"Do we really need to make this game more DIFFICULT than it already is?"

While we wait for an answer on the groove condition of competition, I saw this Tweet on Golfweek's Forecaddie account Monday:

Not that The Man Out Front is a chop, but riddle me this on grooves: Do we really need to make this game more DIFFICULT than it already is?

This is a pretty common refrain about the grooves, the ball, and any other talk of regulation. And nothing speaks better to the ever softening America culture that wants to eliminate any need for skill.

I'd just like to know from those who find all of this equipment regulation so offensive: what would you like your clubs to do for you that it doesn't do now?

"His views haven't stopped him from returning to the club with a group of people in a week's time."

Tom English and Marc Horne interview Gary Player, who drops this little jab at Muirfield, which does not have any female members.

"Golf would not be the game it is without women. Winston Churchill said that change is the price of survival. I agree with that. I just don't see the point of excluding any member of society."

The veteran added: "That policy is their business. It's a decision they've made and they've got to live with it.

"I have designed many golf courses all over the world and I wouldn't like to think any of them would exclude women."

And who says they don't fight back at these old stodgy places?

Club secretary Alastair Brown was taken aback by Player's comments. He said: "We are a private members' club and we conduct our own affairs. We don't have lady members, but ladies play here every day as guests.

"I'm interested in Gary's comments. His views haven't stopped him from returning to the club with a group of people in a week's time."

"Who actually runs golf?"

John Huggan on the possibility that the PGA Tour won't adopt the groove rule change:

When it comes to the rules, the book says it is the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the United States Golf Association. But you have to wonder sometimes.

Take the recent news that the PGA Tour, urged on by equipment manufacturers, is unlikely to adopt the new regulations for grooves on wedges come 1 January. The likes of Titleist, TaylorMade and Callaway are claiming they can't make clubs and balls the leading players will be happy with in time to meet the deadline. Aye right.

Verdict: Meet golf's real supremo, Wally Uihlein, chairman and CEO of Titleist.

"And there’s that little thing called earthquakes."

Larry Dorman helms a New York Times 30-second Q&A with David Fay following the U.S. Open at Bethpage.

Q. It rains a lot in the Northeast in June. West Coast Open venues looking better?

A. After a week like the last one? Sure, dry clothes and clean shoes are a plus. But while you may not deal with rain and thunderstorms on the West Coast, fog can gum things up. And there’s that little thing called earthquakes. I like the idea of the Open and all our championships being movable feasts.

I'm always fascinated by the earthquake excuse for hosting fewer majors in the west...wait, that's a new one!

Seriously, the Open has outgrown many courses for a variety of reasons. Is it so big now that maybe it's outgrown places where the weather is less predictable?

I did enjoy his answer on this. And because of our little economic downturn, it's starting to happen more and more.

Q. You have been designated the golf god, and whatever you say goes. Speak.

A. American golfers expect the doors of private clubs to fly open when they travel to the U.K. and, by and large and thankfully, that’s what happens. Wouldn’t it be nice if some of our great clubs had the same approach? The golf course doesn’t ask your income or your status. Treat the course with respect, play quickly, and replace all divots and tidy up the bunkers. Oh yeah, and pay your guest green fee. Simple, eh?

"Private organizations sometimes presume that they can exclude whomever they want, no questions asked."

In light of Sonia Sotomayer's recent club resignation, the WSJ's Nathan Koppel looks at the state of restricted clubs and how courts view their right to discriminate.

And in one sense, they are right. Ironically, the more selective a club is, the more it is considered to be truly private and thus protected against antidiscrimination laws. In other words, a small, all-male group of stamp collectors who meet in a private home aren't unlawfully discriminating by not accepting women.

But clubs that presume they are private frequently turn out not to be in the eyes of the law in some states.

"Over the last 20 years, societal pressures have led to a steady narrowing of what qualifies as a private organization, free from antidiscrimination laws," says Robert Duston, a Washington attorney who specializes in defending discrimination cases.

Letter From Saugerties, 2009 U.S. Open Questions

Former USGA Executive Director Frank Hannigan dropped this letter in my email box on the eve of the USGA's annual press conference.:

 Dear Geoff:

We are on the verge of what should be a primary golf-media happening - the annual press conference of the USGA on the eve of the US Open Championship,.

Unfortunately, the affair seldom lives up to its potential. Most of those bearing questions think that Tiger Woods invented golf in 1997. On the answering end, the USGA president is not a threat to Barack Obama when it comes to being informative and amusing.

Alas, I will not be present for purposes of incitement. But I herewith offer, without request for compensation, a series of potential questions to lend a spark to the occasion:

Q. Mr Vernon, Bethpage is a wonderful site, but are you not concerned that the USGA has alienated its other New York area Open clubs - Shinnecock Hills, Baltusrol and Winged Foot?

Q. You pay a rental fee for Open courses. How much have you paid the State of New York to use Bethpage?

(follow-up). Since both you and New York are public entities, how you can you refuse to divulge financial dealings?

Q. You have praised the USGA for taking the Open to public courses. Can you name public courses that have been built anywhere as a consequence?

