"I think 'cheating' is not the right word to use, but it's definitely an advantage."

Robert Lusetich on Robert Allenby's view of players using PING Eye 2 wedges to skirt the groove rule change.

"I just believe that even if they are legal, you still shouldn't be using them," said Allenby. "Just because someone has a couple sitting in their garage somewhere or they've got them off eBay or whatever, I just don't think that's the integrity of the game."

"I think 'cheating' is not the right word to use, but it's definitely an advantage."

When told that Mickelson was one of the handful of players -- including Hunter Mahan, John Daly and Dean Wilson -- who have put the 20-year-old wedge in their bags, Allenby appeared stunned.

"Oh, he's using one this week? Well, I have no comment there. I'll be a good boy," said the Australian.

"This (new grooves rule) isn’t going to wipe the mustard off their red, white and blue ties or brush the dandruff off their navy blue sport coats. They are not living up to their responsibility."

Randall Mell posts an entertaining Q&A with Tom Weiskopf on a variety of topics ranging from Torrey Pines to his possible return to the booth at the Open Championship again. But he didn't hold back on the topic of the new groove rule.

I don’t know if the V-groove definition today is identical to the V grooves I played with in the 60s, 70s and 80s. But it is a copout, in my estimation. They aren’t addressing the problem. It is a way for the USGA to get around the ball issue. They lost that groove ruling (to Ping) in court. The USGA and the R&A have a responsibility to protect the skills of the game that the players possess. It’s in their rule book. Consequently, they are definitely afraid of another lawsuit. The major issue is the golf ball. It goes too far. They won’t address that because if they go to court they’ll lose it.

Do you think the USGA and R&A are living up to their responsibilities?
 
No, I don’t think so. What happened was their technology wasn’t as good as the manufacturers. So the manufacturers turned the definition of rules concerning equipment to the finest line they could. It got away from the USGA and R&A. The ball got away from them. I could go on and talk about this, which I have.
 
The ball is still the issue. It’s the No. 1 component and element of the game that’s transformed scoring since the feathery golf ball. Go through time, it’s been the golf ball. This (new grooves rule) isn’t going to wipe the mustard off their red, white and blue ties or brush the dandruff off their navy blue sport coats. They are not living up to their responsibility. They are afraid of a lawsuit.
 
Let’s get a tournament ball, every manufacturer can make it and let’s go on with life. Then we won’t have to build these golf courses that are 7,500 or 7,600 yards where nobody but the best who play the game can play them. They’ve eliminated so many classic golf courses from competition.

"We're the kind of club that [Henry] Ford built."

As part of Time Inc.'s look at Detroit, Golf Magazine's Alan Bastable considers the state of the wonderful Detroit Golf Club and how it's coping with lean times.

Thanks to Detroit's 15-percent unemployment rate and, more specifically, the implosion of the automotive industry, more than 100 club members have resigned in the last three years, prompting DGC to drop its initiation fee from $39,000 in 2006 to $6,500 today. It is a dilemma faced by many southeast Michigan clubs that have for decades relied on Big Auto to keep their tee sheets full.

"We're the kind of club that [Henry] Ford built," Beals says. "It used to be nothing to have our upstairs bar full every day of the week with salesmen wooing the GM guys or whatever. They'd take them to play golf to close the deal, but that has all dried up."