Duffers Corner

You know, I had been warned! It never really crossed my mind that things would change this drastically, but they have. Golf has never been a #1 priority in my life but I have easily allowed it to dominate my time. It has never interfered with my work, nor has it ever forged a wedge in any of my past relationships. But a couple of year’s back, when the wife and I decided to start a family, my friends warned me that things would be different. Oh how that was an understatement!

Fast forward to today, with 3 kids under the age of 2 and a couple of weeks away from Father’s Day, I reflect on what golf used to mean to me. How it used to dominate my conversations. How I used to look forward to the after work practice sessions at the range. How I used to blog about the raves & the pitfalls of the golf industry. Spending countless hours after each round, dissecting my shots & looking for ways to improve, that was my norm.

Life now is full of nursery rhymes and diaper changes!

It’s that second job you got that was supposed to be part time; well…it just went full time!

It’s like the in-laws coming over for a visit and deciding to move in and stay!

I am kidding of course, but really, what a turn of events it has been!  I have not played golf since November. I have not hit a range ball since late February. It’s even difficult to catch a Sunday final round on TV; I have to settle for updates via the radio!

Has it been a sacrifice? No, just a redistribution of priorities! The passion is not gone, just in hibernation for a little while. And what do I think about the kids? They’re like a daily hole-in-one!

I have never really bought into the hype of “The Latest & Greatest” when it comes to today’s drivers. You know the ones – the mondo headed titanium behemoths with their tour FujiMaxx low torque low spin shafts that offer up the highest MOI gear effect COR legally allowed along with a LGC dual composite power-bow crown for maximum spin & high launch drives. I mean come on people, let’s wake up here!

It seems like the marketing departments at Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, Cobra, Nike, Adams & Cleveland have been a sleep at the wheel the last 3-5 years. Rehashing the same old acronyms, that makeup the same old drivers that hit the ball just as far as the marginally different model that was released what seems like only just a few months ago! And how can they get away with claiming that every new club they offer up will get you 15-20 more yards?

And now with the current economy taking a dogleg right turn for the worse, I think you’re going to see a lot more golfers playing their current equipment longer, without any thought or desire to change or upgrade, no matter what new technology arrives over the horizon.

I’m not going to go as far as to spell out doom & gloom for the golf industry, but you should see a nice decrease in overall retail pricing for the next year. I can’t imagine a company right now introducing a new driver between $399 and $499 and expect big sales, it’s not going to happen. No one is going to pay that. Not now, not for quite a while.

From the Golf.com article “LPGA will require players to speak English starting in 2009″

The LPGA will require players to speak English starting in 2009, with players who have been LPGA members for two years facing suspension if they can’t pass an oral evaluation of English skills. The rule is effective immediately for new players.
http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1836145,00.html

Here is another example of how smart people can be so dumb! Having all foreign players learn a little English is a great idea – Better interaction with sponsors, helping promote the game on a global level, a win/win on all sides, but a poor choice of how the LPGA has handled it. They should have taken a “we will work with you” approach instead of a “Learn it or you’re gone” position.

We live in a media hungry world where access to anybody’s background is deemed a right to know, publish and discuss. When you are in a profession where a camera and microphone can be whisked in front of you at any moment, you need to choose your words carefully, as they are documented, published and filed away to be brought up and cast upon you in a positive or negative light at anytime. One little slip of the tongue and you will be mocked in every global newspaper and magazine. Sure it can be humorous to hear a foreigner misinterpret an English word or phrase, but the media is not very forgiving or forgetful.

Ichiro Suzuki is a Japanese baseball player here in Seattle and since coming to the U.S he has chosen to speak publicly only through and interpreter, even though he is said to be fluent in English. Has this hurt Baseballs image or even Ichiro’s popularity? Not for a second! Why doesn’t he speak English? I don’t really know, but I can speculate that maybe he feels that when doing live interviews, he can respond more articulately using his native language than struggling to find the right words and phrases in English.

Note to the LPGA – Help these girls along. They are extremely talented, living in a foreign land away from their family for long periods of time, encourage them. Don’t punish them with suspensions for not learning English fast enough, educate them. Let them know that the more popular the LPGA becomes and the more sponsors they attract, the bigger the tournament purses can get, which in the long run means more money for them.

I am trying to soak in as much information about this supposed rule change as I can. Forum discussions, industry feedback, consumer opinions, my head is starting to hurt. I need a beer…………………………………………………………..ok, I feel better now.

