COLORADO SPRINGS — A handful of U.S. Senior Open competitors cling to their nostalgic long putters to finish off a hole. Only the latest technology suffices on the tee box.
There are no old drivers, only older golfers driving longer with the new generation of clubs. In some cases, those in the 50-and-older tour are tacking on 30 yards or more to their drives from their prime 20 years ago.
“The equipment is unbelievable. It helps me a lot: the graphite shafts and the ball and the driver,” said 54-year-old Eduardo Romero, who takes a two-stroke lead over Fred Funk into today’s final round at The Broadmoor. “Everything is just more, and that’s why we’re hitting longer than 10 years ago.”
He wasn’t just talking about the oversized driver heads. He credited a 1-iron for early success in his round, then explaining it was actually a modified hybrid.
Romero came into the Open third on the Champions Tour driving distance list at 292.1 yards. A decade ago, he averaged 269.0 yards.
In 1988, Joey Sindelar came to Colorado to win The International, the same year he ranked third on the PGA money list and posted 10 top-10 finishes. He averaged 273.7 yards in 1988, which was tied for 15th on the PGA Tour. Coming into Colorado Springs, he ranked second on the Champions Tour at 293.2 yards.
He was amazed at the 20-year leap. But to him, the difference isn’t the equipment, it’s the gamut of options.
“There’s no one longest ball. There’s no one longest driver. What we have the advantage of on the tour is we have the ability to walk to the back of the driving range and say this golfer, this club head speed, this club, this ball,” the Champions Tour rookie said. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t have that number of those options.”
He recalls virtually every one on similar steel shafts, wood drivers and Titleist balls.
“Instead of fitting us to the equipment, we are fitting the equipment to us, and that’s caused a huge percentage gain,” Sindelar said.
However, some believe longer isn’t necessarily better at any level of competition.
Tom Purtzer leads the Champions Tour in driving distance at 296.1, a 23-yard improvement over his 1988 average and nearly 18 yards better than a decade ago.
While crediting technology for 90 percent of the across-the-board distance gains, Purtzer said: “I don’t necessarily think it’s good for the game. There’s no reason I should be hitting 25, 30 yards longer than I did 20 years ago.”
Referring to courses having to add yardage to compensate for the big drivers, Purtzer said: “It miffs me how USGA doesn’t do what it needs to do.”
Naturally, the altitude factor was part of the distance derby at The Broadmoor, with golfers claiming about a 10 percent edge in the thin air.
One golfer with area ties who gives most, but not all, the credit to technology is Colorado Springs native R.W. Eaks.
“Guys who are 50 are now in better shape than they were at 35,” Eaks said. “Golf used to be ‘you go play, then you party.’ You don’t do that anymore. You play, and you go work out. The thinking has changed. We can’t do what we used to do a long, long time ago. On the regular tour, those guys work out like crazy.”
Sindelar wouldn’t give too much credit to lifestyle changes.
“I was never a partyer then, and I’m not a workout guy now,” he said.
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
