BOMB: We know, it’s been a while since we posted. Sorry about that, folks. We’ll try to be better. Sad fact is we have day jobs, too, and are not full-time bloggers.
But nothing like another blathering idiot to get the fingers dancing on the keyboard. Got a phone call this morning from a manufacturer’s rep asking, “Hey, what’s up with the nonconforming Cobra and Cleveland drivers?” I had heard the rumors, but had thought nothing was going to be done—at least this week. So when I told him that, he said, “No, they’re on the nonconforming list! I just read it in Terry McAndrews newsletter.”
I asked him to send me a copy of the piece. And when I saw it, I just shook my head. McAndrew writes, “This past week a couple of other companies joined the growing list of nonconforming drivers. Cobra Golf, via its parent company Acushnet, has seen multiple lofts of its Unlimited SS 370, King Cobra 400 SZ Unlimited, King Cobra Unlimited SS 430, King Cobra Unlimited SZ 440, King Cobra 414 Comp Unlimited and King Cobra 454 Comp Unlimited models added to the USGA list on nonconforming drivers. Also too has Cleveland Golf with its Launcher NC, 460 NC-X and 460 NC-X2.”
Hey Terry, here’s the real news. Those models are sold only in Asia (where COR of .860 is legal until the end of this year). For crying out loud, the NC in the Launcher NC actually stands for non-conforming. And if you actually picked up the phone to call Dick Rugge at the USGA (as I just did a few moments ago), you would know that the Cobra drivers went on the list in August of last year and the Cleveland drivers in September of last year. In fact, the very high majority of clubs on the nonconforming driver list ARE clubs only sold in Asia. No drivers currently marketed in the U.S. by Cleveland or Cobra are on the list. That’s not to say that couldn’t change, but for now it’s simply not true and to report this as “news” is borderline irresponsible.
GOUGE: It’s unfortunate, but it seems the whole industry is caught up in nonconforming hysteria. That’s when misinformation or the slimy residue of obfuscation runs rampant. An example: When the second driver to trip over the CT rule landed, one insider told us, “Listen, boys, this really is small potatoes.” That, friends, was wishful thinking, at least, or a diversionary tactic at best, or maybe as someone much wiser than me once suggested just the kind of lie you tell your prom date well past each other’s bedtime. Manufacturers are doing their best to manufacture right to the limit because, well, there’s no money in making drivers that hit it shorter. And every bit of face tweaking more often than not will help, won’t hurt, when it comes to the search for distance. Not that it matters to you and me. Our inconsistencies overwhelm the technology in most of our clubs. But then that’s not the point when it comes to the rules, is it? We can look long and hard at this question of bifurcation and what we come away with is nothing other than a leap into the moral abyss. How do we decide what rules matter and what don’t? What’s worse is that consumers don’t know and never will know whether manufacturers routinely dance around the CT rule, whether the CT rule is a valid test or whether the USGA matters any more in their golfing lives. There is little doubt that the USGA should matter. There is some doubt that it currently does. That disturbing tendency is not enhanced by false reporting. It only adds to the confusion.
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