BOMB: Although the rules fiasco that resulted in Futures Tour player Sarah Brown being DQ’d for having a wedge with a nonconforming groove (when it turns out the club was perfectly legal) was highly unfortunate, what is even more unfortunate is the parade of point-missers who have used the incident to try and make their case that the groove rule is confusing or, as one golf writer recently wrote, “is driving players and rules officials to the brink of golf insanity.”
 
Really?

To me the case is this: It’s not the rule that’s the problem. Agree or disagree whether the rule is needed (I, personally, never have thought it necessary), but once it is enacted—and it was enacted—get with the program and learn the dang rule if you want to play competitive golf or be a rules official for competitive golf. When I hear stories of players showing up at tournaments only to find out their clubs don’t conform (as has been the case at several events) I have zero sympathy.

Read the entry form, jackwagons.

What we had in the Sarah Brown incident wasn’t a problem with the groove rule. What we had was an abuse of power by a pair of rules officials. The rule was in place. A protocol for applying that rule was in place. It simply wasn’t followed. If it were, the officials would have seen Brown’s wedge was indeed on the list of conforming clubs and she would have been allowed to continue. Instead, the officials didn’t read far enough down the list (her model of club was the fifth of five Ping Tour-W 54 degree/10-degree bounce clubs listed), wrongly assumed her club was illegal and then wrongly removed her from the golf course. That’s not someone being driven to the brink of insanity. That’s someone not doing his or her job.

The same writer is blaming the USGA, said they “did not adequately prepare the world of golf for the changeover from old grooves to new grooves.” Bull. What is there to know? Prepare the world? The rule doesn’t apply to the world. Here’s your seminar: Read the entry form. It tells you if you need the new grooves or not and for what portion of the competition. If you do, there is a USGA list that tells you if yours are good or not. Sarah Brown read the rule, obtained conforming grooves from Ping and played with them. She’s 18 years old and was able to figure it out. Would it have been easier if the switch was universal? Sure. But it’s still pretty simple to figure out if you just pay attention.

Oh, and one last thing. The same article closes by saying “Now we are paying the price. … Well, Sarah Brown is paying the price.” Well Sarah just reached a settlement with the tour. She was asking for prize money equivalent to 8 under par in the tournament ($5,638) and waiver of the entry fee to LPGA Q School which is another $5,000. That’s about $10,638 worth of monetary concessions if that is indeed what she received. For a player who has won just $5,302 in 11 events, if she’s being honest with herself, that’s a pretty good deal.

GOUGE: The rule is easy to follow. The USGA has even offered to test a professional's clubs if he or she is unsure about their status. Gratis.

Now, what would make it less confusing is if there weren't so many old-groove wedges still floating around, old-groove clubs the USGA has to keep track of on its conforming and non-conforming lists. The reason they're floating around, of course, is because they're still OK to use for college players, elite amateurs and everybody who doesn't get paid to play in a golf competition. The rollover for non-professionals doesn't begin until 2014 events and the rest of us don't need to purchase new-groove stuff until at least 2024. The USGA used those deadlines in an effort to be fair to working men and women who want to play in local city championships or club member-guest events. That  was the only mistake here.

Let's put the rule in place for everybody—EVERYBODY—starting in 2012, 2014 at the latest. If you don't feel like playing by the rules, well then you just don't matter. (However, if such a huge number of people demand to play with clubs that have grooves that don't conform to the new standards, then we no longer have a game that matters.) In an ideal world, by the end of next year, old groove clubs should quickly have the reputation of the Bandit golf ball. Unacceptable for all but the lowest life forms in the game. The USGA didn't extend a grace period for average golfers so people could stock up on non-conforming equipment; the grace period existed so people could get new, conforming equipment in a reasonable amount of time. The ideal solution is to take all that old-groove stuff, melt it down and turn it into something useful. Like metal eyeglass frames for reading glasses that we can ship to rules officials. Just in case.