damaged ball

[spidey]

My irons have square grooves. They make mincemeat out of most balls, but the covers are tough enough to prevent them from becoming out of shape or cut.

How much damage can I repair on my ball?

f'rinstance... usually, my irons peel some of the skin pretty deeply into the cover of the ball. Some of the peeled plastic comes off when I clean the ball for putting but sometimes it leaves very rough surfaces on the ball. Can I use a knife or rough surface to cut or smooth the rough surfaces on the ball?

Also, once I (with my fingernail) peeled back some of this damage (I was just trying to smooth out the ball), and it peeled back a great chunk of plastic from the skin. This is rare, I guess, perhaps a manufacturing defect, but would I be able to take the ball out of play (it left a scar almost as deep as a smile)?

spidey

[Gary Hill]

The first thing that I would do as an official would be to test the edges of your grooves. By your decription, the grooves themselves seem to be illegally sharp.

However, if we assume for the moment that your clubs are legal, you are not allowed to use ANY means to cut or smooth the rough surfaces on the ball. A ball may only be taken out of play during the play of the hole being played if it is visibly cut, cracked, or out of shape. A ball is not unfit for play if its surface is scratched or scraped.

[spidey]

Gary states...
By your decription, the grooves themselves seem to be illegally sharp.

I suppose that's possible, but I don't know. I've been playing with them for a long time. They don't seem to give me any spin advantage, my balls always roll forward no matter how much skin comes off the ball, and no matter how perfectly I execute the shot. In fact, I think it's a disadvantage because some of the plastic gets stuck in the clubface, which makes me think that it's inhibiting the spin.

In any case, the faces of my clubs seem smooth, not sharp. And I don't have any tools that can help me measure the grooves. I looked on the equipment rules, and it doesn't give me any information which will help me identify my grooves as non-conforming.

spidey

[Gary Hill]

The conformity of a club is a very complicated, technical procedure better left to the governing bodies. I wouldn't worry about it unless they have been specifically altered since original manufacture.

I believe that "soft" covered or balata covered balls will minimize or completely inhibit the described scarring.