GOUGE: We knew it would eventually come to this. What we didn't realize was maybe how soon we'd get there. The problem, of course, is just what to do about it. We have reached an era when Super Bowl winning coaches cheat, when home-run king baseball players cheat, and in what certainly reeks of nefarious undertakings the acting travesty that is James Spader gets an Emmy instead of rightful master of the art form Hugh Laurie. Golf now finds itself on the verge of this most uncomfortable kind of cheating, thanks to golf technology's rapid devouring of the moment of inertia standard.
During our visits with some of golf's leading manufacturers last week, we found that some of the latest crop of drivers has approached the USGA prescribed moment of inertia limit of 5,900 gram-centimeters squared. (The rule was designed to limit clubhead stability, which mitigates the falloff in performance on off-center hits. What tragedy is this you might ask? Well, riddle me this, caped crusader: In an industry where "unauthorized manufacturing variances" have led to small production problems with drivers from Cobra, Cleveland, Nike and Callaway, we now find ourselves staring down the barrel of a rule that could be even easier to violate unintentionally. Moreover, those violations might place the full force of the law squarely on the unassuming golfer, instead of the manufacturer. Consider this: If a driver is manufactured to the USGA MOI limit of 5,900 and someone decides to buy such a driver and shorten the shaft (routinely these high MOI drivers are being introduced with 45.5 to 46-inch shafts), he or she most likely will need to add a little lead tape to restore the club's swingweight. Problem is, that little maneuver of putting two or three strips of lead tape on such a driver could push that particular club's MOI over 5,900 and most likely in the danger zone of being non-conforming. Compound this little development with the fact that the tolerance for the MOI rule is 100 g-cm2, which at least to some of the reports we've heard is less than the typical MOI manufacturing tolerance of the biggest companies. In other words, you could easily have a driver that is trying to have an MOI of 5,900 end up with a final MOI of 5,750 or even 5,700, BUT it could also have the tolerance go to the other side, pushing MOI to 6,050 or 6,100, making them of course nonconforming. And how do we know what the MOI of my new High MOI driver might be? Can't know it. Unless I take it apart and put it on an MOI machine. No word yet, of course, on whether the PGA Tour plans to purchase an MOI machine for the first tee (or more precisely scorers' tent) of the Mercedes Championships next year, let alone whether they're planning to stock up on epoxy for reassembling heads. One thing's clear, though. We could end up with a situation that makes last spring's hot-face nonconforming drivers debacle look like using the wrong fork at McDonald's.
BOMB: Well, you must have been sneaking a peek over my shoulder because cutting down clubs and the effect of such is what I wrote about for this week’s issue of Golf World. That said, know what really bothers me about the MOI rule and the proposed groove rule? That neither one can actually be enforced! And if you can’t enforce it, then why have it? Anyone who reads this blog knows I’m pretty consistent in saying that the USGA has the right to make the rules. But these two baffle me a little, especially the MOI rule. For starters, the USGA seems to want to rein in distance on tour. MOI really helps hits about 3/4-inch off center. But tour players almost never hit it 3/4-inch off center. And then no player is going to want his club taken apart to be checked for it. Some may think bifurcation is on the way, but that’s against the USGA’s statement of principles. Me, I just think it will lead to more chaos similar to what we saw this year with the nonconforming drivers.
Still, I think you’re making a big deal of not much. If there are "manufacturing variances" some company will blow the whistle on the offending party and it will be taken care of, just like those who slipped over the COR/CT limit. And as for golfers unwittingly doing something to their bats to make it go over the limit, well, that’s not the manufacturers' problem. Their job is to make a club within the rules as best they can. Seems to me that’s all they are trying to do.
But I’m totally with you on James Spader winning out over Dr. House himself. That’s just wrong.
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