After much angst, deliberation, analysis, over-analysis, whining, discussion, study and a few too many pitch shots from ankle-deep rough that stuck like Velcro, the PGA Tour announced Tuesday that it will adopt new rules in 2010 about the kind of grooves allowed on wedges used by the game's best players.
Without getting too technical about U-grooves (since I'd only confuse the matter), suffice it to say, the game just got harder for the pros.
Starting next year, the pros will have to use wedges with grooves that make spinning the ball, particularly from the rough, more difficult. It's been coming for a while and there was some thought that the PGA Tour might push it back a year because of carping from some equipment companies and players. Instead, commissioner Tim Finchem announced they're moving forward in 2010.
That was the right move.
Is it a roll back on equipment advances?
Yes.
And it's a big deal.
Talking last year to Mike Davis, the man who sets up the U.S. Open courses for the USGA, he said it would be a more dramatic change than people think. Players will have less control on shots from the rough and it will force many to reconsider the golf balls they use, opting for balls that spin more than the ones they're using now.
The rule only applies to professionals next year. By 2014, it will be in effect for high-level amateurs and it goes into effect for all golfers in 2024, by which time we'll all have worn out the wedges we now have.
If you buy new wedges next year, you'll get the new grooves unless you buy this year's model of wedges.
In theory, the new rule will make it more important for players to drive the ball in the fairway. We'll see if that happens.
If nothing else, it will make the game more challenging for the pros, who are wizards around the greens.
I have no problem with them being able to save strokes from seemingly impossible positions with their wedge play. But it should be more about their skill and less about the equipment doing it for them.
That's what this is about.