New grooves rule - YOUR OPINIONS

[WeekendGolfers]

I think the rule change will help the longer hitters on tour.

I've seen many tour players not go as long as they could because it's harder to take the 'right' amount of spin off their next shot when playing a shorter pitch. With less spin being generated it will give the green light to go longer off the tee.

Any rule change should have an equal affect to all players, this one favours longer hitters.

By the time 2024 comes around, we will no doubt have had other changes too

 

[JustOne]

You often see shots spin back violently away from the flag... in future these will just stop dead for a tap-in..... easy game

I don't think it will change the game a single bit, the same guys will be at the top, and all the while Smiffy will be wondering why he couldn't hit that G15 properly.

 

[CliveW]

It is interesting to see that Titleist's new range, due to hit the shops in the next two weeks, all conform to the new 2010 groove ruling.

 

[USER1999]

Bob Vokey says that from the fairway, the Pro's will get 90% of the spin they get now, but from the rough, only 50%. Surely that's a good thing.

For us hackers, 90% off the fairway is plenty, and we probably won't notice a difference. From the rough, who here ever gets any anyway?

Yes, they could switch to a softer ball to get the spin, but it won't go as far with the big dog, so a compromise has to be made.

I'm all for it.

Anyone see the skins game last night. If Karlsson had had the new grooves, he would have cleaned up, but every shot hit at the stick zoomed back 15 yards, and left too long a putt to hole. Ollie was hitting longer irons in, less spin, and getting close.

 

[AndrewG]

Perfect example of how important this rule is was the final or penultimate hole (IIRC) of the Volvo matchplay final last weekend. Fisher, perfect drive, straight into the middle of the fairway - Kim, creamed a drive, but into the rough on the left. Fisher proceeded to hit a perfect wedge, bounce, check, lovely... Kim however, hit a perfect wedge, bounce, bounce, roll, roll, roll, off the back edge of the green, into the rough just past the fringe. Game over.

Perfect drive rewarded, poor drive penalised.

 

[tonto768]

With my handicap I doubt it will make a difference

 

[haplesshacker]

I'm tempted to agree with most of the posts on here...............so I will!


The rare time we get any meaningful backspin is often by accident, and to the detriment of where we wanted the ball to end up on the green. The 'softer' grooves will take that away from us. Which is no bad thing.

Yes it's impressive to watch on the telly, and when we rarely do it. But as others have said. Why not alter the ball as well?

The continual lengthening of pro courses is more of an issue, and I understand that this new groove rule is designed to penalise big, inaccurate hitters. So why not alter the driver rules? As viewers on the TV, can we really tell the difference between a 330 yard drive and a 300 yard drive?

Thinking of that. For those that watch golf on the telly. Which excites you more. Watching a big drive or watching almost surgical precision with the irons and shorter clubs? My preference is for the later.

No doubt though, that the best will rise to the top, regardless of equipment rule changes.

 

[Dodger]

I'm tempted to agree with most of the posts on here...............so I will!


The rare time we get any meaningful backspin is often by accident, and to the detriment of where we wanted the ball to end up on the green. The 'softer' grooves will take that away from us. Which is no bad thing.

Yes it's impressive to watch on the telly, and when we rarely do it. But as others have said. Why not alter the ball as well?

The continual lengthening of pro courses is more of an issue, and I understand that this new groove rule is designed to penalise big, inaccurate hitters . So why not alter the driver rules? As viewers on the TV, can we really tell the difference between a 330 yard drive and a 300 yard drive?

Thinking of that. For those that watch golf on the telly. Which excites you more. Watching a big drive or watching almost surgical precision with the irons and shorter clubs? My preference is for the later.

No doubt though, that the best will rise to the top, regardless of equipment rule changes.

Thing is though it won't penalise the long hitters/high spinners of the ball so to me they are playing into these guys hands.

 

[USER1999]

But they will only get that spin from the fairway. Combine the groove changes with narrowing the fairways, and it will work.

I can't really see how you can reign in the ball technology now. It is inherrent in golf that we hackers can use the same kit as the pro's, so you can't have a pro ball which goes nowhere, as they will get outdriven in pro ams. If you change the ball for everyone, the average drive for us will be about 180 yards. Pathetic.

You could put a check on shaft stiffness though. Ban x flex shafts, then they won't be able to control their drives if they hit at full whack. But do we want to see them spray it around more? No.

Maybe you could limit the spin the ball produces, but again, that just means we will all be playing top flites, so whose going to enjoy that?

I think it will be interesting come Jan, to see how they get on with the grooves, and what it achieves.

I thought all clubs sold manufactured from Jan had to be conforming, which is why the new Titleists and Vokeys are all conforming. I thought it was just the use up of old stock that had the cut off date of 2020.

 

[Dodger]

Murph,JB Holmes said recently he was all for it cos as a 'big boy high spinner' he will still be able to create spin (less than at the moment) from the rough but the Joe medium hitter down to the Corey Pavin types will be screwed.He said that in testing with a guy on tour who lay around 50th in length the difference out of the cabbage was huge between the 2 so I would take that as being the case....

 

[RichE]

One thing that needs to be considered is the speed of greens the amateur golfer plays in comparison to the Pro's. Given (unless your a member of a top venue golf club) the average speed rating of the green's we play isn't going to be anything like on tour, is stopping the ball still going to be an issue?
Will also mean players having to be more creative with their shots which will improve both pro's and amateurs alike - rather than just zipping the ball in to make it stop.
From a Pro perspective you only have to look at Seve in his prime and the skill he had with a 56 degree wedge!

 

[USER1999]

Since the greens they play on bear no resemblance to those we play on, may be the answer lies in course set up.

Make the greens slower, make them less receptive to spin, make them firmer, cut the fairways longer to reduce roll out (and get less spin off the fairway). The courses they play on tour seem to get better every year, while ours stay the same.

If JB still gets spin out of the cabage, he is clearly a one off, as I don't think many will.