New Groove Rules

[LobWedge]

People are missing the point here. This is about NOT rewarding shots that miss the fairway. There is an unfair advantage gained by being able to better, and unfairly control shots from less-than-ideal lies. A shot struck from a perfect lie, whether the club has grooves or not, will always have the best odds at turning out well. Why bother hitting fairways if the resulting second shot has almost as good a chance to turn out as well? You might as well just remove all rough from golf courses.

You want to score well? Learn to hit more fairways, and get more creative when you miss them.

Golf is meant to be a pursuit folks. If you think it should be easy, then you've got the wrong game, stick to Tiger Woods on your Playstation.

[jeffc]

I guess it all depends on where you or the USGA draws the line between what is legal and what is not. High MOI drivers are designed to hit the ball straighter. Should that make them illegal since they increase your advantage of hitting a fairway? A line has to be drawn somewhere. Just some food for thought.

[LobWedge]

I guess it all depends on where you or the USGA draws the line between what is legal and what is not. High MOI drivers are designed to hit the ball straighter. Should that make them illegal since they increase your advantage of hitting a fairway? A line has to be drawn somewhere. Just some food for thought.

There's already a limit on MOI, as well as COR, CT, and volume. And besides, the straighter a driver hits the ball, the harder it is to work the ball. There's a built in limitation there.

[Kiwi battler]

I think its quite possible the golfers of today are better than way back

I draw a comparison ....A Kiwi runner got a bronze medal at the olympics in the 1500mtrs
He was way off gold , but his time was still 5 seconds faster than a fellow Kiwi John Walker who won gold some 30 years ago
Maybe his running shoes were non conforming lol

[BC MIST]

i use spin milled wedges because i like my wedges to take on bounce and stop around the greens my dad uses ping eye2 wedges because he likes to roll his in
so you are trying to say i have the advantage around the green because my wedges spin more 2 different styles of play, and how much our wedges spin really dont tell us who the better player is

Imagine this: You short sided yourself, 20 yards from the green, in 4" rough and the pin is 12' from the edge of the green, over a bunker.

Will you likely get the ball closer to the hole with you high spin wedge, or your dad, with his PE2, rolling shot? You both may have the skill to land the ball on a precise spot, but he will virtually never get the ball close, whereas you will. Returning to reasonable grooved wedges will increase the reward for hitting fairways and subsequently, greens, skills which take hard work to develop - the way it should be.

[jeffc]

There's already a limit on MOI, as well as COR, CT, and volume. And besides, the straighter a driver hits the ball, the harder it is to work the ball. There's a built in limitation there.

How many average players (10-15 index) can work the ball? I'd say very few can on a consistent basis, most will just try to hit it straight and be happy about it.

While I am not disagreeing limits need to be set, I don't know that the wedges I currently use spin the ball excessively.

It's funny how they choose to ignore the ball which is the thing that has really changed over the years.

[careyhrrs67]

I have the nike tour blades like tiger uses,,with the u and v prepoitory grooves on the face, there made before the new groove rule, But if im going to try to get on tour does this mean ive got to have v grooves in my irons now??

[jvincent]

If you truly are going to try to make it on tour (or compete in the USGA sanctioned events like the US Am, etc) then you will need to replace them.

Not that the new rule does not enforce V grooves. U grooves are still allowed, they just need to have more rounded edges.