"I am disappointed and intend to study this more closely," said Ping CEO John Solheim. "However, I already know it moves the rulebook backwards. How does this help the average golfer enjoy the game more?"
Others seem generally pleased that golf's governing bodies will enact the rule in a manner that delays at least in some ways the impact to average golfers perhaps by as much as 15 years and at the same time takes into account the concerns of manufacturers in building product that conforms to the new more exacting stipulations.
"We are very pleased to see the ruling bodies have carefully considered whether rules changes intended to address a perceived issue at Tour events should be applied simultaneously to Tour professionals, elite amateurs and other golfers, and ultimately opted to acknowledge those differences by separating their actions with respect to each group," said Steve McCracken, Senior Executive Vice President, Callaway Golf.
"We continue to believe the game isn't broken from an equipment regulatory point of view and that further regulation of equipment is not necessary," said Joseph P. Naumann, Executive Vice President, Corporate and Legal of Acushnet Company. "However, we did not object the notion of making a change to iron and wedge grooves.
"We were happy that the comments we made to both the USGA and the R&A were taken very seriously as a whole by the ruling bodies in their deliberations, and we were encouraged by the changes that they did make because we do think that they moved to a better place from a manufacturing point of view. Did they go as far as what would be ideal? No, but they did take a step in the right direction to give us a little more to work with from a manufacturing standpoint."
None of this precludes the threat of a lawsuit, but USGA officials believe the thoroughness and open nature of the process in coming to a decision on the new groove rule will serve them in good stead.
"You never know what any manufacturer is going to do on the legal front," said Vernon. "I think we are so well grounded in what we have done here that we are certainly confident that if there is such a lawsuit -- and quite frankly we don't expect there to be one -- we think we're in a very good legal position."
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