Feeling groovy?

By Matt Cooper Last updated: 18th January 2010

Flicking through the interview transcripts from Kapalua and Waialae it doesn't take long to identify the most common question during PGA Tour's season-opening fortnight in Hawaii.

"Hi," the interviewer begins, "let's talk about grooves ..."

The grooves in question are not those being played in the beachside bars but the grooves permitted under the new USGA and R&A rules designed to limit backspin.

Relating to clubs with 25 degrees or more of loft and outlawing square grooves, it is hoped they will reinforce the importance of accuracy in the game, meaning an end to the recent trend of players hitting the ball as near to the green as possible (knowing that a 120-yard wedge from the rough is a more enticing prospect than a 180 yards shot from the fairway).

So what has two weeks in paradise told us about the rule? Is it working? How have the players coped with the changes?

At the SBS Championship it didn't seem to matter what grooves were legal because the result was the same - Geoff Ogilvy won in 2009 and he won in 2010 too.

But as one of the most erudite and careful thinkers on Tour, if anyone was going to make smart observations on the subject, he was.

"There is definitely a difference," he said. "Especially out of Bermuda rough. I had a shot into the tenth hole from the left rough and it was a pretty good lie. The old stuff I would have been confident with a lob wedge and feel I could get some sort of spin on it. It wasn't sitting down. It was sitting nicely.

"But now it rolls up the face of the wedge (like it did) when I was a kid. I can't be as aggressive on that shot.

"I think it's good because I think we've been getting away with things too much. At least in this Bermuda rough. In other grass, I don't how much difference it will make."

South African Rory Sabbatini felt there was another aspect of the game that has been impacted: "You know, out of the rough, especially around the greens, the ability to miss on the short side and be able to recover with ease is no longer there. You have to be able to create something with it. I will say it's definitely going to be even more important now to make sure you miss on the correct side."

If the wider fairways at Kapalua allowed the players to be insulated from the fullest implications of the new ruling (because everyone admits that from the fairway there is little difference), at Waialae (with tighter fairways and smaller greens) it began to matter more.

And Steve Stricker was able to corroborate Ogilvy's conclusions.

Hitting a shot from the rough on the tenth hole in the final round, his ball, "climbed right up the face on me. I didn't really have much spin on it. It just went up and came down. I've hit a lot of those so far this year."

Stricker is acknowledged as one of the finest wedge players on the Tour but even he is struggling to find a solution.

"I'm trying some different techniques," he said. "I tried to pinch that one (on the tenth) and squeeze it a little bit but it just climbed up the face. You know, the good thing is they are (carrying the expected) distance though, but it's just not normal trajectory that I'm used to seeing. Yes, it's tough. It's a little bit different so far."

Tweeting about the subject from Florida, Ian Poulter was also having to fine-tune but seemed to be enjoying the challenge a little more than Stricker.

"Yes the new grooves are making a big difference," he said, "but it's adjusting you visual on all chipping, your landing area changes, that's it, I like it."

Meanwhile the Sony Open champion Ryan Palmer backed up Sabbatini's assessment.

"It's going to be a lot more difficult with the chipping around the greens," he said.

Whilst some are having to make the change back to old technology, for some they never went that far in the first place.

Take Davis Love III for example: "I was using close to the spin rate we're using now because I didn't have (Titleist) Vokey spin milled and square groove super sharp wedges anyway, because I didn't do real well with them."

He also has the benefit of experience.

"I grew up with V grooves," he said, "so it's normal. I only had to change two clubs. So it was a pretty easy transition."

Last week an intriguing story broke that stirred memories of a heated debate from the end of the 1980s, all thanks to a veteran USGA official who, having read the new rules last year, said, "They've left a loophole - the Ping Eye-2 from pre-1990 might be the club of choice for some players come 2010."

The infamous Ping .v. USGA court battle of the 1980s resulted in a settlement that sees those wedges untouched by the new regulations.

So it was a case of not one year back, but twenty years back for Dean Wilson and John Daly who acquired 1986 Pings and had heard rumours of fellow players searching Ebay for more of them.

The caustic Paul Goydos played with Wilson before the cut and had his own take on the matter.

"Not to disparage lawyers too much, but that's what happens when you have more than one lawyer in a room," he said. "Confusion - I think it is funny."

He was also slightly dubious that the fortnight in Hawaii proved anything about the new groove issue: "Not even the squarest grooves ever will get much out of this Bermuda grass. We'll see what happens further down the line."

So there you have it: the consensus from Hawaii is that the new grooves have made a difference.

Shots from the rough don't get the same spin or control and around the greens there is less check.

Except ...

Except it might be that we've all read too much into what happened on Bermuda grass and it could be very different in California. This is one groovy show that is "to be continued" ...

Matt Cooper