet if Coltart is quick to identify himself as one of the casualties of the modern trend, he is also quick to identify his own faults.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm in the position I'm in because of things I did wrong," he said. "At the Ryder Cup in '99 I was looking forward to the rest of my career and genuinely believed I would end up playing in four or five Ryder cups. I didn't sit back and think, 'Well, I have made it, I can sit back and relax.' Quite the opposite, in fact.
"One of the things that happens when you get to a certain level is you just want to get better, rather than realising what you have got is about as good as you are going to get and maybe just consolidating is the thing to do, strengthen what is strong. Instead you embark on trying to improve an awful lot of things and when that happens you begin to focus more and more on what is wrong than what is right."
Coltart soon found himself in a downward spiral of negativity. The nadir came in 2004, when he dropped out of the top 115 in the money list, but he kept his card because he was inside the top 40 all-time money winners on tour. He finished 168th this time and there was no safety net, which leaves him battling 155 others for one of the 30 tour cards on offer over the next six days. "I am actually looking forward to it, as opposed to dreading it," he said. "Maybe it is just what I need to kick-start things again. After all, I'm still young and fit. I should still be employed."
THE ANDREW COLTART STORY (so far)
1987 Wins the Scottish Boys' Championship
1991 Wins Scottish Amateur Stroke Play Championship, plays in the Walker Cup and then turns professional
1993 Joins the European Tour
1994 Records first professional win as a pro, the Australian PGA, which he wins again in 1997
1996 Best finish on the European Tour money list, coming seventh
1998 Claims his first European Tour event, the Qatar Masters
1999 Selected as Ryder Cup wildcard, loses singles to Tiger Woods 3&2
2001 Wins the Great North Open
1991 Wins Scottish Amateur Stroke Play Championship, plays in the Walker Cup and then turns professional
1993 Joins the European Tour
1994 Records first professional win as a pro, the Australian PGA, which he wins again in 1997
1996 Best finish on the European Tour money list, coming seventh
1998 Claims his first European Tour event, the Qatar Masters
1999 Selected as Ryder Cup wildcard, loses singles to Tiger Woods 3&2
2001 Wins the Great North Open
Labels: Pro Men
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Thursday, November 15, 2007
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