So, for those of you who don’t know, the USGA, as of Jan 1 2010, will be ‘…placing new restrictions on the cross sectional area and edge sharpness of golf club grooves.’ What does this actually mean? Well, do you own a Titleist, Cleveland, TaylorMade, Cobra, Ping, Callaway or Adams wedge? In fact any club with 25 degrees of loft or more will all be deemed illegal as of 2010, well not officially but kind of, I’m still trying to get to the bottom of that one. Let me see if I can explain it a little better…

Since 2005, the USGA has been diligently studying and testing the amount of spin that some of the newer wedges put on the ball, specifically with shots out of the deeper rough. They feel that majority of the newer wedges create an unfair advantage for those skilled players who use urethane covered golf balls, which most professional golfers do. Balls were spinning at the same rate out of the deeper grass as compared with shots from the fairway, so the USGA wants to change the current groove design to soften their edges by 30°, making it more difficult to create spin.

OK, fair enough. So the USGA, which is the governing body for all rules of golf (along with the R & A), has looked into this for a few years (not a knee jerk reaction to negate newer technology or design) and has decided to change the sharpness of my clubs grooves. Ball spins less, scores even out(?), whatever, and officially I have until 2024 to comply to these rules. On the surface I can accept that, but what gets my panties in a knot is this paragraph from an August 2008 USGA press release about the upcoming rule change;

“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,” said USGA Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge. “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.”
http://www.usga.org/news/2008/August/grooves.html

So the rules are changing to increase the challenge of the game on the tour level? Hmmmm…..so let’s do some math here.

Number of golfers in America – 28,600,000
http://www.ngf.org/cgi/whonews.asp?storyid=261

Number of PGA Members – 28,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Golfers’_Association_of_America

So the percentage of golfers who this rule will directly affect if is .001%?

.001% of golfers who get paid to practice & perfect every imaginable shot in the game.

.001% who if needed, could spin back a Gutta Percha ball using a cut-down Patty Berg 9-iron with a worn leather grip.

.001% who are not going to worry about replacing their equipment since their equipment is basically given to them by club manufacturers.

Now for the 99.999% of golfers who, with the sharpest of grooves and the softest of balls, might create a marginal amount of spin, the new rules should void all ball spin from their game (backspin of course). And I mean completely! And for what reason? To prevent a tour player from Bombing & Gouging? To raise the scores of .001% of players who make golf their living?

Will the average golfer, who uses whatever ball is in their bag at the time and whatever wedge they got on closeout at their local discount shop, feel the sting when the rules take affect? Most likely they won’t. I mean how much spin do you think a ‘professional golfer’ would create using a Dunlop LoCo golf ball? Or how about a Top-Flite Freak (Freaky Long!), even if they were using the latest zip-groove wedge? Probably not much. But for those 5-14 handicap golfers who use the softer urethane balls and create a fair amount of spin, the new rules could stymie their short game quite a bit.

You want a better solution to this? Put more rules in place to govern how soft a ball can be. Soft cover golf balls spin more and are used mainly by professionals and experienced amateurs. There, that was easy. And for those who don’t believe me that golf balls are getting extremely soft, check out the new Callaway Touri balls, they are soft enough to put on the end of a stick and roast over an open fire!

RE: for those who didn’t understand the last statement, the new Touri balls are so soft they feel like marshmallows!

This rule change equates to taking an aluminum baseball bat away from a little leaguer and saying “Sorry kid, tests have proven that professional baseball players hit the ball way too far using metal bats, so that’s why we make them use wooden ones. And since you play baseball, you also must use a wooden bat. Thats the rules. It’s ok, with enough practice and HGH, you will grow into that bat someday.”

My letter to the USGA:

Dear USGA,

Thank you for all that you have done for the game of golf. An organization like yours should be commended for all your efforts on and off the course.

As for the new rule changes regarding grooves being too sharp and professionals creating too much spin from out of the rough, did you weigh out all your options before deciding to kill the hopes and dreams of all us hack golfers who pray every time we hit a sand wedge that our 150 compression golf balls spin enough to keep them from rolling off the green?

If its technology that you truly want to regulate to keep the playing field level, bring back the persimmon wood and balata golf ball.

Thanks again,

Duff
President of the Persimmon Wood & Balata Golf Ball Preservation Society

2010-2011 Conforming & Non-Conforming Wedges