GOUGE: The idea that the USGA's rule changed allowing increased adjustability of clubs might somehow fundamentally change the way the industry develops and markets golf clubs is no idle pursuit. It's already big news, as evidenced by this report from Golf DIgest's Max Adler, associate editor for equipment. Let us know your thoughts on how much you're excited by club adjustability, and whether it will be the next big thing in golf.

    Adler writes:
There are Seven Heavenly Virtues and Seven Deadly Sins, so it was only fitting that the first ever Club Adjustability Symposium, an assembly gathered at this year’s PGA Show in Orlando to forecast the glory and/or doom of the USGA’s recent rule relaxing, would have seven panelists to lead the discussion. The seven industry experts with headset microphones were Dick Rugge, Technical Director to the USGA, John K. Solheim, Vice President of Engineering at Ping, Jeff Colton, Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Callaway, John Hoeflich, Senior Vice President of Nickent, Graeme Horwood, Vice President of Engineering and R&D at True Temper Sports, Ken Morton Sr., owner of the retailing giant Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento, and Ed Mitchell, CEO of Mitchell Golf which makes club repair and measuring devices.
    Every seat was taken and people stood in rows six deep behind the crowd control ropes. The lights were dimmed and the word that seemed to be sneaking its way into roughly half of Golf Channel chief equipment correspondent and symposium moderator Adam Barr’s introductory sentences was "imagination." As in, within what stretches of imagination will designers make new clubs, only time will tell.
    Before the discussion got underway, Dick Rugge made it clear that better fitting equipment is good for all golfers and for golf, and that in no way is the USGA concerned that adjustable golf clubs pose a threat to the sanctity of the game. Just as on the professional tours, where players regularly enjoy equipment adjustments to meet changing conditions or optimize their swings, skill remains supreme. 
    John K. Solheim voiced the first skepticism. "It (club adjustability) could put greater doubt in the golfer’s mind." The average golfer’s mind is already clouded enough with technique insecurities, the clear message. Solheim went on to assert Ping was very confident with its fitting system, and so that leaving fitting decisions up to the consumer might not be in his or her best interest.
     Graeme Horwood grinned when asked by an audience member if he thought there was any possibility of a 'universal' shaft-head attachment system developing in the future, as this is of major concern to retailers who foresee an inventory nightmare. At the Show, several leading OEM’s like Callaway, TaylorMade, and Nickent all introduced systems that were exclusive. Horwood answered no, but that he hoped shaft-makers at least would stick to a consistent tip diameter for the sake of simplicity.
    One audience member reminded the crowd that fitting could potentially apply to never before considered aspects of the club. For example, perhaps a future technology would allow a player to handily switch his set to cord grips on a rainy day and then back to softer grips on a sunny day.
    The highlight of audience interaction no doubt came from Tom Wishon, whose front row seat evidenced that the component clubmaker arrived early, and whose lengthy, well-organized address sounded like it had been simmering in his chest for quite some time. Wishon expressed doubt regarding the legitimacy of adjustable clubs competently taking the place of traditional club-fitting methods. "If this is going to work," Wishon warned, "every aspect of the club needs to be adjustable at the same time. If you insert a shaft with a different gram weight, the weight of the head needs to be adjustable to preserve the overall swing weight."
    Jeff Colton was more enthusiastic about the possibilities. "I see this ruling as a tremendous benefit," he said. "It allows the golfer to optimize equipment every time he sets foot on the course. The driver is no longer a static piece of equipment."
    The symposium discourse shifted from present technical issues to futuristic, more fanciful possibilities, but in the end came full circle to a simple question: does a $1000 driver help grow the game? (TaylorMade’s r7 CGB Max Limited will be sold as a clubhead with three shafts for that price.) The audience member who proposed the question, noted golf equipment free-lance writer Ted Johnson, likened the industry to a "...a trawler that fishes the same luxury consumer waters over and over."
    Early adopters generally pay a premium, but if adjustable clubs gain in popularity the volume of their production will likely drop the price down to the middle of the market, according to Jeff Colton.
    Dick Rugge answered that expense and pace of play are the main problems hurting golf’s participation. "Adjustability won’t affect people getting into the game."

