Cink On Grooves: "the new grooves are really an indirect way to attack driving distance"

A pair of recent Tweets from Stewart Cink on the upcoming groove rule change:

New grooves next year mean 10% less spin from fairway and 60-70% less from rough with short irons. Players will use softer balls I believe.

IMHO the new grooves are really an indirect way to attack driving distance since softer balls go shorter in general.

Comments

[chico]

good!Hope he's right.

[Wisconsin Reader]

No question using a softer golf ball - with Tour player clubhead speed - will tend to produce an "up-shoot" trajectory which will reduce distance for the bombers. . . However, the "rocket scientists" employed by the big golf manufacturers must certainly be studying this issue. . . Driver club head and shaft combinations - using higher spinning golf balls - will be the highest priority for 2010 - especially by the Nike guys! . . . We will NOT be going back to the days when the Titleist tour balata 100 was almost backing up on tee shots. . .

[RadioGolfShow]

Gee....where have I heard this before? :-)

[86general]

Gosh. Isn't that a surprise? Many of us said it...I think iacas wrote somewhere, here or on his site, "the USGA is attacking the gouge part in the hope it will make the players stop the bomb part on their own." Or something like that.

It's actually a very logical way to move the game back a bit toward the "rubric" of 1970s era golf. Since the current distance explosion is, in essence, the aftermath of the development of a distance Top Flite that can spin sufficiently for a pro to use, coupled with the fact that, perhaps, modern grooves lessened the punishment of missing the fairway. The groove change makes the ball more like the old, non-spinning Top Flite.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Thanks JP for remembering that I'd said that. I've also said that the groove rule may force players to adopt a combination of three different tactics:

1) use a spinnier (softer) ball
2) gear back a bit off the tee to go for more accuracy
3) aim for the fat parts of the greens when they do find the rough

Both 1 and 2 affect driver distance, and indeed affect the "bomb" portion via the "gouge" portion of the "new way to play golf."

[Geoff]

I have yet to talk to a tour player who, when asked about the grooves, anticipates having to back off of the "bomb" concept for more accuracy. Several have said they will only bomb it more to keep a short iron in their hands, which is why I think the hoped-for rollback may not be as great as the USGA hopes. Only time will tell!

[Hawkeye]

Jack Nicklaus said in the 1960s that he always preferred a wedge from the rough to a 7-iron from the fairway. That was before U-grooves, so it's unlikely that it will be any different now. Having said that, the wedge from the rough will probably be slightly more inpredictable next year, so there's still hope...

[Hawkeye]

Unpredictable, that is.

[Bignose]

Cochran and Stobbs in the 60's demonstrated that in dry conditions from the fairway that a grooveless iron spun the ball the same an irons with 1/2 sized and full sized (for the time) grooves. The conclusion is that it isn't the friction from the ball-clubface impact that imparts most of the spin, it is the oblique impact. Grooves only matter in wet conditions (actually wet like from rain, or the moisture trapped in grass caught between ball and clubface).

I think that both the 10% less from the fairway and 60-70% less from the rough are very high estimates.