Norman says V grooves will bring art back to golf

.U.S. Golf Association Chief Technical Director Dick Rugge said the association has no plans to change the V groove implementation schedule set for Jan.1, 2010. I asked Rugge about the schedule after Greg Norman, at last week's Senior PGA Championship, said "there's rumors floating around here this week that it may not even come into play.''

The new V groove rule, according to the USGA, places restrictions on the cross sectional area and edge sharpness of golf club grooves. The USGA `says the revisions are designed to "restore the challenge of playing shots to the green from the rough by reducing backspin on those shots.''

 

In other words, the USGA doesn't want to see PGA Tour players dropping the ball on a dime out of three- and four-inch rough. Forget that today's tchnlogicaly advanced balls might have a lot to do with it, let's blame the grooves.

And although Norman might have been wrong about the V grooves schedule he was correct about the V grooves being a "great barometer to see how good these players are with their touch and their feel and their imagination.''

"And understanding that that ball, it looks like it's going to leap 40 yards extra off the club face, how do you play that? That's going to be great to watch on television. Because that's, to me, is the art of understanding the game of golf,'' Norman said.

With today's more biting U grooves, Norman said, a player knows the ball is going to spin out of the rough.

"I'm just going to open that club face up a little bit more and the ball comes down like an old dog lying by a fireplace. It just drops on the green,' Norman said. "Now that's not going to happen next year. So those are the type of things that actually help the better players distance themself from the average players. And I think that's why in my generation you saw such great shot makers out there, (Lee) Trevino and Seve (Ballesteros) in a lot of ways, he hit phenomenal shots.

"So you got a combination where I was a good driver, but I was also a good short game player, so that was a lethal combination in a lot of ways. I could be very aggressive off the tee, aggressive second iron shot, because I wasn't afraid of missing the green, I knew I would get it up-and-down the majority of the time. So it really allowed you to free up your game big time. And V groove clubs are going to change that a lot next year for a lot of players.''