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.