Square Grooves, the USGA and Us

Filed in archive Golf Equipment on March 22, 2007

Courtesy: Titleist

The USGA's recent ruling on grooves has a lot of amateur golfers wondering how it impacts them in future tournaments.

Specifically, they wonder if they'll be forced to buy new clubs to be "legal".

In fact, The Golf Chick, Kristen Williams, takes the jaundiced view in her latest column at WorldGolf.com that the USGA ruling is a boon for club makers.

Williams sounds a very cynical note when she states the manufacturers "maybe even financed the studies" that the USGA conducted on grooves and spin rates out of light rough.

She may have good reason to by cynical. Frank Thomas, the former technical director of the USGA for 26 years, offers some advice in his column to a golfer who has written to him.

The golfer says she plays for a state women's team and asks Frank if she will need to buy new clubs because of the USGA ruling.

Thomas says she very well may have to. And he quotes from the USGA ruling which says, "the USGA would recommend that the Condition [of Competition, i.e., the new ruling on grooves] apply only to competitions involving highly skilled players."

He concludes by pointing out to the writer that since she plays on a state women's golf team, she could very well be considered a highly skilled player and therefore in need of new clubs.

Kirsten Williams' suggestion? Change the golf ball. Rather than make amateurs shell out for new irons with legal grooves, produce golf balls that will spin less. Golf balls cost a lot less than clubs, she reasons.

I don't know if that's a step backwards or not. I certainly know that I like a golf ball that will give me as much spin as golf science allows. That's because I just can't impart the spin to a golf ball like Tiger or Phil and I never will.

But I sure know where Williams is coming from.

However, given that the USGA is only going to demand that "highly skilled players" conform to the new ruling, I guess that lets both Williams and me off the hook.