"We have 'legal and conforming' grooves, and we have 'approved for play,' and I have sent in legal grooves that have not been approved, and these grooves in my opinion are, just like Scott felt, are non-conforming grooves, but they are approved."

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Phil Mickelson addressed Scott McCarron's charges following the second round at Torrey and unfortunately, was all over the map in his comments. See if you can make sense of this:
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"I think 'cheating' is not the right word to use, but it's definitely an advantage."

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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.

"The manufacturers are not sure about the testing and the parameters, so it's semi-ridiculous situation and you have the fact that players have to almost check their own clubs to see if they are legal."

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I'm not quite sure what exactly is bugging Lee Westwood about the new groove rule, but it sounds like he's taking issue with some grey areas in the interpretation of what is a legal groove and what is not.
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Phil's Split Decision

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He's turned one of his old PING Eye 2 wedges into a 64 degree, and sticking with his Callaway 60 degree. So he's only partially stampeding over the spirit of the new rule. From Wednesday's Torrey Pines press conference:

Q. What wedges are you going to use? If you wanted to address it right away, what are you using and why?

PHIL MICKELSON: I feel like my Callaway wedges have been the best wedges that I've ever used, so I'm only switching the one. What we found in our testing is that the top edge of the groove is what's been changed, and so it's not as sharp. As we add loft and create a shallower angle, if you will, into the ball, the top edge isn't catching the ball once we get past 60, 61 degrees of loft.

So what I did was a took a 60-degree i2 wedge and turned it into a 64, and those grooves seem to be catching the ball similar to what my wedge did last year. My 60 I still felt like my Callaway wedge was much better performance and got every bit of the amount of spin that I needed.

I actually net gained spin this year. I know that sounds crazy. My grooves last year were conforming to this year. They weren't very aggressive. I've always put a lot of spin on the ball for that reason, angle of attack and hand action and whatnot.

This year's groove that Callaway has is fractionally move aggressive than the groove I used last year, and so I'll end up picking up it shows about 200 to 400 rpms of spin on the launch monitor, plus with the addition of the golf ball I'm getting a little bit more spin than I did last year.

Q. How much time did you spend analyzing it?

PHIL MICKELSON: Quite a bit. Yeah, quite a bit. You know, this affects my career. This is a big change.

I think it's a ridiculous change. I think that it costs each manufacturer millions of dollars. I think it's confusing, and I don't agree with it one bit.

We could do the ball instead? Yeah, that's what I thought.

But it's a big change for the game of golf, and we've got to adapt. Like I say, I don't make the rules, but I do abide by them, and I spent a couple months working on this -- well, actually it's been a couple years, but the last couple months full bore.

Phil Contemplating PING Wedge Switch...

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Tim Rosaforte reports a couple of not entirely shocking but still intriguing items from Phil's Sunday practice round at Torrey Pines. The first, that he toured the course "with short-game instructor Dave Stockton by his side," and "two Ping Eye 2 wedges tucked inside the Callaway bag over his shoulder." He's also been hanging out at the Callaway test center...
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"This groove change was a knee-jerk reaction to distance gains that have mostly leveled off in the past six years, and it takes us into the dangerous territory of making the game more difficult for amateurs."

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It's been way too long since Peter Kostis wrote some non-sensical, credibility-crushing fluff for his friends at Titleist, but the "Golf Products Design Consultant" for the company put together quite possibly the lamest and most inevitable argument one could make about the groove rule change: you're hurting the average man who won't be affected by this rule change anytime soon!
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