GOUGE: Day One of the annual PGA Merchandise Show is complete (I think 12:56 a.m. might constitute a full day by anyone's estimation), and while I don't have time or the inclination to take you everywhere Bomb & Gouge went in our day's travels (I counted 13 separate meetings, but I missed a few), I thought it might be fun to pick out a few of my favorite things that will be coming to a shop near you in the very near future. Here's a start for now: Ping's nFlight ballflight simulation with adjustable fitting clubs. The real way for golfers to establish a foundation for improvement is by getting them in the right clubs, and that possibility seems greater than ever these days. The software from a company that first came with a fitting matrix more than three decades ago is a total overhaul that reflects the knowledge of the past decade of research and understanding of ballflight. The new system features video game quality ballflight simulations that through in-house developed software home in on the optimized combination of launch conditions and the recommended equipment that allows each individual golfer to achieve those conditions. Ping engineers have analyzed some 30,000 shafts, all in an effort to help golfers reach a more confident result in their search for the right specifications of club and shaft. As interesting is a component that shows the golfer his entire set makeup (after hitting only a mid-iron, a short iron and a driver) and distance gaps in a way that lets him or her see how more wedges might produce better spacing or how a single hybrid might replace two long irons. Expect the new fitting system and computer software to be in place at a number of locations before the end of the spring.

The return of the classic look to MacGregor. After a few years wandering away from its heritage, MacGregor will try to come back yet again. As late as July of 2007, the company did not have a set of irons or specific plans for what the company might be doing. Thursday morning we saw seven (yes, seven) sets of irons, two wedges, a hybrid, a fairway wood and a new driver, as well as a completely new line of putters. Impressively, the irons all follow a clean, non-klunky look that old school fans will appreciate, with a range that stretches from pure blades only company owner Greg Norman could play to cupface design irons that are oversize without being overdone. Even better, none of sets come with obscene price tags and some are damn-near bargains.

Finally, from my perspective one thing that worried me is the uncertainty surrounding niche-brand Sonartec Golf's product line. A fixture among good players (Zach Johnson used a Sonartec hybrid in winning the Masters last year), the company's current state of limbo means the availability of its interesting TriBrid hybrid (a Hot List Silver selection this year) is also up in the air. Let's hope stability gets quickly restored somehow.

BOMB: Uh, partner, that was 20 meetings, not 13. And we have another 20 scheduled today so I'll keep it brief. Count among the cool things at the Show Sun Mountain's Zero-G bag. We were impressed last year with the company's Hug technology (where a fitted bar around the hip helped relieve some of the stress from carrying the bag) and now the company has taken it one step farther, now using a strap with Velcro instead of the bar. Simply put the dual-strap bag on your shoulders and fasten the strap (think a Velcro-fastening belt, but slightly above belt level) and it was simply amazing how the bag felt like, well, nothing. Anyone who walks and carries their own bag would be well advised to check out this one.

Next up for me was not necessarily a product, but a couple of announcements involving SkyGolf. The company's SkyCaddie rangefinder was announced as not only the official rangefinder of the Canadian Golf Association (allowing it to be used in all of the association's national championships), but will be allowed in play by the Great Britain and Ireland PGA, thus allowing the device to be used in such events as the Irish PGA Championship. I know, this is not exactly the U.S. Open, but you know what, it might be headed that way. Anything that helps speed up play (and these devices do) is good for the entire game of golf. The USGA allows them as a condition of competition, but quite frankly, they should be a Rule of Golf and allowed universally. We'll be spending some time today with the USGA's Dick Rugge so perhaps we can ask him about that.

As for what I don’t like, well, I’m not exactly a big fan of operating on five hours sleep. I know, cry me a river.

GOUGE: The great debate over grooves and the USGA's proposal to limit the effectiveness of current groove designs (so that elite players can't generate as much spin from the rough) has a lot of people hot and bothered. Sometimes even us journalists overheat. Just read a column authored by Golfweek's Jim Achenbach. The story seems to suggest that a final decision on the matter is imminent, alluding to a conversation with USGA President nominee Jim Vernon. The word "soon" was even used. That news struck me as odd as the two of us have regularly checked in with Dick Rugge, USGA Senior Technical Director, and have tried to keep up to date on the USGA's many ongoing research efforts during the grooves rule proposal's "notice and comment" period. As best I can tell, "soon" was not a word in any of our conversations. But I'll check my notes. ... Yup, "soon" is still not in there. But let's be clear: the USGA is still carefully studying the grooves rule, analyzing repeatedly the expected effect of the proposed rollback in groove volume and spacing, as well as making efforts to understand how such a rule might be enforced effectively and efficiently. Soon? What do you think, my long-hitting friend?...

