A seeming contradiction.......

[puttmad]

This has been on my mind for a while now…

Last year we had a very long thread about club head speed/effective mass etc etc…anyway, Mandrin more or less proved (scientifically..) that it was pure c/head speed that dictated the final velocity of the ball…and you can’t add/create any additional effective mass to the c/head…
Now I have no beef with this at all….

However,
One thing doesn’t sit right and seems to be a contradiction…..

What about when you play out of the rough?
We’ve all seen the pros do it, with comments from the commentators of “You have to be strong to play that shot”..etc, etc….

I know the objective is to counter the resistance of the grass, which wraps around the hosel, or the baby gopher that sticks his head up and bites the toe of the club , but to a greater or lesser degree the ball offers resistance too, so why don’t the same “muscle” principles apply when there is no grass present? …..
What am I missing here? Anyone?….

 

[cmartingolf]

You aren't missing anything here. But it is not really a distance thing...

You do have to be strong to control the blade through cabbage. That's why I would take any PGA Tour player's short game over a LPGA Tour player's short game in a head to head competiton, simply because of the occaisional shot from cabbage. I'm talking a 20 foot lob out of wet, 8" rough. You'd better be able to open your own jar of peanut butter to have any chance at that shot.

 

[Brian Manzella]

No Contradiction at all.

Mike Tyson knocked people out because his hand was moving markedly faster than anyone else who was throwing punches at the time.

But he couldn't have knock me out under water.

However, it would have hurt a bunch.

So, where I once broke a house record in an arcade in a tourist town on a punching machine, the water would kick MY arse, and I wouldn't hurt you much at all.

I can swing VERY HARD and hit a 7-iron about 175 (normal distance 160). But out of heavy rough, maybe I can fly it 100.

Tom Bartlett can max out his 7-iron at about 195—twenty yards more than me—but out of the same rough, he'd fly it 150, 50! yards more than the Italian Ya'T.

The grass slows down the weaker player BEFORE they get to the ball, and slows the ball down as well, magnifying the result.