New Groove Rules Make the Rough a Little Rougher

But unless you playing in top-level amateur tournaments (or higher), you probably don't have to worry about the new rules until, at the earliest, the year 2024.

The USGA and the R&A announced today that new restrictions on the volume of grooves (their width and depth) and the sharpness of the edges of those grooves will go into effect for highly skilled professional golfers (i.e., PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, European Tour, Champions Tour and so on) on Jan. 1, 2010.

Four years later, Jan. 1, 2014, the new rules governing grooves will be extended to cover golfers taking part in top-level amateur competitions (e.g., USGA championships).

When will you and I have to worry about it? Perhaps never, but at least not until 2024, which we'll explain down below.

The restrictions do not apply to drivers or putters, but do apply to all irons for groove volume, and to any irons with lofts of 25 degrees or more for groove-edge sharpness.

What's the point? Groove designs currently in place allow highly skilled golfers to generate nearly as much spin (and that means nearly as much control) on the ball as strokes played from the fairway. In other words, hitting it into the rough just isn't nearly as big a deal for the world's best players as it was 20 years ago, before the new groove designs started coming into the game. This reduces the premium on accuracy, and allows for the so-called "bomb and gouge" approach to come to the fore at the top levels of competition.

In the announcement posted on the USGA Web site, the USGA's Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge explains:

"Our research shows that the rough has become less of a challenge for the highly skilled professional and that driving accuracy is now less of a key factor for success. We believe that these changes will increase the challenge of the game at the Tour level, while having a very small effect on the play of most golfers."

Golf's governing bodies are unwilling - at least at this time - to roll back the ball and club technology in order to reign in distance. So making the grooves on irons less effective out of the rough is one way to force golfers to pay more attention to accuracy, and to increase the punishment for those golfers who can't hit fairways.

Reuters quotes Jim Furyk saying this about the changes:

"I'm all for it. They can't keep making golf courses longer because not every course has a $20 million budget to keep it going. They can't keep us from hitting the ball far because there are enough engineers and R&D (research and development) and technology that (help us keep) getting longer.

"If you can limit the amount of spin on the ball and make the guy play from the fairway and hit a more crisp and a better golf shot it's probably a good avenue. I think it's a positive move."

So, why do most golfers need not be concerned with the new rules? Because the clubs you are playing right now will continue to be "legal" for handicap rounds until at least 2024. All clubs that conform to the rules currently in place will continue to be conforming at least until that date. The only golfers who need to worry about replacing their clubs prior to that date are the touring professionals and the top-tier amateurs.

Jay Rains, USGA vice president and chairman of the USGA Equipment Standards Committee, explains:

"Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that the path forward was to get the top-level professional tours under the new groove regulations as soon as possible and to phase in the next level of amateur competition four years later, in 2014. This means that clubs you own today will still be conforming for top-level amateur competition for another 5 1/2 years and, for other competitions, conforming until at least 2024, if not indefinitely."

See also:

• USGA announcement on changes to groove regulations