New Grooves and Augusta

[Jud_T]

Tiger’s Chip-In Won’t Be Matched as Masters Feels New Grooves
2010-04-07 04:00:10.0 GMT


By Michael Buteau
     April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Tiger Woods made one of the Masters
Tournament’s greatest shots five years ago with a club that’s
now illegal. It’s unlikely the stroke will be duplicated this
week as the golf season’s first major event rocks to a new
groove.
     The sloping greens at Augusta National Golf Club, where the
Masters starts tomorrow, require precise approach shots, and the
V-shaped grooves on the clubface now mandated for use by all
professionals may get their first true test three months into
the season, players and equipment makers said.
     The new grooves are more narrow and shallow than the U-
shaped ones used until Jan. 1, and make it more difficult for
players to get spin on shots, especially with wedges used around
putting greens. Those shots, such as the chip by the then 29-
year-old Woods up and down a slope into the cup on the 16th hole
en route to his 2005 Masters victory, might be harder to pull
off this year, club manufacturers said.
     “This will be the true, true test of what’s happened with
the groove change,” Paul Loegering, PGA Tour manager for
TaylorMade Golf Co., maker of the most-used driver on the U.S.
men’s pro circuit, said in an interview at the Arnold Palmer
Invitational in Orlando, Florida. “It’s going to enhance what
everybody’s been looking forward to on how much it’s going to
affect the players and their score.”
     Through the Palmer two weeks ago the scoring average on the
U.S. PGA Tour was up to 71.32 per round from 71.17 last year. At
the tournament, many players faced fast greens for one of the
few times in the early season, after wet conditions at events on
the U.S. West Coast that make it easier to stop approach shots
near holes on slower putting surfaces.

                         Higher Scores

     Of the first eight events of the season, played on damp
courses in Hawaii and California and flatter layouts in Arizona,
the scoring average rose higher than a year earlier in just
three tournaments.
     Once the tour hit the greens of Florida, made firm by
constant winds and lack of spring rains, scoring averages
started to move up. In three of the four events that make up the
U.S. circuit’s “Florida Swing,” the scoring average rose from
2009.
     One of the most noticeable changes in the way players hit
chip shots around greens is the absence of the “two-hop-and-
stop” shot. Previously, players were able to use a pitching
wedge to loft the ball toward the flag with a high amount of
spin. After about two bounces, the ball would stop in its
tracks.
     “That shot is done,” said Rob Waters, PGA Tour manager
with clubmaker Cleveland Golf Co. “It’s a thing of the past. It
was taken away with what the U.S. Golf Association did with the
groove change.”

                         Different Plan

     That doesn’t mean players are unable to hit the shot they
need. They simply have to do it in a different manner, said
Brandt Snedeker, 29, who finished third at the 2008 Masters.
     “The days of hitting it with two skips and having it come
back to you aren’t there anymore,” he said, “but there’s still
enough spin on them where you can do what you need to around the
greens.”
     Golf’s governing bodies, the USGA and the Royal & Ancient
Golf Club of Scotland, banned square-grooved clubs because of
criticism that they had allowed professional golfers too much
ability to use backspin to control approach shots, even out of
deep rough after missing the fairway from the tee.
     Recreational golfers can continue to use U-shaped grooves
until Jan. 1, 2024.
     Players said the groove change has forced them to adjust
how they attack the course. Nowhere will that be more evident
than around the greens at the Masters, said Waters, who spends
his days adjusting and building clubs for players looking for
the perfect combination of loft and spin.

                         Roll It

     “You’re going to see a lot more guys at Augusta playing
the ball on the ground, rolling it and feeding it to the pin,”
he said. “In the past, they would fly it up onto the top shelf
and stop it.”
     Augusta National, in Augusta, Georgia, is one of the few
top courses where fairways are lined with toe-high rough instead
of ankle-deep grass. Its undulating greens can make even simple
shots outside the fairways more difficult, players said. In
turn, there’s a greater importance on accuracy than distance at
Augusta, 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir said.
     Players need to pay “attention to the architecture of a
particular hole” and not just “bomb it out there and not worry
about whether he lands it in the rough or not,” said Weir, 39,
who ranks 128th in driving distance on the tour with an average
of 275 yards. “There’s always room for the longer player, but
he needs to hit the fairway, too.”

[JESII]

I read the first paragraph and apologize for barfing...does this guy know which end of a club hits the ball?

[Carl Nichols]

The general point -- that the new grooves will affect play at Augusta -- might be correct, but the lede is laughable. 

[Brent Hutto]

And I'll believe that they quit hitting pitch shots and start rolling the ball when I see it.

Just like the claim that these new grooves will make them all play spinnier balls which will make them start bunting it off the tee.

[Alex Miller]

He should have done his research. Tiger has always played V grooves.

[John Moore II]

He should have done his research. Tiger has always played V grooves.

