Following up on Tom's reply...
At 06:37 PM 3/21/2007, Tom Wishon wrote:
The USGA and many golfers too have always wanted to have one set of
rules for ALL golfers. There are certainly arguments pro and con
about that, with good points on both sides.
I had the opportunity to find out the official party line from
Alastair Cochran in 1998. He said that the R&A had taken a survey of
its membership, and the survey said that the members wanted the rules
to be the same for all golfers. The USGA and R&A have agreed to keep
their rules consistent; I think that's a VERY GOOD THING. But here we
have the situation that a majority of R&A members who responded to a
survey at least 10 years ago are driving the USGA with this.
Furthermore, I don't know:
* How long before 1998 the survey was. But even 1998 was
just the beginning of the spring-face debate, so the survey was taken
before all the activist tinkering with the equipment rules. So I
don't know if it would come out the same today. (BTW, my meeting with
Cochran was hosted by Dick Helmstetter at Callaway R&D HQ, so spring
faces were a major component of the discussion. You can see my
writeup of the meeting at
http://www.tutelman.com/golfclubs/SanDiego98.php?ref=clubmakeronline#Callaway )
* How many members responded, nor what cross-section of the
membership, nor how overwhelming the majority was.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that is what is driving the USGA position. I
doubt there is new information, just the survey that by now is at
least 10 years old and probably more.
...since the PGA Tour has agreed to conduct all events under the
USGA Rules, therein lies the rub in this... Both had their own
rules, both in essence competed to be the ruling body of the game
until for whatever reason the USGA "won out".
I believe this is the fallout from the PGA Tour's ill-advised war
with Karsten Solheim -- over SQUARE GROOVES, of all things. Ping sued
the Tour, and would have won except that the Tour entered into a
settlement. One of the points of that settlement was that the Tour
would defer to the USGA in the matter of rules, wherever the USGA had
rule-making authority. (Those curious about the background can read
my -- admittedly biased -- account at
http://www.tutelman.com/golfclubs/squaregroove.php?ref=clubmakeronline )
Right now, the 15 people who make the rules have their heads up
where the sun don't shine on some of these things.
I agree with that assessment 100%.
If the USGA wanted to resolve the matter equitably, they have a
couple of options:
(1) Recognize that the problem is the Tour -- nobody else, really --
and tell them to solve it with grass height, as suggested already in
this forum.
(2) If they MUST do it by re-ruling the grooves, make a "model local
rule" for V-grooves. It would not be a Rule Of Golf, but the
organizers of any given tournament (e.g.- the PGA Tour) can adopt it
as a local rule. They already have a lot of model local rules; they
are called Appendix I. The only equipment rule I recall there is the
One Ball Rule -- which the PGA Tour enforces and almost nobody else does.
I don't think #2 is a very good solution, but it is infinitely better
than what they propose.
Cheers!
DaveT
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