BOMB: I think anyone who reads this space pretty much knows where I stand on this: I think it's unnecessary and I would have preferred, at least at this time, that no rule was implemented. That said, I'm also a big proponent that the USGA has the right to make the rules and once they make a decision, it's time for everyone to stop crying and get on board. This is no different.
As you and I know, partner, some companies have already jumped in. We've seen iron designs with grooves that comply to the new rule. We've also talked to companies that actually did not submit any comment to the USGA on the groove matter because they feel they already best know how to design to the new rule better than anyone else, and thus they have a head start on the competition. Which is really one of the reasons I didn't like the rule proposal--if we're to believe them, it's not going to make much difference. Sure, if the idea was to make the manufacturers work harder to figure it out, this accomplishes that. But they will figure it out. Or maybe they won't and they're all full of hot carbon steel. I'm just a little bummed that two of the best questions posed during this debate never got answered: How are they going to enforce this rule and what happens if it doesn't have the desired effect of restoring accuracy as an important part of the pro game?
Still, to Dick Rugge and the boys in Far Hills, well bowled. You took your time, did your research, included the industry and did what you thought best. Besides, you gave me something to write about this week (as I'm about to head to the range here at Oakland Hills to get player reaction). After all, it is all about me.
GOUGE: Figures. You take the most important rule change in any sport since the introduction of the designated hitter and turn it into a self-serving career opportunity. Er... of course, I'm rooting for the same. It's at least more fun for the five or six of us in the world who try to make a living writing about golf equipment. The possibilities are more endless than in a Dr. Seuss book. It could get ugly, or it could be a great unifying moment in the bizarre dance recital between the industry, the ruling bodies and their chaotic constituencies. A run on wedges? Maybe. But what happens if Pine Valley decides that its club events will be played by the rules of elite competition, starting in 2010. I don't have to delve too far back in the memory book to see what happened the last time the elite clubs in America decided to adopt a policy affecting golf equipment. Just look at the bottom of your shoes.
But here's what's I see from my paper strewn cubicle in Connecticut. A few years ago, in the midst of the USGA's groove research and its eventual proposal, I was on the golf course with a lead engineer at a prominent golf company. I brought up the subject of grooves, and he stated pretty clearly that any change in the groove rule would probably be the best way to go after the best players without affecting the vast majority of golfers. In the end, maybe this is what we have. Does the decision to roll back grooves (at least theoretically) rank as the most important rule change in the history of the game? Most would say not. I disagree. It might be the most enlightened, new age way of forcing the best players to think about driving accuracy in a way that you and I think about the speed limit when we see a state trooper's car. I love that the best players in the world might have to have a foot in the general vicinity of the brake even when they're playing the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. I love the idea that two-inch rough might produce uncertain performance from the best players in the world. I love that manufacturers have to figure out from the beginning again how to make a new groove pattern that is optimized (because we both know everybody is pretty much at the maximum level of the current rule).
But I only really love all the above if it actually might happen. The truth might be somewhere less dramatic, I'm afraid. The truth is, speed will still dominate. If you have a lot of speed, you will produce all the spin you need, or at least all the pin-seeking performance you need because the shot will fly high enough to hold all but the most brick-like greens. But I can dream, can't I? Wouldn't it be fun if the possibility really existed that Tiger might have hit his approach out of the light rough on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open over the green? I've always maintained that golf at the elite level should be like skiing the Olympic downhill. Serious injury or death (figuratively, I guess, but literally would be fun, too) should be a possibility at every turn. Maybe this will get us closer to what golf's ultimate powerbrokers really desire: Make it more like NASCAR.
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