Two weeks ago I watched 46 year old Corey Pavin's impressive wire-to-wire victory at the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee.  Pavin's first win in 10 years reminded me of a different time in golf.  A time when you didn't need to be able to hit the ball 320 yards off the tee.  A time when you needed to use fairway woods, clubs longer than a 6-iron, and had to think your way around a course. 

Pavin averaged 263 yards on his drives, not much more than the average weekend hacker.  He finished at 20 under par because of great shotmaking on a course that only covered 6759 yards, again not much more distance than the set-ups we play on.  Last week the tour returned to normal, a runaway win by Tiger on a course stretching over 7100+ yards.  I know, Tiger wasn't in Milwaukee, and he probably would have won if he had been there.  He's just better than these other guys. 

What bothers me though, is the direction of the game.  The modern game is "Bomb and Gouge".  Hit it as far as you can, go find it and muscle it onto the green.  It's an exciting style of golf to watch.  All of us dream of being able to hit the ball like that.  What I fear is being lost though, is the mental approach to the game.  There are a handful of masterful shotmakers in today's game, guys like Mickelson, Tiger, Ells, and Furyk.  The rest of these guys probably have all the shots, but we'll never know it. 

I want to see someone bend it around a dogleg with a 3-Iron and run it up onto the green.  I want to see someone with a fairway wood in his hands, whose actually in the fairway.  I want to see rough long enough to cost players for over-agressiveness.  I want to see fairways narrowed to place a premium on accuracy.  I want to see patience rewarded and foolishness penalized. I want to see something that at least resembles the game the rest of us play.  I might as well say I want to see pigs fly.