Q. The USGA spent $25 million to revise its Museum in Far Hills, New Jersey and then began to charge admission. What has been the paid attendance this year?

Q. Next year you will change the rules to bar U grooves on the Tour and in the majors. Will the average scores rise accordingly?

Q. There seems a good chance golf will be voted into the Olympics next week. Will the patronage jobs go to the PGA Tour, the USGA or the R&A?

(follow-up) Mr. Vernon, who won the gold medals in tennis in the last Olympics?

Q There has been a dramatic turnover among the USGA staff in the last few years - firings and resignations.
Why is that and does it bother you?

Q. A few years ago the USGA began to lease a corporate jet. Did you fly here commercial or did you use that jet?

Q. Golf Digest magazine reports that the salary of your executive director is $725,000. Are you kidding?

Frank Hannigan

Poulter: "the usga are insane to make us change so quickly."

It was only a matter of time before a player would elaborate on the manufacturers concerns about grooves. In this case, it's Ian Poulter of England, Orlando and Cobra Golf fame. Thanks to reader Manny for the Tweeted comments from Poulter, writing a series of posts about the new groove rules soon after Adam Barr's report that Acushnet is trying to delay the rule change:

i tested the new grooves with vokey in feb. what a difference no spinnnnnn. the usga are insane to make us change so quickly.

i guess they were all bored sitting around that table drinking coffee and smoking cigars... get a life let us have fun on the course

it will cost the manufacturers millions to develop and distribute to all the stores global, so you AMs can get them before open qualifying

Our irons already comply, but wedges need to change for start of the year. all the best... thanks R&A and USGA softer balls here we come

The players have had plenty of time to experiment and when I've asked manufacturer reps, most players have taken little interest in experimenting, preferring to wait until this fall.

The manufacturers are pleading financial hardship because they are being forced to develop and ship new grooved wedges to their most loyal customers, who, if they are serious about tournament play, have to buy.

They've been handed a nice serving of forced planned obsolescence and they are still complaining?

"According to a Titleist official, the company is trying to persuade the Tour to hold off on its plans to adopt a condition of competition that would require new groove cross-sections"

Remember a few weeks ago when Greg Norman mentioned rumors that the groove rule change was in doubt? You had to figure the Shark wasn't just throwing that out for attention.

Adam Barr reports that Titleist/Acushnet is trying to convince the PGA Tour to postpone their planned 2010 adoption of a condition of competition requiring conforming grooves in response to the USGA/R&A decision.

Still, all the major manufacturers claim to be ready to proceed with the effective date for the condition of competition the Tour wants to adopt, which is Jan. 1. (Beyond the Tour, the rule would apply to any club manufactured after that date, but clubs made before then will be permissible for use for recreational players until 2024.) Even so, Titleist is asking the Tour to push the rule implementation date back a year because of the intricacies of fitting players under the new groove rules.

None of the major manufacturers would speak on the record for this story. But sources close to the situation have said that the refitting process will be much more complicated than switching out some “old” wedges for new ones. It has been suggested that the performance of wedges with new grooves might even require swing changes, which could lead to the use of a different ball model and, in turn, encourage a driver switch. In other words, the ripple effect of the groove rule could be felt throughout the entire bag. That has some manufacturers and players thinking they need more time to experiment and adjust than the post-season stretch usually reserved for incorporating such new equipment.

So much work drama! Over some grooves. Who knew?

So these big, all knowing manufacturers can't keep up with the USGA now?

“Some manufacturers have said they’re not going to be ready [for the change],” said PGA Tour player Brett Quigley, a member of the Player Advisory Committee. “[But] there’s also the argument that players won’t test until they have to. So why wait another year until 2011? Guys still won’t bother to do it.”

This is really funny:

Of course, players these days won’t stand for any loss of yardage off the tee from the new generation of higher-spinning balls, said the ball manufacturer source. That will be the chief engineering challenge, he said.

"Golf is on sale"

There's no groundbreaking material in this CBS Evening News story about the state of golf. It focuses on the world renowned Hamlet Club on Long Island includes the usual talk of golf having been overbuilt. Yes, overbuilt with junk designs.

"These [current] guys have never hit fliers in their lives."

Steve Elling looks at Jack Nicklaus's endorsement of the groove rule change after initially dismissing the grooves rollback as "throwing a deck chair off the Titanic."

Nicklaus said he had a lively conversation on that subject with a fairly decorated fellow traveler, Tom Watson, at a tournament function this week, in fact.

"Watson was saying last night that he had been fiddling around with some new clubs and played with them most this year, actually, with the new grooves," Nicklaus said. "He said, 'Man, did I hit some fliers last week.'

"These [current] guys have never hit fliers in their lives. They are going to say, 'I don’t want to do that anymore. I am going to hit the ball in the fairway.' Or they are going to have to learn how to play fliers."

"Fitness centers and French chefs are just not the way to go."

Larry Dorman catches up with Memorial honoree Jackie Burke who offers his typically candid views on the state of the game. As usual, he makes way too much sense for anyone to take him seriously.

Burke learned to play the game at 7, using only a 4-iron for every shot, including putts. Starting golf young, he said, is imperative, adding that clubs needed to start “having the patter of little feet around the greens.”