Maybe on his irons, but I have a strong feeling he had U grooves in his wedges, not necessarily the deep box grooves, but plain square grooves. And for what its worth, that pitch he made on 16 could have been made with a club with no grooves (not exactly, but you get the idea) because the lie was prefect and Tiger has always used a high spin ball. That shot was not dependent on grooves.

The groove change will change almost nothing about the Masters this year.

[Matthew Petersen]

He should have done his research. Tiger has always played V grooves.

Maybe on his irons, but I have a strong feeling he had U grooves in his wedges, not necessarily the deep box grooves, but plain square grooves. And for what its worth, that pitch he made on 16 could have been made with a club with no grooves (not exactly, but you get the idea) because the lie was prefect and Tiger has always used a high spin ball. That shot was not dependent on grooves.

The groove change will change almost nothing about the Masters this year.

If anything, it makes even more perilous a long-iron approach to 15, or any shot from the mid-level rough they have. I don't imagine the grooves will matter much to the elite players around the green, no matter where they play.

[Alex Miller]

One thing it does do, though unintentionally, is make the "rough" a better feature on the course now.

Before the first cut did nothing but stop a player from running out of grass and putting one in the pine straw. Now, it will be much more difficult to put the same amount of spin on the ball and stop it or work it to a desired spot.

[Jim Sweeney]

There can't be much question that the Masters will be the most important test to date of the groove condition. That might not be as true if the predicted rain turns the greens soft.

That said, any conclusion about the efficacy of the condition should be delayed until after the Open Championship at the earliest, sicne then there will have been multiple opportuities to witness their utility in firm and fast conditions.

[Brent Hutto]

According to the USGA pronouncements concerning the groove change, the only valid test is whether Tour players start throttling back to try and hit the fairway at whatever cost of distance. Because remember, this groove change is supposed to render the increased distance from ball/driver improvements moot.

The real success of the groove change will presumably be vindicated when the top money winners on Tour are among the leaders in Fairways Hit rather than Distance...

[Link Walsh]

The one hole I'm interested in seeing if strategy changes due to the groove change is #3.  Lately, the iron off the tee option has been virtually abandoned in favor of bombing the driver to clear the bunkers.  That left a short wedge shot from below the green which, even if it was out of the 2nd cut, didn't seem to bother the players too much.  So we'll see what happens now.   
 

[Jim Sweeney]

Brent Hutto is correct; there is one additional factor to be mentioned. The intended effect of the groove change is to reduce spin from light rough. Augusta's "second cut" would seem to be the perfect test for this theory, so it will be interesting to watch shots from that condition. Greens softened by rain will reduce the hoped for effect.

One should not make too much of the presumption that the groove conditon will create demand among players for softer/shorter flying balls. The USGA acknowledged that this was a possibility, but it was not the focus of or ereason for the change. The intent was to reduce the technological effect of high volunme, sharp edged grooves on shots from the light rough. Even with its "second cut,"
Augusta's fairways are very wide when compared to other championships, particularly the US Open or PGA Championship. The "shorter ball" effect might be mpre prevelant in those tournaments than at Augusta. That is why we need a larger sample before drawing conclusions about the effect of the rule change.

[Terry Lavin]

I won't be holding my breath while waiting to witness any appreciable effect from the groove rule change.  I sure haven't seen any compelling evidence in any of the other tournaments that I've watched, including the Shell Houston where they famously try to simulate Augusta conditions.  I'd be happy if something developed on this, but I'm pessimistic.

[Richard Choi]

Watching the tourney on Masters.com and I don't see any effect from the grooves change. Heck, the scores are pretty dang low so far and the greens are pretty as hard as they are going to be for the entire week as they are expecting thuderstorms this afternoon.

[Jim Sweeney]

The only relevant shots to watch to guage the effect of the groove condition are those to a green from the second cut. Shots from the fairway have no relevance- the USGA has stated that they did not expect to see any measurable effect on shots played from the fairway, and Augusta's fairways are relatively wide. And now, with the rain coming, it may be that the only thing to watch for is the increased potential of fliers.

[Richard Choi]

Jim I agree with and I would even go further and say the groove change probably will only matter in a tournament like US Open. Which is why I think the OP article is just full of hot air.

[Matthew Petersen]

Jim I agree with and I would even go further and say the groove change probably will only matter in a tournament like US Open. Which is why I think the OP article is just full of hot air.

I would respectfully disagree. US Open rough is typically so thick as to not give the player any kind of shot. He can try to blast it out or pitch out, but he's probably not thinking of hitting it high and hoping it spins.

But players would still try to hit that shot from light rough, which is the predominant kind of rough you see at Augusta. It's that kind of shot where you might see a flier when the player is expecting a controlled shot with spin as a result of the new grooves.

[Richard Choi]

The tests show less spin from light rough with the new grooves, but it is not as much as the difference you get from heavy rough. Whatever difference you see at Masters is going to be so insiginificant that it won't matter in the end (in scoring or strategy).

In US Open where the fairways are very narrow and you will be hitting far more balls from the heavy rough, is about the only place where you may see strategy change from the PGA pros. Even that I am not sure will be much to notice.