Note to rule-makers -- no more limits on equipment

	The equipment show in Orlando showcases the latest and greatest from the golf manufacturers. Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Each year I secretly request one birthday wish for my golf game. Alas, none have come true. Among my previous 48 candle blowouts, I've yearned for a scratch handicap, a hole-in-one, a double-eagle, a round in the mid-60s, and the chance to play in a Wednesday pro-am. The unfulfilled desires certainly haven't ruined my golf enjoyment, but it sure would be nice if just one wish was granted.

As I prepare to attend this week's PGA Merchandising Show in Orlando, my first inclination is to walk straight to the humongous and splashy equipment booths. Equipment design advances are the industry's life blood. You know, anything that implies us hacks have a miracle chance to improve our woeful games. However, present regulation constraints only allow so much as it's more about tinkering inside the confined boundaries than providing groundbreaking solutions.

Therefore, this year, I'm displaying my birthday golf wish for all to see --especially to those conservative officials at the USGA and Royal & Ancient who rule over how the game is played.

My desire is for the official honchos to forgo all equipment limitations. No size regulations on drivers or groove depth of irons or ball-distance confines next year. No restrictions on shoe spike patterns, rangefinder use, grip or special alignment considerations. Let the golf equipment designers go nuts and think way outside the box.

Why? It's simple.

Golf is a maddening game. It plays with our illogical expectations and psychotic desires. We don't practice enough or take desperately needed lessons, yet we still flail away, hoping our golf prayers are answered. It's a crazy life us golfers lead, thinking everything will work out without investing meaningful amounts of time to improve.

Of course, we are kidding ourselves. Golf equipment manufacturers and infomercial charlatans tap into our lottery winning hopes. We buy every purported magic wand promising golf nirvana. Drivers that launch shots farther than expected and split every fairway. Perfect approaches hit off every conceivable lie -- even boulders or concrete. Lob shots that majestically carry gapping bunkers and hold like Velcro to within kick-in proximity to a tight pin.

Lately, some have cried that the increased shot distances have killed the game and its classic courses. Lest anyone falls in step with the Chicken Littles, remember, the scoring for the pros has not fallen significantly from Lord Byron Nelson's mark of 68.33 in 1945. Drivers have evolved from heavy gauge steel shafts and small persimmon heads to 460cc monsters with space-age shafts.

Forget the talented pros -- this is about us. Even with all this advancement, our scorecards are still splattered with bogeys, double-bogeys and countless "others." Power-topped drives, skulled chips and missed two-foot putts consistently ruin scores. Historically, golf has proven to be the one sport that defies technological advancements. No one item has significantly improved scoring on a consistent basis. Longer drives merely travel farther off-line and it still takes inherent talent, imagination and a splash of luck to scramble from parts unknown.

Some might argue that giving hacks the advantage of stupendous performing sticks is an unfair benefit and dummies down the game's intoxicating complexity. I say hogwash. It doesn't matter what "guarantees" we hold in our mitts. Combining any miracle cure with our oh-so-human frailties will never insure success on the links. A perfect club pooled with a perfect swing certainly could -- but our games are far from perfecto. Heck, our smooth practice swings mere seconds from the real deal are only a mirage.

Like anything else, we amateurs need to move up the skill ladder gradually. We start with more forgiving oversized perimeter-weighted irons to assist in hitting meaningful shots. If that ever gets mastered, we then graduate to more player-performance sticks that allow advanced shot shaping.