Blame the Modern Golf Swing for this, to be sure.

An absolutely depressing piece of golf journalism greeted me this morning, and I don’t know where the game is going – one day, they’ll be loading balls into mortar tubes and not having to hit them at all, it seems.

The Golf Digest article at hand, “For Most, The 4 Iron Is Dead,” by E. Michael Johnson, should have the legends rolling in their grave.

Now, apparently, a 4 iron is too much to handle if playing golf.

A 4 Iron.

To be added now to the 3, 2 and driving iron.

Can you imagine trying to take the 1 Iron out of Jack Nicklaus’ hands the day he hit the pin on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach in the ’72 US Open?

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“Here, Jack,” you say, “I’ve got this club here called a ‘hybrid,’ it’s made for amateurs who can’t hit long irons.  Give it a go.”

I imagine the scene at the 17th tee would look similar to this:

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Here are some choice quotes from the article:

Heck, only about 20 percent of LPGA Tour players carry a 4-iron that’s not a utility iron. Are you better than an LPGA Tour player? We all know the answer to that…

… We’re not just talking about replacing a 4- or 5-iron here. Some players struggle with irons even deeper into the bag. Manufacturers have responded, with several offering 6-, 7- even 8-hybrids to ease your approach-game pain…

… Give hybrids a shot. They’ll have you feeling about that 4-iron pretty much the way you would now about that old Blackberry. Beyond cool and super functional at one time. Today, pretty much useless.

This tells you all you need to know about the state of today’s game – the equipment makers rule the game, and everyone else just goes along for the ride.

As far as the amateur, go ahead and use whatever you want to use playing your round of golf – but why are the pros now using hybrids instead of long irons?

Why are they even given the option?  You’re talking about the best players in the world who compete for millions, week in, week out?

A hybrid to me is like an aluminum baseball bat, or a much larger softball – great for amateurs, but not for pro use.

Is it asking too much that pros be able to hit a long iron when called upon to do so?

Once again, the pros have no business using equipment that makes it easier to hit the ball a certain distance – if they can’t do it, they have no business being out there.

“Sure, DJ,” you say, “what would you use on a Par 3 hole that’s over 200 yards?”

“An iron,” I’d respond.  “What would you use?”

I may not be LPGA level in skill, but here I am back in 2013 (43 years old), playing a 6 iron into a 220 yard par 3 hole – it didn’t turn out too badly:

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As for a 4 iron, I used to use my 4 iron off the tee on par 4s, because I couldn’t find a par 3 hole long enough to have to use it.

As I described in one of my posts back on my Smash Golf Blog back in the day (now re-posted here), sometime in 2009 (age 39), when I barely knew what end of the club to hold, compared to now – the hole at Annandale Golf Club was the same one where I had driven the ball 350 yards a couple of times:

On the 350 yard sixth hole, I pulled the 4-iron out and hit a beauty right down the pipe. It flew so far down the fairway that one of my playing partners asked in disbelief, “What the hell did you hit there?” I was well past the two balls that my friends had hit with their drivers.

I figured I had hit my ball around 230-240 yards, but that wasn’t even close. I paced twenty yards in from the 100 yard disk to my ball.

“270 yards?” I said, scratching my head. “That can’t be right…”

But it was.

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So, back in 2009, I expected 230-240 yards from my 4 iron on a good swing.

In 2013 (43 years old), I was getting 250 yards with a 4 iron with scuffed range balls:

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I’ve played entire rounds of golf without using a driver or any metal-woods because I figured anyone who thinks they can play golf (and I barely could), should be able to.

I am not a pro golfer, nor do I play one on television!

The thought of using hybrid clubs and calling oneself a pro… as Data used to say in Star Trek – The Next Generation, “does not compute.”

“I Wonder If…”

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Could it be, perhaps, that the Modern Golf Swing makes it increasingly more difficult for even today’s pros to be able to use equipment like low-lofted irons that the pros of yesteryear would pull out of the bag without a second thought?

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As for an amateur – any amateur wishing to play good golf would be far better served learning how to make a proper swing at the ball than spending endless sums on “easier to hit” clubs, which don’t really help at all if you can’t already swing.

Let’s face it – the guy who drove it 210 yards into the bushes with a stainless steel Big Bertha is driving it 240 yards… into the bushes… with a modern driver.

Am I wrong?