Northwest Golf Adventures

In announcing the results of a joint study with the R&A, the USGA has proposed rules changes for club face grooves. They say, though, that the rule changes would likely only impact the game's most skilled players.

“The skill of driving the ball accurately has become much less important in achieving success on Tour than it used to be,” USGA Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge said. “Our analysis of statistical data measured by the PGA Tour since 1980 shows that historically driving accuracy was as comparably correlated to winning as putting. Beginning in the early 1990s, however, driving accuracy became much less important. Today, the correlation between driving-accuracy rank and money winning rank on the PGA Tour is very low.”

Rugge said the objective of this change is to limit the performance of grooves on shots from the rough to that of the traditional V-groove design.

So what's it mean for the average golfer? Not much. The changes would have little effect on shots hit with surlyn-covered balls (the majority of balls sold in the US), meaning little change for the average golfer. Even players using urethane-covered balls will notice little change unless they posses the skills of a TOUR-caliber player.

It looks to me like a way to reign the game in on the highest level and continue to make the game interesting for fans.

February 27, 2007

USGA finds a new groove

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