Grooves on the faces of our golf clubs are something that we might take for granted.

With irons, especially wedges, the grooves help put spin on the ball when it is struck. This allows us to hit shots into greens that stop in a controlled manner.

When we strike the ball with a descending blow with an iron, the ball becomes briefly trapped against the turf and is “pinched”. The grooves on the club grab the cover of the ball and impart maximum spin. That allows the shot to land softly and stop quickly or even back up after landing.

There is no question that equipment has changed the way the game is played at all skill levels. Players have gained distance, accuracy, and the ability to stop the ball quicker.

Consequently, all aspects of club design come under scrutiny and regulation. Club grooves are no different.

There has been debate for a long time about square (or, u-shaped) versus v-shaped grooves on irons. According to a United States Golf Association news release from February 2007, a technical report released to club manufacturers in August 2006 by the USGA and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) shows:

“The research findings clearly demonstrate that for shots struck by clubs from the rough with urethane covered balls (the type of ball used by most highly skilled players), modern square or U-shaped groove clubs result in higher ball spin rates and steeper ball landing angles than V-shaped groove designs that were predominantly used in the past. The combination of a higher spin rate and steeper landing angle results in better control and less difficulty for shots hit from the rough to putting greens. As this degree of difficulty for shots hit from the rough has decreased, the importance of driving accuracy on the PGA Tour has lessened. “

In that release, the USGA proposes two amendments to existing groove rules:

• The total cross-sectional area of a groove divided by the groove pitch (width plus separation) would be limited to 0.0025 square inches per inch.
• Groove edge sharpness would be limited to an effective minimum radius of .010 inches.

That will have the effect of making square grooves perform more like V-shaped grooves. If you like to dig into club specs, you can read the proposal online, including a comparison of current versus proposed regulations(PDF), as well as the groove measurement procedure(PDF).

The reason I bring this up now is that the deadline for submitting comments to the USGA about the proposed rule changes was yesterday, August 1, 2007.

My expectation is that the rule will be enacted and the effects will be felt on January 1, 2009 when any competition committee will have the option of enforcing the new rule, and we’ll all feel it starting on January 1, 2010, when all new conforming clubs will be required to adhere to the new specifications.

Recreational players have no-doubt gotten used to the extra stopping power and won’t be happy when new clubs don’t perform the same way that they’re used to.

I’m not sure how this will affect play on the Tour. The rise of “bomb and gouge” has seen players start to just swing away and hit the ball as far as possible, knowing that they can still spin it from the rough and stop it on the greens. Will they go back to putting a premium on accuracy over distance again? Maybe. Or, maybe they’ll still figure that a sand wedge out of the rough with dumbed-down grooves is still better than an 8-iron from the fairway.

Time will tell.

Oh, and one side note: did you know that the grooves on the driver are strictly cosmetic? Those shots require as little spin as possible and are struck with a level or slightly ascending blow. You’ll notice that the grooves on the face don’t normally cover the sweet spot. Consumers must not respond well to clubs with completely smooth faces, I guess.

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Read More:

Since I wrote this originally I found a good post from The Wedge Guy giving some of his thoughts on the USGA groove proposal.

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