If you have ever used a high tech modern piece of golf equipment known as a launch monitor, you know you have access to knowledge about golf clubs, golf balls and golf swing mechanics unknown to any other generation of golfers. All the information is great if you know how to apply it. Launch monitors are also a great teaching tool in the hands of a skilled, experienced and trained teacher of the golf swing.

There is nothing however that beats the trained eye, the naked eye.

Launch monitors give you all the technical and physical information you may need to help your golf swing, but a trained eye can give you all that plus insight into what you need to help your swing. There are teachers who can slow things down enough to see what the clubhead is doing through impact (kind of like the experience Ted Williams described when he was at the plate looking at a baseball), then relate that to swing fundamentals and personal idiosyncrocies. That quality is worth its weight in gold to any student and cannot be found in any launch or swing monitor.

High tech is great. The new equipment is the best ever. It is great to know your clubhead speed, ball speed and launch angles. But it is still up to you to swing the golf club. The game of golf is changing. More golfers are entering the arena than ever before and all of them want to try to hit the ball a mile. Big drivers and hot golf balls are the name of the game. That is where the fun lies.

Brand new inexperienced golfers take to the links everyday. It is amazing how many people repeat the words “this is my first time ever.” The great thing about golf is that new golfers can join in and learn by playing different forms of golf. If you are a good golfer, try thinking of what a novice is going through on the golf course. Put yourself in their shoes. You will have a friend for life.

Your group can always play a scramble or captain and crew, you can play off the longest drive, or you can take a few swings and just hit some chips and putts to get started. You can even tee the ball up in the fairway instead of hitting it off the ground.

Unless you are playing tournament golf, you can bend the rules a little to get yourself started. Who doesn't want to see their ball go up in the air?

To get back to the premise, how far and how long can high tech be the focus? How long will it be until the game of golf once again becomes the focal point?

Researchers at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute studied the effects of playing golf on 500,000 golfers and found that golfers live an average of five years longer than non-golfers. The benefits of playing golf, according to the study are higher for blue collar workers and the lowest death rates come from those with the lowest handicaps. Learn to play better and live longer.

This is a Ryder Cup year and Jack Nicklaus says that the captains should take a hands off approach and just enjoy the experience.

Nicklaus does not believe anyone can tell the best players in the world how to play better ball or alternate shot.

He just asked them who they did or did not want to play with in the matches, and then got out of their way.

The rest is up to them. Nicklaus was a successful captain of team competitions.

See you on the links!

Lombardo, a PGA professional at Dutch Hollow Country Club, can be reached at lombo@pga.com