"It'll be a change, but it's not like you're going to watch something different next year."

Rex Hoggard is at the Disney event and does some research on the grooves issue. Early conclusion? Too early to tell for the most part since manufacturers have been slow to ship conforming clubs to players.

The new rule applies to all clubs, but most players already play conforming grooves in their irons. The only adjustment for the lion’s share of Tour players will be in their wedges and most agree the impact will be negligible.

From fairway lies, tests indicate a Tour player gets 3 to 4 percent less spin with the conforming grooves, which are smaller than the old grooves and not as sharp along the edges. “You really can’t tell the difference,” said Heath Slocum, who put the new wedges in play at the Frys.com Open. “Maybe a foot of extra roll on the greens. I couldn’t tell any difference.”

From the rough, however, there is a tendency for the ball to roll up the clubface, creating a shot with less spin that comes out higher than players are used to.

“You’re going to see players go to wedges with less loft,” said Todd Anderson, the swing coach for Charles Howell III and Charles Warren. “A guy will go from 60 (degrees) to 56 (degrees) to control shots better.”
Touch shots from the first cut of rough are also a concern for some players.

“From 80 yards out of the rough it’s going to be tough to control,” said Warren, who is 144th in earnings and did not switch to the new grooves at Disney as he attempts to break into the top 125 and secure his ’10 Tour card.

David Dusek offers this analogy from Davis Love:

But anyway, it'll be a change, but it's not like you're going to watch something different next year. It's like watching Talladega with a tiny bit smaller restrictor plate. To us fans it looked like the same race. It was just a little bit slower, but it looked like the same race. 
It's going to look like the same race next year. You just might see one ball roll a little bit farther on a chip and it'll just be because a guy played a different shot.

Australian Masters Opening Day Telecast Thoughts

What a delight watching Kingston Heath during round one of the JB Were Australian Masters.  Tiger Woods posted a 66 in front of huge crowds and we were treated to several hours on Golf Channel here in the U.S.  Not only is the golf course so lovely to look at, but the flow of the telecast was far different than what we're used to hear in the States.

A few things about the broadcast stood out:

- Camera angles. Perhaps they were forced to have some alternatives, but a few holes featured a nice side view look at a green instead of the standard rear tower. It added variety and gave us a better sense of the architecture.

- No promos. It's amazing how much better the telecast flowed without the relentless plugs for NCIS and reality shows and...

- Made the announcing so much more enjoyable. Particularly the Ian Baker-Finch/Brett Ogle portions. Not having to read so many plugs allowed them to engage in some informative discussions about how holes had changed thanks to technology, what a great job Mike Clayton did adding the 11th hole (and why), and overall the better flow lent a relaxed, welcoming tone that made the telecast feel like we were merely listening in on a conversation among knowledgeable fans. IBF also ably explained the strategy behind some of the holes as we were treated to graphic flyovers.

- Focusing on two groups. What a joy to really study one group primarily (Badds, Appleby, Coltart) with select shots from others like Adam Scott and Matthew Goggin. This allowed us to take a tour of the course (aided by those great hole graphics) and to see a nice variety of shots, not just an onslaught of putts. Baddelay was all over the place, but his swing looks sensational and you get the sense he's making progress. Getting to see so much of his round made for more interesting viewing, even though he wasn't playing that well.

Not surprisingly, the golf course also came off beautifully. The sparse and dry roughs, the lay of the land feel of the holes and those wondrous bunkers jutting into greens with so little rough between the two: perfection!

For those who watched, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

"I'm tired of Tiger Woods. Just totally fed up with him."

John Huggan is tired of Tiger Woods. Off the course.

For a man who has never been known to give up with a club in his hands -- one of his most admirable qualities -- the world's best golfer appears to do little more than go through the motions when it comes to his obligations elsewhere. And yes, obligations is the correct word; Tiger earns a lot of money from playing golf in public. One would think he'd try to give a bit more of himself to the people who ultimately fund his opulent jet-set lifestyle.

Take his pre-tournament press conference at this week's JBWere Masters in Melbourne. OK, so the whole thing was a bit of a farce, from the tedious and self-serving seven-and-a-half-minute monologue from John Brumby, the Premier of Victoria -- your typically vacuous and preening politician -- to the totally un-cool rounds of applause that both preceded and ended the proceedings. But, as per usual, Tiger (who more than once appeared to be on the point of nodding off during Brumby's bletherings) batted back questions, good, bad, tough and softball, with responses that at best could be described as predictable.

While I see Mr. Huggan's point, he forgets that America loves the non-answer, non-controversial, safe, middle of the road star. Frankly, I admire Tiger for detecting this and milking it to his financial advantage. It takes a lot of will power to pull it off!