“I’d like to see the clubs start getting in young players and not putting the price up so high that the young people cannot afford to play,” Burke said. “If you don’t see kids at a country club, they’re running a bad club.”

And...

“I like to see kids out there and I like to see the pros out there teaching them,” he said. “But these clubs have the prices up there so high it has to change. Fitness centers and French chefs are just not the way to go.”

"Our testing showed me that the majority of PGA Tour distance increases attributable to equipment have likely come from changes in the driver, not the ball"

There have been a couple of good pieces on technology-related issues and both struck me as interesting because we've crossed a threshold of some kind where no one seems to be scared to write about the subject any longer. Perhaps that's a testament to how the discourse has evolved or maybe it's simply a matter of writers finally taking more interest in the impact side of the issue.

Either way, here's what John Paul Newport wrote in Saturday's Wall Street Journal about persimmon v. titanium:

But how much have we really gained? This is a philosophical question with no definitive answer, but you can’t say my father-in-law didn’t have fun with his wooden clubs. He was a life-long avid golfer, which fact I couldn’t help but reflect on last weekend when our family toured the Amish country in central Pennsylvania. The most observant Amish (a Christian Mennonite sect) really do still drive around in horse-and-buggies and live in houses with little or no electricity. My fascinated 14-year-old daughter spewed forth factoids from the Internet that she pulled up on a BlackBerry. “The Amish don’t have phones in their houses because they want to encourage face-to-face conversations,” she read. “They don’t allow tractors because they want their farms to remain human-scale.” In other words, they’ve decided what they want of the modern era (they can use phones outside the home and avail themselves of modern medical technology) but reject what doesn’t contribute to the values they hold highest.

I’m not tempted to adopt the Amish lifestyle, believe me, but I’m not sure I’d mind going back to wooden clubs and less modern balls, provided everyone else did the same. (You can keep balata, which cuts too easily.) In terms of challenge, based on my experience, there really isn’t that much difference between the old and the new. Trying to keep a short, spinny ball in play with a wooden driver is not easy, but it’s no more formidable a task than trying to keep a longer ball in play with a metal driver.

Mike Stachura was inspired by Chad Campbell's recent bout with persimmon and balata to make the case for the poor, beleaguered golf ball's innocence in the bastardization of courses around the club. He says the numbers suggest shafts are the real culprit and who can argue with that?

It is worth theorizing that a larger percentage of the improvement might just be attributed to the shaft's effect on swing speed. Today's modern shaft usually weighs 75 grams or less, about half what the steel shaft on the MacGregor Byron Nelson driver weighed. But the 200 grams on the end of that shaft is the same force on today's heads, although the weight is better distributed. The faster you can swing that mass, the more it can improve your distance. Moreover, shaft technology has elevated to the point where the same stability that better players with faster swings found in steel shafts years ago is nearly the same today in graphite shafts that weigh half as much.

And...

Though the USGA has been conducting research on shorter golf balls for the last three years, that project has not yielded any announcement of a proposed rollback in the golf ball in the way groove performance was rolled back late last year. Rugge simply says today that the research project is "ongoing." For now, Rugge believes that current research suggests that the ball need not be singled out as the root cause of distance in the modern game.

"Our testing showed me that the majority of PGA Tour distance increases attributable to equipment have likely come from changes in the driver, not the ball," he said.

It's not clear whether one set of numbers and a few swings through history on the range of a PGA Tour event last week confirm that idea or call it into question. But isolating the effect to either club or ball seems impossible. Rather, today's club-ball system seems to exceed the sum of its parts.

Which is why all of the calls to alter the golf ball have been made. If you have to pick between club and ball for the simplest way to make courses relevant while restoring elements of skill, isn't it just easier to alter the ball? That doesn't make it guilty in a court of a law, just a victim of convenience.

"Campbell, who swings like Ben Hogan, managed a carry of 232 yards using an old balata ball."

Thanks to reader Jim for the heads up on this note in Bill Nichols' Dallas Morning News coverage of the Nelson.

Pros go old school with equipment: Curt Sampson, working on a story for Sports Illustrated, drew a crowd on the practice range when he unveiled a MacGregor Byron Nelson persimmon driver. Everybody wanted to hit it. Vijay Singh went the longest at 253 yards, one yard farther than Colleyville's Chad Campbell. Campbell, who swings like Ben Hogan, managed a carry of 232 yards using an old balata ball.

"I wonder if they will still have the crab legs"

Thanks to reader Rick for Eli Saslow's Washington Post story on Uniontown Country Club caving to the economic crisis by allowing non-members to dine at the club.

Amid some protest from what he called "the hard-core, conservative members," Hughes fired the old chef early this spring and hired Michael DiMarco, a local chef known for his many tattoos and for serving gigantic portions at budget rates. He remade the menu to his liking, adding onion rings with ranch dressing for $3.95, topping his signature salads with french fries and eliminating all steaks smaller than 16 ounces. A few dozen locals started arriving at the club for meals each week, occasionally rankling members by parking their pickup trucks in preferred spots and exiting through the lobby with to-go containers.

Oh yes, you want to read this one.