Feeling groovy everyone? Not us. We’ve been given quite a few headaches by the R & A and the USGA over the new groove rulings.
 
There’s been very little time to develop and manufacture new – or conforming – models to comply with the new rules. That’s involved huge costs at a time when companies are really looking to cut back rather than spend a fortune on a whim by the two governing bodies. One of the shaft companies told me they’d spent well over a million dollars sending out shafts for use with new heads – all for a golfing minority.
 
Anyway, thought I’d run the rule over it all, as it were, so the new changes may appear clearer, and explain what difference it might make to players when they come into force in January.
  
It’s all designed to encourage accuracy off the tee. But will players rethink about their course-management with the new grooves? It’s difficult to see that happening, especially the so-called ‘bomb and gouge’ players, as they are called in America.
 
Firstly, grooves will need to have a smaller cross-sectional area and the shoulders of each groove will be blunted to reduce the grip on the ball. This sounds really drastic and has led to a couple of golf pundits making a really big issue about it, claiming it will totally change the game. In reality, we won’t see exactly what difference it will make until all the players start using them. From what I’ve seen on tour so far, I don’t think it will be as bad as some people think. Obviously some players will have to change a lot more clubs in their bags than others. Some players may need to learn a couple of different shots to accommodate the changes.
 
Almost all of our iron models already have grooves that will comply with the new rule so most of our players will only have to change their wedges. Ignacio Garrido, for example, only has to change his lob wedge out of the 14 clubs in his bag. He’s had a number of top 10 finishes this year so the “blunt” grooves haven’t been too much of an issue for him. It’s rumoured that Tiger has been playing the new grooves all year and it doesn’t seem to have held him back that much either! A few of the other manufacturers have had a lot more work to do than us though. I believe two of our main competitors, who mainly cast their irons, have had to replace their whole range!
 
We only have to produce a ‘Tour’ version of the new T-10 wedges for our players. Testing was carried out earlier in the year to find the most effective groove design under the new rules. This was done with robot testing and with feedback from our players for the shots a robot struggles to play! It’s interesting that the R&A and USGA did their testing by hitting shots from wet strips of newspaper – a method they thought best matched the conditions of playing from semi rough.
 
As the new grooves don’t grip the ball as much the ball tends to roll up the face a little and this gives a higher launch. However, obviously with less spin. The reduction of spin should see the ball run out a little more but the higher launch may help stop the ball a bit quicker.
 
The R&A set up test centres at a number of tournaments to let players come in and check if their clubs will conform. This is done by pouring a rubber compound into the grooves and when it has set it is viewed through a microscope to check the profile of the grooves.
 
This led to a couple of strange stories. The first came from a player who was told his three-wood had failed because the cross section area was too large. He then went around a few of the trucks looking for a suitable replacement before trying them out on Trackman. He was surprised by the results as all the new models spun the ball more than his old one. This is because the grooves are not the only factor in producing spin on the ball.
 
In another case the R&A tested the whole set of a player - It turned out that his lob wedge not only failed to comply with the new rule but also didn’t comply with the existing rule. This happened late on a Wednesday afternoon and he was seen running around a few of the trucks to get an alternative for the tournament started the next morning.

It is going to be left to the manufacturers to police the rule (as it is with all of the equipment rules) and there won’t be enforced testing on tour when the rule comes into effect. Different manufacturers have different tolerances when producing their club heads so there could be a situation where a head from a model that has previously been approved by the R&A isn’t manufactured to the same spec. and is therefore non conforming. It’s happened before with the CT (spring effect) on a couple of drivers and I’m sure it will happen again with the groove rule. I believe the players would never purposely use a club they had any doubts over and if a player thinks another maybe hitting it too far or spinning it too much they can request them to get the club tested.
 
Another player found that he actually got more spin from a conforming groove on a set of otherwise identical heads.  The reason for this was his previous set had the grooves cast into the heads and the new set had milled grooves. The tumbling and sand blasting processes used, actually rounds the shoulders of the grooves. So, although they were cast with sharp grooves any slight over-use of the sand blaster will blunt them fairly quickly. The player in question was happy with his new set. But I bet he was left wondering why he’d been using not-so-sharp grooves previously!
 
Another interesting story cropped up when we put in a couple of heads, that we had designed to conform to the new rule, for testing. We had a huge shock when we were told one of them had failed the test. Our Japanese engineers insisted it should have passed. We kept the head. Two weeks later we had it tested again – and this time it passed!
 
So if the R&A have got it right and the game is harder to play is that good for the game? If it’s harder to hit greens and there are fewer birdies is that what a paying public want to see at a tournament? If the spectator numbers drop and gate takings go down, will the tours be tempted to do some tricking up – like reducing the length of rough? Should clubs previously approved by the R&A stay approved? Manufacturers will find other ways of increasing the spin, whether it be through shaft or head design.
 
So all this cost could be for nothing! Watch this space.

Andy Kikidas - Tour Operations Manager

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