Pelz: "The USGA has taken away 50 percent of the spin from the amateurs."

Brian Wacker files a Q&A with Dave Pelz and the short game guru isn't too happy with the groove rule change. While I appreciate his sentiment about doing something other than the ball, I'm sensing this is a bit of an overstatement.

And my pet peeve is the USGA changed the grooves rule this year and said it wouldn't affect the amateurs because they don't hit many greens in regulation. Well it turns out after watching the pros [this year] that it hardly affected the pros at all because they're good enough to play around it. The USGA took good data and misinterpreted that data. The amateurs are the ones who hit greens with wedges; they don't hit greens with 4-irons. The first question I always get asked at clinics is how can I get more spin on my wedges? Mine don't stop like pros do. The USGA has taken away 50 percent of the spin from the amateurs. It was a terrible decision, the worst decision the USGA has ever made. Change the ball or change the driver. Don't change the wedges for amateurs.