I was just about to make this same point. It's been a problem for YEARS. The swing stick does not punish you nearly enough on Tour Mode. On top of that, the aiming circle doesn't function properly.
Firstly, the swing stick. In 09, it was very rare for me to swing perfectly straight back and then perfectly straight forward. almost never happened. But even if I was off, my shot went straight. This was even with my power and workability cranked up. I swear to you, my sweet spot on my irons was 1% (!?!) and I almost never hit a stray shot. But the swing tracker lines on the golf ball were almost never dead straight. It's why I ended up playing my PGA Season with only as high as my 1 iron, which I hit 270+ yards. It's as close to a "challenge" as you'll get in that game. On Tour difficulty, even the slightest variance from perfectly straight should result in a shot going somewhere other than in the middle of the aiming circle. Which brings me to my next point...
The aiming circle is completely flawed and does not work as intended. I remember when they brought this thing out a couple of year's back (I think it was 07), I got excited. They said that the circle represents where your golfer will hit the ball, based on a good swing and the size of this circle depended on your accuracy rating.
Well, it doesn't work like that at all. Basically, If you make a good swing, your ball will go into the middle of that circle. Doesn't matter if the circle is 5 yards wide or 30, the ball is heading for the middle of it. It's stupid. you might as well bring back the old pinpoint cursor from last gen cuz that's how this thing works. If it worked properly, then it would really bring alot of course management into the equation.
For example, if your aiming circle with your driver is 30 yards wide, like when you first start out, then that means if you make a good swing, the ball SHOULD end up somewhere in that circle. But if you're playing a hole where your driver reaches the part of the fairway that pinches in to be only 20 yards wide..well, maybe driver is not the best play. Because even if you make a perfect swing, the ball could end up 5 yards in the rough on either side if you right down the middle. It doesn't mean you COULDN'T hit it right in the middle of the circle, it just means it's just as likely that it won't, more likely even.
And if you didn't make a good swing, and you bring in more punishment for a slightly off swing like I mentioned above...well, now you have a whole new golf game. You'd face alot of situations like the pros do on Tour. It would make you play these virtual courses more like their original designers intended. And it would make Tour difficulty a BLAST. I don't know why the devs are so afraid to make Tour difficulty punishing. It's what we true golf fans want and it doesn't affect the casual golf fan who wants to bomb 350+ yard drives with power boost and spin control. That's what the BALANCED level is for.
Oh, and those distances shown on the blog aren't scaled back much at all...maybe 10 yards max. It's what makes online play feel how it does...where pars feel like bogeys and birdies feel like pars.