The
Truth About Golf Club Grooves
by
Robert Cotter
Professional
Golf Ball Engineer
Director of Swing Instruction, Instant Golf®
Jordan
Spieth will
be competing in the World Golf Championships - Bridgestone Invitational
this week against only the best players in the world.
The
event is at the famous Firestone CC in Akron Ohio which requires
straight driving and puts a premium on wedge play into tricky
greens.
All
great golfers know their own game. Jordan Spieth is not a
long hitter compared to his fellow young guns. He drives the
ball 291 yards on average which is 82nd on Tour.
Yet
Jordan is the best wedge player on Tour. He
is ranked #1 on approach shots from less than 100 yards. And
he is ranked #1 in Rough Proximity. That means
that when he hits a shot from the rough (typcially a wedge),
it lands closer to the
pin than any other player in the game!
With
his brilliant wedge play from both the fairway and the longer
grass, Spieth combines his vast ability with a little known
fact
about Wedges,
Club Face Grooves, and Performance (namely stopping power).
If
you have been following pro golf regularly you may
have heard about the "Great
Grooves Controversy".
After
great debate, golf's
governing bodies, the USGA (United States Golf Association) and
R&A (Royal and
Ancient Golf Club), designated that square or "U" grooves are
illegal in PGA tournament play.
So
recently, the
square grooves the players have enjoyed for the last 20 years
were replaced with less aggressive, V shaped grooves
(below):This
means iron faces now have approximately 40% less grooved
surface, depending on the manufacturer.
This
change is essentially designed to return golf to more of a
tradition of shot making and precision.
Without
the benefit of the larger, more aggressive grooves, there will
be more of an emphasis on accuracy (hitting fairways, greens,
etc...) going forward.
In
other words, the
best golfers in the world won't be able to rely on wedges with
souped-up grooves to help them hack out of the rough and
have their shots skid to a stop on the greens as easily as before.
Ben Hogan would be
pleased.
So
what has been the Net Effect without the "aggressive" grooves...
Well,
since the change over:
Jim
Furyk, Paul Goydos and Stuart Appleby have shot 59's
on
Tour (the first 59's since 1999)!
10
PGA Tour players have shot 60 since the groove change.
Rory
McIIroy destroyed Congressional CC shooting -16 at the
U.S. Open.
Bubba
Watson's 40 yd hooking "wonder wedge shot" out
of the woods
helped him to a green jacket in 2012 (and
another in 2014).
Louis
Oosthuizen walloped St. Andrews and the field winning
the 2010 Open Championship by 7 shots.
Jordan Spieth shot 61 en-route to
his win at the 2015 John Deere Classic.
& course
scoring records are being tied or broken virtually every
week on Tour!
Now,
if I may, let me put another spin on
this subject.
If
you have been wondering how all this groove performance
stuff affects your game, let me shock you a bit.
In
the Golf Ball Design business, one of the most important
tests a new ball design goes through is called a Shear
Test.
In
this test, balls made with different cover formulations
are hit repeatedly with wedges using a mechanical golfer
(aka, an Iron Byron).
We
then grade the covers according to how much damage the
covers received (to what
extent did the cover material shear off). The most shear
resistant, durable covers, along with other factors,
are then incorporated into the final ball design.
Often
in these tests, and a few other ball performance tests,
a special club is used as a control or baseline club.
This
control club is a wedge without grooves!
Here's
one of my wedges on the left and what a groove-less
wedge looks like (artist's image, not
an actual test club). In
other words, simply imagine what your wedge looked
like before the grooves were cut:
The
control test wedge with no grooves has a straight, milled
face. No tricks or gimmicks. It is simply the same club,
before
the grooves
are cut. Now
here's the shocker...
The
Groove-Less Club Face Can Spin the Ball like Crazy!
From
a good lie in the fairway, the wedge grooves do little
or nothing to
improve
spin or stopping power.
Club
face grooves are essentially not needed from a clean,
fairway lie. Depending on what you can do with your regular
wedge, the
smooth
faced wedge can make the ball bite, back up, skid to
a stop, etc...
I
wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it. It was counterintuitive
and fascinating!
The
grooves only help when there is interference between the
ball and the club face (grass, water, etc...). That's
when the grooves kick in and do their thing. And
different groove shapes do it better than others, hence
the controversy. But they all work great.
The
overall scoring stats also show there has been little impact
on PGA Tour scoring from 2011-2015 with the new grooves.
As
noted,
there
were even
a
few
59's on Tour, and a handful
of 60's since the groove change. Incredible!
So
the next time you are rewarded by a great drive
in the fairway, or are greenside looking at a chip from a good
lie, you can take comfort knowing you have all the technology
you need to stick it close.
It
doesn't matter whether you have U (square) grooves,
V grooves, or no grooves on your wedge. Relax,
execute your shot, and then go tap it in (or pull it out
of the hole).
Fairways
lies are rewarded, as they should be.
What's
more, Rory, Jordan, Phil, Jason, Bubba, and
their fellow Tour members are taking advantage of new
golf balls with relvolutionary cores and
covers.
This
is exciting as golf will increasingly become a game
with an emphasis on the "100 yards and in" shots
(the scoring shots).
When
you combine precision wedge shots with more driver
distance and increased accuracy off the tee,
you will see
a positive
offsetting
of any perceived performance setback from the grooves
ruling.
Players
will shoot very low scores (maybe 58 or 57),
break more scoring
records,
etc... Every challenge will be overcome.
You can
also benefit from the new ball designs that are available
in 2015 (and beyond this season) whether
you are a 36, 16 or 2 handicap . The right ball
design affects
every
club
in your bag.
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Same
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"Brilliant,
stunning, unbelievable is all I can say."
"Dear
Sir,
As
you will by my e.mail address above I purchased
your Key system and I am amazed by
its immediate change it has had to my swing and
went from 107 for an average round to 90.
Brilliant, stunning, unbelievable is all
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Thank
you so much for your prompt reply and superb
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..its
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Your
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Author's
Note: (this gentleman is 72 years young)
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"the
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Robert,
Thank
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