Groove Study Done, Ball Study...

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...hopefully forgotten about?

Mike Stachura reports that the USGA has issued a final report similar to their preliminary report from August, but still no mention of the ball study from 2002. Here's what Stachura says:

The final report does not include any proposal for a rule change, but it does seem to indicate a fundamental change from the USGA's position on grooves 20 years ago. At that time (during the so-called "square grooves" debate), Stuart Bloch, then chairman of the USGA's Implements and Ball Committee, actually termed any differences between U-grooves and V-grooves "inconsequential."

This next part comes after Dick Rugge is quoted as saying that the USGA has better testing procedures...

Rugge did not provide any specific timetable for a rule-change proposal or even suggest that there would be a change at all. But he did suggest that a meeting with Arnold Palmer several years ago prompted him and his staff to research the issue further.

"When Arnold Palmer came to our building and shook his finger at me and said, 'Allowing U grooves was the biggest mistake we ever made,' it did make me want to take a look at that issue."

Arnold, could you go back and shake your finger at Dick and tell him your thoughts on the golf ball going too far?

According to a USGA study of amateur players at the Walt Disney World Palm and Eagle Pines golf courses, only 13.1 percent hit the green from shots out of the rough from 100 to 200 yards. The PGA Tour average for similar shots is 49 percent. Also, because the urethane-covered ball used by tour players spins much more out of the rough than the typical ionomer-covered ball (like those with Surlyn covers) preferred by most average golfers (more than two-thirds, based on a study of recent Golf Datatech industry sales figures), average golfers don't often use the equipment that can generate the most spin.
"It's a way of addressing the problem where the problem shows up and not affecting anybody else," says Rugge.

Translation: this way we can keep harvesting rough and offering 22 yard landing areas to discourage distance for tournament play while ignoring the issue we don't really want to deal with because it would require us to admit we botched this one big time!

Playing Havoc With Their Games

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I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little tired of hearing players complain about Denver's altitude messing with their games. From Anthony Cotton's story on the International's demise:

Also, PGA players have long spoken of the difficultly (SP) in adjusting to a golf ball traveling farther in Colorado's thin air, which then plays havoc with their games when they return to sea-level events.

"Whenever you have golfers making decisions they don't want to make, golf is a better game to watch."

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From Geoff Ogilvy's WGC Match Play defending champion press conference:

Q. Is there such thing as a good match play course? And if so, what elements go into making a good match play course?

GEOFF OGILVY: I guess there probably are good courses for match play courses. Four par 5s that people can get to. If there's holes that people have to make decisions, it's going to a good match play course because there might be a guy who might want to lay it up on a par 5, and if his opponent has pulled a 3-wood and hits it on the green then he has to go for the green. I mean that sort of stuff; it's interesting, whereas if it's just an obvious everyone lays it up and everyone hits the same shots all day, then it's not going to create the excitement and the decisions.

The funnest part about golf is watching us struggle with the decision whether to go over the water or not go over the water, should I go for it or not go for it, then go for it. That's the funnest part about watching golf, isn't it? If you've got four par 5s that you can reach and two par 4s that you can drive it on, then you've got decisions. It's nice to have a few holes like that, but this one you're going to have more holes like that I'd suggest. Whenever you have golfers making decisions they don't want to make, golf is a better game to watch.

 

A Battlefield Defection

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Thanks to Four-putt for that header. You shoulda been a writer. Oh wait, you are.

So, does everyone see what I'm reading here, no International in 2007, either? Wow.

MEDIA ADVISORY – THE INTERNATIONAL

PLEASE JOIN PGA TOUR COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM AND JACK A. VICKERS FOR A PRESS CONFERENCE REGARDING THE INTERNATIONAL.

MR. FINCHEM AND MR. VICKERS WILL ADDRESS THE FACT THAT THE INTERNATIONAL, STAGED AT CASTLE PINES GOLF CLUB SINCE 1986, WILL NO LONGER REMAIN AS PART OF THE PGA TOUR SCHEDULE, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.

"It would be cool if Mickelson touched a club every once in a during the offseason"

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From the Not's side of Alan Shipnuck's Hot/Not column, which also includes nice jabs at Walter Driver and NBC.

2. Phil Mickelson  Hey, I love Italy, too, and it sounds like fun to renew your wedding vows in Bora Bora, and who wouldn't want to hang out in Cabo overseeing the construction of a golf course? But in between all the goofing off and myriad corporate diversions, it would be cool if Mickelson touched a club every once in a during the offseason, thus sparing us having to watch him treat the West Coast swing like spring training for the apathetic.

 

Payne: Bringing Back "Win-and-you're in" (Maybe)

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Doug Ferguson sits down with new Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne and manages to wrestle one bit of news out of him:

Payne wants to restore starting in 2008 the eligibility criteria that PGA Tour winners receive an automatic invitation to the Masters. Johnson did away with the category after the '99 Masters when the Tour began scheduling events – usually with weak fields – the same week as the World Golf Championships and the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup.

But bringing back the "win-and-you're in'' category is not that simple.
Should the Masters recognize winners from opposite-field events in Mexico, Milwaukee and Reno, not to mention the seven events after the FedEx Cup?

Hey, what about PGA Tour events played against European Tour events with much better fields? Oh, sorry. Continue... 

And does it continue to take the top 40 on the PGA Tour money list or the top 30 in the FedEx Cup? Or both?

"There's a lot of arithmetic in this,'' Payne said. "What you don't want is all of a sudden to have 100 playing participants, and we have arguably eroded the quality of the tournament. Notwithstanding folks' opinion of how the best way to get there is, we're going to do the best we can.''
His goal is to keep the field around 90 players, and "anything that puts that number at significant threat has got an uphill battle.''

"When a smart person...sees what we've done"

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I'm a bit behind on my reading, but yesterday's beach weather afforded the chance to finally power flip through the Golf Digest Hot List as a seal frollicked before me. I managed to weed through the Hot List spread in 7 seconds, but before I got to Belt and Gulag's must flip-through project, I did enjoy the laughs from Jaime Diaz's Golf Digest piece on the FedEx Cup.

First, here's a solid entry for the corporatespeak file...

The shortened schedule, says Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports and CBS News, "takes a fair amount of inventory out of the network marketplace, which is healthy for CBS and NBC.

Healthy for ABC too, apparently.

And this was nice from the Commissioner:

"When a smart person--whether it's a player, a sponsor, a television executive or a fan--sees what we've done," Finchem says, "they nod their head and say, ‘This makes sense.'"

Translation: only dumb people fail to get the FedEx Cup.

And less funny but quite astute was this from Larry Thiel, the International's director who was talking about the FedEx Cup overshadowing individual tournament sponsors.

Through just a few weeks, he's looking prophetic:

"The other thing is that when we sell a sponsor, that sponsor is to receive all the branding and all the positive reinforcement of being a part of the event," Thiel says. "I think that when it's all said and done, all we're ever going to hear about is the FedEx Cup. So I would be fearful if I were one of those three tournaments that my title sponsor would get lost in the shuffle."

Golf Digest 50 Toughest...

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...Courses For Couples To Play Without Bickering?

No, they haven't gone that far yet in Wilton. This time, it's a retro list of the toughest 50 courses, so says Jerry Tarde.

According to the story:

This is not a scientific or even definitive ranking. It's our list of layouts that have battered and bruised us, ruined our scorecards and made us want to weep.

Translation: we editors decided not to use the "Resistance To Scoring" category because our panel is clueless.  

Here's the list, starting with Kiawah in the #1 spot.