We're sure Geoff Shackelford is a nice man. He is certainly an accomplished writer and contributor to the design of a golf course. But personal attacks on our integrity are a sign of weakness and low self-esteem. And, of course, point-missing. One of his latest musings suggests that our recent posting on attacking the issue of u-grooves was somehow motivated by a desire to promote the golf equipment industry and defend the USGA's equipment decisions. At the same time. A neat trick. His overused lament is that the golf ball—that ongoing source of sturm und drang among the assembled panic-stricken, progress fearing golf Sanhedrin—needs to be dealt with in some draconian rollback, retrograde fashion.
It's a tired solution-less solution to a problem that does not exist. First of all, we're dealing with the issue of spin, and the fact is that old balata balls spun more than current urethane balls. The USGA is concerned rightly about whether the new grooves on irons and wedges offer some unique and growing advantage, but even its brighter minds are not certain it's an issue that requires corrective action.  But the bigger issue is what exactly are the Shackelfords of the world afraid of? That Myopia Hunt won't be able to host another U.S. Open? That Wannamoisett is too short to be appreciated by today's players? That the subtle beauty of the gently lofted mashie-niblick and the stymie are lost to eternity? The game is a living, growing thing, and just as I assume Mr. Shackelford, despite his bleating cries, no longer wears diapers, the game too must leave behind the things it no longer needs. We may be afraid of distance and the golf ball, but fear is borne and festers out of ignorance. Knowledge and rational thinking keep it in check. In my conversations with officials at the USGA and the R&A, average driving distance of average golfers has maybe increased 10 or so yards over the last 15 years, to a whopping 210-215 yards. If 215 yard tee shots are obsoleting your golf course, it might be time to pick a new venue. An ultra-elite group of players may be hitting it farther, but 99 percent of the rest of us aren't. And when we roll the ball back next year or the year after, how soon until we have to do it again? And which of us is ready to play a shorter ball? And if the insanely easy to play golf equipment were such an advantage, everyone would be shooting 59 every day. The game finds a way to win.
And because there is no need to bog this debate down with an endless dissertation, let's just mull some facts.
1. Currently, there are just two players on the PGA Tour who are averaging more than 300 yards in the tour's statistics that measure all drives. Two.
2. In the tour's driving distance average statistics, 20 players are averaging 300 or more yards. But here's the thing, only half of that number have ever won a tour event—EVER—and a third of that number (Woods, Couples, Love, Mickelson, etc.) have always been among the longest hitters. And here's one more thing, the number of 300-yard hitters is down from a year ago.
3. Driving distance has increased dramatically over the last 10 years. But it's flattened out in the last five. It's up about half a yard this year over last year. 18 inches. That's an increase of 0.17 percent. Is that the sky falling, or maybe something else?

The game survives when it chooses to grow. Equipment isn't making anyone a dominant player. And when it chooses to test elite players in the way we average golfers are tested on a regular basis, the game will be stronger because it has the power to consistently find ways to turn back all threats.

BOMB & GOUGE: Bomb & Gouge will be at the annual Golf Digest Hot List Summit over the next two weeks, looking at hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of new clubs and balls. We'll be sending reports on the events over the two weeks. We won't tip our hand at how the judges' deliberations are going. You'll have to wait until early 2007 for our annual Hot List section in the February issue of Golf Digest. But we'll give you an inside look on some of the hot topics during our two-week festival of drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges, putters and balls. Stay tuned.

BOMB: Isn't it interesting that as we make our way around the country visiting manufacturers (or, in some instances, having them come visit us), that there's one topic virtually all of them want to talk about: what the USGA will do with grooves to combat spin. But perhaps while everyone focuses on wedges, they're missing the bigger point—that it's likely not to affect just wedges, but every iron in your bag. If that's the case, I'd like to think we can come up with five ways to combat the spin issue WITHOUT touching any of your clubs under 50 degrees. And since you're the Gouge part of this operation, I'm gonna need help on a couple. But here's a couple on my end:

1.) I know it sounds like a broken record, but just grow the darn rough. And I'm not talking about some wimpish 3- to 4-inch grass but some real salad of 6 to 8 inches. Get in that and you could have grooves sharp enough to saw through one of these and you still wouldn't get any spin.

2.) Sorry Philly Mick, but lofts on wedges have kinda gotten out of hand. And I don't just want to keep the 64-degree that Lefty had in his bag for a while out of play. I think there should be a rule limiting loft to 54 degrees. I mean, Ian Woosnam only needed a 53-degree wedge to win the Masters in 1991. That not only would reduce the amount of spin players could put on the ball, but also would truly separate the shotmakers from those who simply are using equipment as the great equalizer. And if you don't think it makes a difference, I wrote an article earlier this year with this gem from Charles Howell III who had a 64-degree wedge in the bag for a spell: "I only use it maybe two times a tournament. But it's perfect when I shortside a green ... then it's almost like cheating." And we certainly don't want anything in the game that resembles cheating, do we?

GOUGE: I'll give you two more and I'll bet we can combine on a third.

3) There is no doubt that grooves are better today at channeling out grass juice than they used to be. And dirt and grass make golf balls not work right. The volume on the new grooves has increased, bottom line. Second, grooves are better with modern balls in that the urethane covers are able to get gripped by the sharper groove edge radius. You could attack this issue around the greens by making all clubs with lofts higher than 50 degrees be furnished with v-shaped grooves only. And there cannot be any additional face roughness either. Certainly, smooth vs. rough will matter, as noted clubfitter Pat Ryan has discussed, referencing long-time Golf Digest Technical Advisory Panel member Art Chou. Again, it won't make a bit of difference to average golfers, and better players will just have to figure out a way to get the ball close. One obvious solution would be to hit more greens.

