New Jersey's Ridgewood Country Club is one of the "old courses" short-game specialist Dave Pelz is worried about. The 1929 A.W. Tillinghast-design hosted the opening week of this year's PGA Tour Playoffs (The Barclays), and the professionals involved were playing a far different game than Pelz was when he competed in the 1974 U.S. Amateur at the very same course.
Pelz, who is widely regarded as golf's foremost authority on the short-game and putting, believes that the United States Golf Association and the R&A of Scotland's reasoning behind newly introduced equipment regulations is simple: They did it because the pros and a lot of the elite amateurs are driving the ball every hole regardless of how narrow the fairways are or how long the hole is.
“If they hit it in the rough so be it,” Pelz told a crowd at the 19th hole of the recently completed World Amateur Handicap Championship in Myrtle Beach. “They’d rather hit a wedge out of the rough than a 7-iron, 4-iron or 5-iron out of the fairway.”
In essence the rule boils down to preventing what has become an almost indistinguishable similarity between shots from the rough and shots in the fairway for elite players.
“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 in a statement released in early August. “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.”
Pelz said he conducted research in 1987 and 1988 where golf professionals from around the country hit over 1 million golf shots and the conclusion then was that grooves do affect an elite player’s ability to control the ball. The USGA conducted a similar study 10 years later and came up with the same results. Finally, these new restrictions are based on more than three years of research, tests, conversations and data gathering conducted by the USGA and R&A.
The ruling is a restriction on the grooves on any club with 25 degrees loft or more, meaning 12 clubs in the bag excluding putter and driver will likely be affected. While the USGA and R&A have not banned U-grooves or “square” grooves outright, anything that performs more aggressively and puts greater spin on the ball than does the traditional V-groove will no longer be legal.
The USGA’s ruling on grooves has been seen by many as a way to maintain the integrity of the game among professionals without having a tremendous affect on the weekend golfer. Pelz said the state-of-the-game is in trouble because people are hitting the ball further each year and that has to do with driver technology the USGA doesn’t have the technology to control and incrementally improving golf balls that are traveling two to three yards further each year.
“If balls keep going further, I don’t care what you do with wedges, the old courses won’t be in play anymore,” said Pelz.
The USGA will implement the rule in its three professional championships (U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open) in 2010, and will adopt it for all its competitions in 2014. The PGA, LPGA and European Tours along with the PGA of America, Augusta National Golf Club and other worldwide organizations have told the USGA and the R&A they intend to adopt the condition of competition on January 1, 2010.
Clubs manufactured prior to January 1, 2010 that conform to current regulations will continue to be considered conforming to the USGA Rules of Golf until at least 2024, meaning amateurs could use their current equipment for the better part of 15 years if they choose to do so.
Jesse Ortiz, who currently designs Pelz Wedges for the Bobby Jones Golf Company joined Pelz at the World Am to discuss how the grooves will affect everyone.
“This is going to affect all of us,” Ortiz cautioned the crowd. “It will be important to make sure your equipment is up-to-date and performing to top level. The groove story is going to affect you.”
Ortiz went on to say that he will be changing his own designs to conform by 2010 and will not be producing anything that doesn’t fit within the specifications of the new guidelines. He believes maintaining the integrity of the game was at the heart of this decision.
“If it’s right for the game, I am for it,” said Ortiz. “It’s become a power game and the rough is not penal enough.”
Amateurs questioned whether there would be a noticeable difference among players with skills significantly below those possessed by the elite golfer. Again, Ortiz assured everyone this would be felt by the entire golfing public.
“You will be able to tell the difference between the new grooves restrictions and the current ones,” said Ortiz. “The current ones are gonna bite a lot more. You’re gonna see a lot of difference too in your 9-iron, pitching wedge and 7-iron because you’re getting more clubhead speed because the shafts are longer.”
While amateurs have much longer to adapt to these new restrictions, pros will have less just over a year to make adjustments. Pelz, who works with professionals such as Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington and Mike Weir exclusively, said the likely remedy will be a higher angle of attack.
“Pros will shift to higher lofted wedges and keep bombing it,” he said. “They’ll just hit it higher and softer to the green.”
at Thursday, 23 April 2009 23:36by paul