BOMB: Well, week one of the new groove rule is now in the books and somehow, someway the sky didn't fall. It wasn't a bogey-fest and indeed, players seemed to do just fine adapting to the new grooves.
Of course, you and I have surmised all along that the impact would be minimal. Yes, many players said they saw differences—including SBS champ Geoff Ogilvy, who said, "There is definitely a difference, especially out of the Bermuda rough. I had a shot into 10 from the left rough ... it was a pretty good lie. The old stuff, I would have been confident with a lob wedge ... [now] I can't be as aggressive on that shot."
Of course, Ogilvy later went on to say that some shots were actually easier with the new grooves. Which I think is really where things are going to end up. The new grooves aren't going to make the game any more difficult. It's just going to make it different.
In Golf World this year I'm going to be tracking six stats where several players indicated the new grooves might make a difference: Driving Distance, Driving Accuracy, Approached from rough between 50 and 125 yards, Approaches from rough between 125 and 150 yards, scrambling from 30 yards and in and scoring average. And for one week, those stats reveal that it wasn't any more difficult.
Of course, that's just one week—which is why we will track this year-long. And there are plenty of variables, too. Hole location and weather, for instance.
So is it unfair to make judgments on one tournament with only 28 players? Absolutely. Which is why I'm not doing that. But what I am saying is the one fact that may have been lost in this entire discussion is that these guys are indeed good and likely will figure out how to adapt. And for one week at least, they showed they could.
GOUGE: Everybody knows I want armageddon all the time, but especially now and especially with the groove rule. Instead, what we got was 22-under par. It's too easy to write off the groove rule miasma as one colossal waste of time and effort based on the results of one week. But why not? The whole thing reaks of one gigantic Seinfeld episode. In the end, like a long wait at a Chinese restaurant, it's about nothing. I don't think it's out of the question to suggest its effect on PGA Tour golf will be forgotten, perhaps because it will never be able to be measured.
I did find the pin sheets for the week fairly interesting. By my count, there were more hole locations within five paces of the edge of greens at this year's Kapalua event than there were at last year's Kapalua event. My count shows 22 in 2009 and 27 in 2010. Within that number, there were seven each year that were four paces from the edges.
Check them out for yourself.
pin placements_2009 Mercedes-Benz Championship.pdf
pin placements_2010 SBS Championship.pdf
But let's keep watching (and let's hope the PGA Tour doesn't soften course setups so we get a fair accounting of what may or may not be happening with the groove rule's effect). Let's keep rooting for armageddon, or at least dogs and cats living together. The game's more fun with uncertainty thrown into the mix. At least that's been my experience.
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