Technology has done wonderful things for the game of golf, including making what is really quite a hard sport easier to play.
Modern drivers are easier to hit, clubfaces are more forgiving, putters are more stable, GPS devices tell us exactly how far we have to the target...
However, at what point do we need to get to before certain skills are removed from the game? Maybe the horse has already bolted.
WATCH: Dan and Joe from Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show discuss alignment aids on golf balls (from 07.24)
That's what Dan and Joe from Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show were discussing recently in the episode above - and Joe believes we've maybe crossed a line (excuse the pun).
What do you think? Should alignment aids on golf balls be banned?
We want to hear from you, but before you leave an angry comment below, at least hear Joe out.
"Lining yourself up as a player, pointing your clubface in the right direction, is part of the skill as much as swinging the golf club is a skill of the game," says Joe.
Does that sound like a fair point? After all, this is why caddies were banned from going behind players and lining them up.
There's no single golf ball, per se, that has upset Joe; rather, it's been the gradual rise in the number of models featuring an alignment aid printed on the side that has made Joe question whether they should be banned.
Has your putting improved by using a ball such as the Callaway ERC Soft or TaylorMade TP5 Stripe (there are many more of this type)?
When Titleist recently added patterns to the AVX, Tour Soft, Velocity, and TruFeel models, it got Joe thinking about whether an important skill has been taken away.
"In what other sport is this allowed?" adds Joe.
Another fair point. Take snooker, for example. Players aren't allowed to mark where they want to strike the cue ball or use a Sharpie pen to put a line on the object ball to help with aim.
Are there any other sports that allow this kind of assistance, where you can modify your equipment in such a way? Again, Joe invites your comments.
Not all tour players use a golf ball with an alignment aid printed on the side, or put their own on, and it's not like the players are crying out for something to be done to stop those who do from gaining an unfair advantage.
And it's not like alignment and the skill of reading greens are totally removed by being unable to use a line for help, plus there's the small matter of having to judge speed and deliver a sound stroke.
Even so, Joe is a little surprised it's allowed.
Aside from maybe removing part of a skill that players should learn, does the use of alignment aids slow the game down at a time when the majority of us would rather a round of golf didn't take over four-and-a-half hours?
We've all seen Tour players using a line on the ball, before checking from the other side, and then readjusting the line - and it can be painfully slow.
"I'm just not into it myself," says Joe, who took issue with Cameron Young, who he says took an age to line up a putt at the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year.
Golf balls featuring alignment markings are most likely here to stay, and for amateur golfers, that is probably a good thing.
Nor do we see them being banned in the professional game. Firstly, how would you even police it? And secondly, imagine the uproar given that the golf ball will soon be rolled back.
Let us know what you think by leaving your comments in the box below, and we'll ask Joe to reference these in a future episode of Kick Point.
We've certainly not heard the last of this...
