BOMB: Well, well, well, seems like everyone is watching their nickels these days, even the boys at the USGA. A notice was sent to manufacturers yesterday informing them "beginning with all submissions received on or after April 1, 2009, the USGA will begin charging submitters of clubs and other equipment for official conformance evaluations. This is being done to partially defray the cost of services provided by the USGA's Research and Test Center and to more equitably distribute the cost of that support among the all equipment manufacturers."

According to the notice, the charges will be as follows:

Woods $150 each

Hybrids $150 each

Iron sets $500 per set

Individual Iron Heads $150 each

Putters $50 each

Other (tees, gloves, shoes, etc.) $50 each

Although on the surface some may find this surprising, it shouldn't be. The USGA has charged for golf-ball evaluations since 1979, so why not clubs. Further, I liken it to the golf equipment equivalent of an entry fee to the U.S. Open or U.S. Amateur. If the USGA can take $125 or so from an individual for that, why not be able to do the same from manufacturers that are constantly bombarding Far Hills with new club submissions?

GOUGE: Before those in our community move into warp speed in over-reaction mode, it's worth noting that the degree of difficulty in determining the conformance of a single golf club is a lot closer to an exercise in computational physics than an organizational meeting of your office book club. It is not a simple session of having a bunch of guys in blue blazers eyeball a submission, harrumph a few times and then issue a proclamation or poof of white smoke. What's more, it's not a once in a while type deal in Far Hills these days. Time was when a busy week at the Research and Test center might involve a handful of clubheads, or even fewer. Throughout much of the 1990s, according to information we have seen from someone who should know, the number of annual club submissions was less than 500 a year. By 2005, the number was close to 2,500 a year. The fact is, the number of areas which must be evaluated for conformance has significantly expanded (COR and now Characteristic Time, volume, width and breadth dimensions, moment of inertia -- and that's just on drivers). As manufacturers look to push the envelope in previously unnecessary directions (how about something like improved clubhead aerodynamics?), it becomes the USGA's responsibility to figure out what sort of test, if any, might be required to evaluate conformance. Sure, times are tight and even the USGA probably has budget shortfalls that might be mitigated somewhat by an extra million or two dollars a year. But if ball manufacturers have been charged for decades, it makes no sense for clubs to get a free ride.

Still, I'm left to ponder something you wrote this week, my astute and burgeoning TV star comrade. If there were two sets of rules, would all these products have to be submitted? Maybe, maybe not. But given that the number of different clubs that might need to be evaluated for conformance only at the elite level is easily one-tenth (or less) of those that under one set of rules have to be submitted today, wouldn't that be another way to envision a less overwhelming situation for the USGA? Given that I don't expect too many  13-degree drivers to be played this week at the Honda Classic (as in none), the USGA theoretically wouldn't have to busy itself with these sorts of exercises in a two-sets-of-rules world. Notice I didn't use the dreaded b-word (bifurcation), which when uttered in proper company at dinner causes soup spoons to be dropped and false teeth to come unglued. It's not that either of us believe two sets of rules would be better. Truly, we don't know. But we think sometimes a healthy discussion maybe provides a third, previously unrealized or even unimagined option. Everybody is looking for a solution where they win. Why not think about everyone's position in this particular dance? This is what happens when an industry works together. Can that happen? In desperate times? Some would say what better time is there.