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By Steve Pike
The U.S. Golf Association is placing new restrictions on the cross sectional area and edge sharpness of golf club grooves.
The USGA said the revisions are "designed to restore the challenge of playing shots to the green from the rough by reducing backspin on those shots.'' The association the past few years has been critical of PGA Tour players' abilities to get a ball out of heavy rough and land it softly on a green.
To that end, the USGA said the initial focus of the new rules will be competitions involving highly skilled professional golfers and will have little impact on the play of most golfers.
The rules control the cross sectional area of grooves on all clubs, with the exception of drivers and putters, and limit groove edge sharpness on clubs with lofts equal to or greater than 25 degrees (generally a standard 5-iron and above).
The USGA said the rules apply to clubs manufactured after Jan. 1, 2010, the same year it will begin enforcing new regulations through a condition of competition for the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open and each of their qualifying events. All USGA amateur championships will apply the new regulations through the condition of competition, after January 1, 2014.
“Our research shows that the rough has become less of a challenge for the highly skilled professional and that driving accuracy is now less of a key factor for success,” said USGA Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge. “We believe that these changes will increase the challenge of the game at the Tour level, while having a very small effect on the play of most golfers.”
The USGA said its research demonstrates that for shots from the rough with urethane-covered balls (the type of ball most used by highly skilled players), modern, sharp-edged U-grooves result in higher ball spin rates and steeper ball landing angles than the V-groove designs used predominantly in the past. The combination of a higher spin rate and steeper landing angle results in better control when hitting to the green. Shots from the rough become more similar to shots from the fairway, creating less challenge for shots from the rough.
“The scientific research on the effect of grooves on spin and the ability of highly skilled professional golfers to control shots from the rough was very compelling,” said Jay Rains, USGA vice president and chairman of the USGA Equipment Standards Committee. “The USGA and The R&A took additional time to consider fully the potential ramifications for all levels of golfers. In particular, we took care to minimize the impact on amateurs who actively compete in club and local competitions, as well as other golfers who do not want to replace recently purchased clubs.”
Clubs manufactured prior to Jan. 1, 2010 that conform to current regulations will continue to be considered conforming to the USGA Rules of Golf until at least 2024. This includes clubs purchased after that date from manufacturers’ existing model ranges.
“Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that the path forward was to get the top-level professional tours under the new groove regulations as soon as possible and to phase in the next level of amateur competition four years later, in 2014,” said Rains. “This means that clubs you own today will still be conforming for top-level amateur competition for another 5 1/2 years and, for other competitions, conforming until at least 2024, if not indefinitely.”
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