BOMB: You know, I really didn't need another thing to do seeing how we're gearing up for the PGA Merchandise Show next week where we have an appointment scheduled every half-hour for three straight days. That's a lot of grip-and-grin, not to mention getting beat up over Hot List. But when the column you point to was brought to my attention, it got my attention for all the reasons you mentioned. So what to do? Get on the phone. First call: Dick Rugge who told us nothing much had changed since our last conversation. That efforts were still ongoing and, in fact, more research was being done. Well my friend, if more research is being done on the topic then "soon" doesn’t really seem possible, now does it? Next call, Jim Vernon, a man whom I looking forward to getting to know better. Vernon told us the following: That the Equipment Standards Committee is getting together at the USGA annual meeting in Houston on Feb. 8. The R&A is having their meeting after that date and that no decision on grooves would be made until after the USGA and R&A met again to discuss to the matter. At the very earliest that is more than a month from now. OK, so maybe a month or so might qualify as "soon." But the column made it a definitive--that the decision had already been made to implement a rule of some sort. Again, when posed to Vernon, he said, "There has been no prognosis made on when a decision will be made and there has been no prognosis on what that decision may or may not be." In plainspeak, not only hasn't a decision on timing been made, but there hasn't been a decision at all. As such, how can a reporter say that not only will your grooves be changing, but a decision will come "soon." Just asking, Jim (Achenbach, not Vernon). Of course, if a rule comes down in the next few weeks we'll look bad, but for now, based on our conversations with the two people at the USGA who know what's going on in this area, I think it's safe to say this is still a developing story as opposed to a fait accompli.

BOMB: One of the things I enjoy most about the Hot List is the comments we receive and the interaction with readers. So let's keep it going. Texasgolfer wrote to ask why a ball may be Silver one year and Gold the next when there were no apparent changes to the product, citing the Top-Flite D2 as an example. Fair question, but there is an answer. Last year we only had two categories of golf balls and the gold balls in the category the D2 was in were the two Titleist NXT balls, Callaway HX Hot and Bridgestone’s e5 and e6. This year, balls were split into three categories and D2 no longer competed with any of those golf balls. They were in a different category and D2 became one of the top balls in its category (balls under $21). Still, there are instances where products will stay on the list from one year to the next and move up or down a level. Fact is, a company may have tweaked the product. Or it may have added something like a fitting component that it didn’t have the year before. Its position in the marketplace may have changed. It may have done well in a category in which more points were allocated from one year to the next. And the competition it faces definitely changes. These are all factors each and every year. As agent Drew Rosenhaus would say, "next question?"

GOUGE: Thanks for the devil's spawn lead-in. Those who want a comprehensive look at all of our thoughts about the Hot List should check out the interview with B&G on golfwrx.com. That should answer most questions, but rickkane's criticisms are worth a separate conversation.

First, regarding the Hot List being like the Masters, all I can say is the Hot List is not like a stroke play golf tournament. What you call "performance" is reflected in several of our criteria (something that has a lot of tour use or consumer satisfaction obviously "performs," for example). We choose our criteria because we are trying to identify the products that are the most significant in the game. There is no single set of "performance" attributes that would present one driver or one putter or even a group of putters or drivers over others because it just can’t be done. All of the products presented for the Hot List work to varying degrees. All of our 240 finalists are very solid in the blocking and tackling. We are identifying only the truly exceptional. Like I’ve said before, the Ping Eye2 irons still work very well. But a 20-year-old technology is not going to be highlighted on the 2008 Hot List. Our process looks to highlight products that move the needle in exceptional ways, ways that go beyond does the club work.

Point-by-point:
No. 1: Technology is what every equipment company touts in selling its new products. We’re merely evaluating that technology. And don't forget that includes the concept of innovation, which means more lofts, new materials, increased fitting options all work in a product's favor. Opting out of evaluating technology is telling the reader that everybody's technology is the same, when we clearly feel that it is not.

No. 2: Our panelists only hit clubs appropriate to their skill set. That means mid- and high-handicappers don't hit player’s irons. It also means low handicappers don’t hit super game improvement irons.

No. 3: VALUE incorporates a product's worth vs. its price. That idea of worth extends beyond the purchase. Just as there is more value when you trade-in your Mercedes (and one could certainly argue there is more intrinsic value in simply driving a Mercedes), we believe there is more VALUE in certain products and certain brands of golf equipment (and it is documented in figures from the PGA.com Value Guide).

As always, the discussion surrounding the Hot List is infinitely more inspiring than it is frustrating. We think more golfers need to be talking about how the new equipment might help their games. We hope the Hot List fuels those discussions.