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Everyone’s talking about golf’s distance revolution and how it’s changing the game. But the sad reality is, if your name’s not on your bag, you’re almost certainly being left behind. A recent Golf Digest study confirmed that the gap between tour pros and average golfers is wider than ever.

It all starts with talent. But tour pros also are maximizing their skills with the sophisticated technology of launch monitors (see page 142), the latest generation of bigger titanium drivers (page 146), and subtle changes to their technique (page 148). All of it is there for you, too. Applied intelligently, it can improve your game almost as much as it has revolutionized the game on tour.

When pros play, the 400-yard drive is now part of the golf lexicon. And we’re not just talking long-drive competitors, although four-time world champion Jason Zuback recently launched a 425-yard bomb. We mean the guys who have to play their foul balls, too. At The International last year, Hank Kuehne played the longest hole on the PGA Tour, the 644-yard par-5 first at Castle Pines, with a 465-yard drive and a 180-yard 9-iron. During a tour de force at Kapalua in January, Ernie Els, who led the tour in driving distance with a 320-yard average through March, provided the symbolic start to a new era by wowing a prime-time East Coast audience with effortless blasts–one rolling out to 398 yards. Two weeks later in Phoenix (where, by the way, the entire field averaged better than 300 yards), Phil Mickelson drove a 403-yard par 4. Victor Schwamkrug, whose 329-yard average made him Big Dog among the 15 players who averaged more than 300 yards on the Buy.com (now Nationwide) Tour last year, says in his calm Texas drawl, “If a hole is right around 400 yards and sets up so I can go ahead and hit it, well, I’m going to get to it. I’m not the only one out here like that.”

Basically, every player who wants to be competitive in that arena is hitting it farther. Take Rocco Mediate, whose 106-mph swing speed is one of the slowest on tour (an average 80s shooter swings about 89 mph). By getting more physically fit and taking advantage of every technological breakthrough in the golf industry the past few years, Mediate is averaging 289.6 yards, the highest of his career and an increase of more than 12 yards over last year.

“It’s a distance war on tour, and for me to stay in it I need to understand exactly what I’m doing with my swing, my equipment and my body,” says Mediate. “Basically, I have to absolutely max out.”

That phrase could easily be the new motto in professional golf–the reason why these guys are good. Not only have tour players learned how to play at full throttle without fear, they’re swinging at speeds and with a mind-set that average golfers can barely comprehend. And that’s why the distance gap between today’s tour pro and the average amateur is wider than it has ever been.

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Wagner continued, “The figures quoted in sales brochures for fuel economy, emission levels and 0-100 km/h acceleration times are the next obstacle to overcome when selling a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission. If these figures are significantly worse than those of a vehicle with a manual transmission, European customers tend as a general rule to favor the manual transmission. As a consequence, the requirement for low fuel consumption and good performance figures form an essential component in any automatic transmission development work.”

Things, though, could be about to change in Europe as the transmission has now come into the front line in the carmakers’ quest to meet emissions legislation. “The primary requirements and customer benefits underpinning the further development of automatic transmissions,” said Wagner, “include a reduction of fuel consumption, a reduction of pollution, vehicle performance improvement, increasing torque capacity, greater comfort, sportiness, noise reduction, resource conservation, and competitiveness.”

Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism

London: Thames and Hudson, 2005. 2 vols.: vol. 1, 1900-1944, 352 pp., 210 color ills., 106 b/w. $46.88; vol. 2, 1945-2003, 424 pp., 236 color ills., 128 b/w. $46.88; both vols. $84.38. Also available in one vol.: 704 pp.; 413 color ills., 224 b/w. $95.00

Review by Nancy J. Troy

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Eli nods.

They approach each other grimly. “OK,” says Peyton. “Turn around.”

Eli obeys. They stand back to back.

“So who’s taller?” Peyton asks. Eli stands on his toes. “Now, don’t you do that,” says Peyton.

Eli stops. They settle down. It’s 6-5 Peyton by half an inch. No question.

“See, I knew I still have you,” says the older brother, triumph in his voice.

Some things in the pecking order of brothers never change, even if you are Peyton Manning, maybe the best player in the NFL, and Eli Manning, who should be the No. 1 choice in April’s draft. Eli may be the better basketball player and may be able to fling a Nerf Vortex football 15 yards farther. (”I destroyed him,” says Eli proudly.) But he’s still younger and smaller.

Eli also is the last of the fabulous Manning boys, the final star in the most remarkable family in the history of pro football. We’ve never seen anything like this: father Archie, second pick in the 1971 draft by the Saints before embarking on a highly lauded and heroic 15-year career; middle son Peyton, the first choice in the 1998 draft and the reigning league co-MVP; and youngest son Eli, the savior of the Ole Miss football program and second-most popular player in school history behind–who else?–his dad. Every one a quarterback–all gifted, intelligent and, dare we say in this era of hard edges and bad-boy personas, nice. Their father could be the best-liked person to ever play the game, and his sons are a mixture of politeness and respect that masks a marked determination that characterizes seemingly everything a Manning undertakes. They get it in a way so many of their peers don’t.

Think about it. Name another son of a former NFL star who has been as successful as Peyton–and consider this family could boast two players selected first in the draft. These Mannings are a refreshingly grand and classy bunch, close and loving and happy, devoid of psychological scars and blood feuds, strong enough to remain grounded amid ungodly fame and, yes, fortune. “They are the DiMaggios of the NFL,” says Ole Miss chancellor Robert Khayat, once a kicker with the Redskins.