Grooves Rule to Change

USGA and R&A announce rules change on grooves effective January 2010

By Mike Stachura August 5, 2008

If you're a very good player, the game might be about to get harder.

Today, the U.S. Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews jointly announced that the volume and edges of grooves on irons and wedges will need to be softened or risk being judged nonconforming under the rules for elite competitions beginning in 2010. While the rule change would not specifically eliminate the so-called "U-groove" or "square groove," it would force manufacturers to reduce significantly the size, shape or spacing of grooves in an effort to return shot playability to levels seen in the days when most face grooves were more V-shaped.

"We understand that this is a major step," said Jay Rains, USGA Vice President and Chairman of the Equipment Standards Committee. "It's only the second time we've rolled back equipment rules in our history, so we know this is an important matter but one that we have great faith in that it's going to be for the best of the game. We believe that it was necessary, but given the gravity of this, we did think it was appropriate to be very, very thorough in the process of evaluation."

The USGA's study of grooves has covered the last three years and a formal proposal adjusting the characteristics of grooves was sent to manufacturers in February 2007. The USGA and Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which also adopted the same rule, studied comments from manufacturers and conducted additional research over the last 17 months before announcing the formal change today.

Specifically, the new rule will limit the groove volume and the sharpness of the groove edges in an effort to reduce their relative effectiveness on shots played from the rough. According to a notice sent to manufacturers on Tuesday by Dick Rugge, the USGA's senior technical director, "The objective of this change is to limit the effectiveness of grooves on shots from the rough to the effect of the traditional V-groove design, without mandating the use of only V-grooves. The new regulations permit club designers to vary groove width, depth, spacing and shape to create clubs that conform to this groove rule."

The cross-sectional area of a groove would be limited to .0030 square inches per inch, or approximately half the volume of the most aggressive grooves on the market currently. The edge radius, or sharpness of the corners of a groove, would be set at .010 inches, or about twice the radius of many of the most aggressive grooves today. In the simplest terms, the volume of a groove helps channel away moisture to provide a cleaner contact from the rough, while the edge of the groove can grab a softer cover ball (generally only the urethane-covered balls, like most high-end balls on the U.S. market) and generate increased spin. Rugge believes the combined effect of the groove volume and edge radius changes would reduce spin on shots from the rough by 50 percent.

The new limitations on grooves would apply in different ways to different clubs. For clubs with 25 degrees of loft (5-iron) or more, the stipulations limiting groove volume and dulling groove edge radius apply. For clubs with less than 25 degrees of loft, only the groove volume stipulation would apply.

The rule applies to all clubs manufactured on or after Jan. 1, 2010. The Notice recommends that the rule change apply to clubs used in "competitions involving expert professional players at the highest level of competition" after that date, and the rule will apply to the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Senior Open, beginning in 2010, including all qualifying events for those tournaments. All other USGA events will adopt the rule beginning in 2014.

According to a USGA press release, "The PGA Tour, the European PGA Tour, the LPGA, the PGA of America and the International Federation of PGA Tours have all indicated their support for the new regulations on grooves. Each of these organizations, as well as the Augusta National Golf Club, have told the USGA and The R&A, the game's governing bodies, that they intend to adopt the condition of competition, applying the rules for their competitions, beginning on January 1, 2010."