4) Shhhhh. But the real answer everyone is afraid of (unnecessarily so) is bifurcation. It's time for the ruling bodies to seriously consider backing off their stand against separate rules for elite competitions. The best golfers in the world are freaks that are even better in real-life than they are in their video games and letting them play with equipment designed to help average golfers isn't like cheating, it is cheating. The soap box derby gets pretty high tech, but none of those vehicles would make it much farther than down the driveway. Tour players should compete with the crudest tools possible, not the most advanced. With two different sets of rules (only in the area of equipment), you could make every club v-grooved. You could even reduce driver sizes to 260 cc if you wanted to. Hmmm. Might be what all that talk at Muirfield Village was all about earlier this year.

BOMB & GOUGE: And then there's this.
5) Do. Nothing.

BOMB: It's not only tour players who get to see the new stuff. The fall sales meetings for all the major companies are winding down and soon sales reps will be showing off some of the new stuff they'll be selling to local shops and stores. One thing you can count on is Callaway ramping up its iron line. Every two years, the popular X series of irons births a new baby. In the fall of 2002, it was the X-16 replacing the X-14. In the fall of 2004, it was the X-18 replacing the X-16. Expect a beefed up but familiarly notched X-20 in some stores early in 2007 but players might want to take a look at the pro version (a bit of a departure from the Pro Series versions of past X models) or even those new Callaway forgings Annika's been seen using.

GOUGE: Some people can't leave well enough alone. Which is a good thing when it comes to cheap golf balls. The best balls for the average golfer can be had for $25 and often less. Too many average golfers are playing balls only tour players and their short games can take advantage of on their courses. Unless your home course frequently hosts elite player tournaments and you practice your short game two hours a day, you're probably not good enough to fully avail yourself of all that the most complex ball designs offer. Yet people do. It's like one of my friends in Japan once said: You look at what balls are selling in the U.S., and you would think that 95 percent of all U.S. golfers are single-digit handicappers. I say go with one of the new $20-$25 balls. The most sophisticated constructions are the three-piece, inner mantle balls: Callaway's HX Hot (a firm cover wrapped over a soft inner mantle surrounding the core), Bridgestone's e6 (a softer cover wrapped over a firm mantle for lower initial spin) and Nike's Ignite (built for distance); and the market-leading, dual-core Titleist's NXT Tour. You'll hit all three of these balls farther and they'll hold greens just fine. Don't expect to get them to check every time you've got a downhill chip shot, but I don't expect Joe Bagadonuts to get a downhill chip shot close, either. And here's one advance tip: Look for a new TopFlite in the coming months that may get the working man golfer excited about that brand again.

BOMB: It must be that time of year again, partner. Everyone's asking me what's going to be new in equipment for next year. Normally I just blow them off. But then again, never had a blog before to answer then en masse. So I challenge you, my high-launch, high-spin, short-distance friend, to help me come up with half-dozen things golfers can expect to be drooling over in the next six months. I'll even get us started:

Just got off the phone with Nate Radcliffe, one of Cleveland Golf's brainiacs. We were talking about geometry in clubs, and when I asked if we were closer to the beginning of the end of seeing unusual club designs, he said: "I think this is similar to where we were when the 2-Ball came out. That broke the barrier, and you see what everyone did in mallet putters after that. I see geometry as just starting to blossom." Translation: That scooped-back Cleveland Hi-Bore and square heads early next year from Nike and Callaway are just the beginning. We might not see the Power Pod again, but the accepted shape of drivers might be altered dramatically. That's what the pursuit of the USGA's limit on Moment of Inertia is driving club designers to do.

GOUGE: Here's another thing that all of us need to check out soon: Lightweight iron shafts. And when I say lightweight, I mean lightweight steel. That's right, steel. And not that old-school 95-gram stuff we've been seeing for the last four or five years. No, we're talking maybe another 15 or 20 grams lighter, like True Temper's new GS 75. Certainly, Nippon has already been there with a multi-material alloy construction, but the question remains: Will truly lightweight steel still have sacrifices? I don't know, but if you're losing speed due to age and infirmity like I am, it's time to go as light as you can. One thing to watch out for: Trajectory. Almost all lightweight shafts help you hit the ball higher. Too high could become an issue, but probably not for players who really need this kind of shaft.

BOMB: You know the best part of covering the equipment scene on tour this time of year? Prototypes. It's a fact companies validate their products with the big boys, let a little buzz get going and then unleash the product on the masses. This fall will be no different. How do I know that? Davis Love III just won the Greensboro event using a prototype of Titleist's next iteration of its Pro V1x ball, and expect to see some Nike staffers wielding the big-honking square Sumo-squared driver as soon as Disney.

GOUGE: Something else to think about my hard-swinging colleague. Until we hear something definitive from the USGA on changing the groove rule (check out the second video here), the newest wedge grooves are darn near lethal these days. If you haven't gotten yourself a new wedge in the last couple of years, do it now. The combinations of loft and bounce options are incredibly diverse, certainly--and that's one reason to take advantage of a new wedge--but the fact is the tools being used to mill the grooves in the face of your average wedge are miles more precise than ever before. But a word to the wise: Those grooves are only useful if you're playing a urethane covered ball. And one other reminder: If you don't clean your grooves, you might as well be playing one of these.

BOMB: You know partner, I agree with you about as often as these guys get on the same page, but your recent rants about hybrids being "over" are, sad to say, starting to make some sense. I'm a hybrid hardliner. Anyone without one falls into this category. But some manufacturers are making it hard to stay on the bandwagon. It seems they've forgotten these clubs are IRON-replacement clubs, not pseudo fairway woods. We recently saw a hybrid with a 42-inch shaft that made me want to puke. Can we please get back to designing these clubs for what they were intended to be? Sadly, I think the trend is saying the answer to that is no.