R&A sharpens case on grooves

Golf News: Sure, we've all marvelled at how the very elite players can somehow conjure up spin on the ball when seemingly ankle-high in rough. But is it pure skill, or simply to do with the shape of the grooves on the club head? Or, maybe, a bit of both?

Whatever your belief, golf's governing bodies - the Royal & Ancient and the United States Golf Association - are keen to put a greater emphasis on skill, particularly in attempting to restore the historic importance of driving accuracy.

Although the changes will be introduced over a lengthy period of time, the R&A and the USGA, working in tandem, are proposing changes to the grooves on clubs so that players cannot get out of trouble so easily by generating spin from the rough.

Put simply, the message to the top players is that, in future, they should sacrifice length off the tee for accuracy. Yesterday, the USGA announced it had introduced two proposals to change the rules governing golf clubs.

The first proposal would introduce new regulations for grooves; the second proposal seeks a relaxed standard concerning the adjustable features of woods and irons.

As Dick Rugge, the USGA senior technical director, put it, "these proposals represent the comprehensive, deliberate and thoughtful nature of equipment research . . . in one instance, we're proposing new restrictions on groove configurations to maintain the element of skill at the game's highest levels.

"In the other case, we're relaxing standards of adjustability because we believe these changes will benefit all golfers by allowing them to have a better chance to use clubs that can be fitted to their individual swing characteristics."

There is no suggestion of going back entirely to the old, traditional V-groove on iron clubfaces, but the proposals, based on extensive research with the leading international club manufacturers, which will apply to clubs other than drivers and putters, are due to be in place from January 1st 2010.

A five-month consultation period with equipment manufacturers now begins which will also help determine when the new rules would come into effect for ordinary handicap golfers. However, a concessionary period of at least 10 years is anticipated, recognising the costs involved in changing equipment.

The R&A director of rules and equipment standards David Rickman remarked: "We invest heavily in the science that informs our decision-making and there is clear evidence that certain clubface groove markings increase the amount of spin that highly-skilled players can achieve from the rough, especially when striking thin urethane-covered golf balls.

"By limiting the amount of spin that can be generated for shots from the rough, we hope to place greater emphasis on accuracy and the skill required to recover from the rough. "

Peter Dawson, the R&A's chief executive, was equally concerned about long hitters concentrating on power off the tee at the expense of accuracy, when it hardly matters where drives finish if a player can escape with spin and control.

The USGA used statistical data from the PGA Tour since 1980 to demonstrate that driving accuracy was as comparably correlated to winning as putting. But it noticed that, from the early 1990s, as driver technology advanced, it became less important as many players could boom the ball off the tee and still manage to find the green in regulation, even when not finding the fairway. "Today, the correlation between driving-accuracy rank and money-winning rank on the PGA Tour is very low," suggested Rugge.

Led by Tiger Woods, the stars of the US Tour demonstrated last season how to be successful no matter how well a player could drive the ball. Of the top-10 money-winners in the States, only Jim Furyk and Luke Donald were among the top-100 in driving accuracy, whereas, when it came to driving distance, only Furyk and Donald were outside the top 100.

Woods, despite being ranked down in 139th in accuracy, was sixth in distance and managed to finish top in greens in regulation. However, when it came to a course like Hoylake for the British Open, Woods realised the need to keep the ball in play and used his driver only once.

Padráig Harrington, who topped the PGA European Tour Order of Merit last season, was only ranked 105th in driving accuracy in Europe but was 49th in distance. Interestingly, the Dubliner is closely involved with the Wilson research and development team in developing the company's wedges so that he obtains ultimate spin control on his approach shots.

It seems that he, like the other big hitters who also combine good short games, will have to develop more accuracy off the tee as the game's governing bodies come down harder on such groove technology.