This weekend's U.S. Open has reinvigorated me with interest in playing golf. I haven't played a full round in a couple of years, and I think its about time I get back on the course. I was in my high school golf team (never a stellar player but I had my moments), but more importantly I had the unique advantage of living on a golf course. My parent's condo was on hole 3 and 4 of the country club. Just as dusk came in and the golfers would start to finish up their rounds, my dad and I would sneak onto the course by walking out the patio sliding doors and play a couple of holes. Sometimes we'd take Opie my dog with us. It was nice.
Despite these privileges, my family has never been one of particular wealth, and because of this, I learned to play with, and to this day still use a set of 25 year old Taylor Made blade irons. What else, right? Hehe. If I had to compare them to a modern forged set of professional blades, I'd say they're more like the Mizuno MP-37. Playing competitive high school golf tournaments, one of the issues I always struggled with apart from the fact that my tour-preferred irons never gave me the driving distance of modern titanium woods, was the fact that for all my efforts, my clubs had a limit on how much backspin they could put on a ball.
Its easy for a golfer to understand backspin dynamics, because after putting serious hours on the course, even the worse of players learns how to maneuver the ball. Properly executing is another matter. Needless to say, playing the ball far forward in my stance never produced the kind of natural bounce-bounce-halt-spin back effect that you see on almost every shot from the Pros on television. They've been especially plentiful in this US Open because of how soggy the greens have been.
With all the literature I was exposed to while I was at my peak playing golf at least 4 times a week, I somehow overlooked the groove technology on club faces. Interested in the spin this weekend, my father casually commented about v-grooves vs. u-grooves. A quick google search resulted in a fascinating article that explains that these frustrations I've had for years are now coming to an end, at least professionally:
So why is the story being revisited 20 years later? We now have more comprehensive and accurate testing equipment. In 1990 we lacked the equipment needed to properly gauge spin rates on a consistent level. The USGA revisited the square groove issue, testing each type of groove and found a competitive advantage for square groove clubs out of the rough. For professional golfers U-grooves will be illegal to use by late 2009. For amateur golfers the ban will come later on in 2010.
V-Grooves
These types of grooves will replace the controversial U-grooves (Square grooves) by Jan 1, 2010. As the name implies the grooves form a “V” shape. These grooves allow a fair amount of spin to be applied to the ball according to the USGA. In tests between U-Grooves and V-grooves, perfectly struck golf balls received identical amount of backspin from fairway lies. However, out of the rough U-grooves put more backspin on the ball than V-grooves. This is why the USGA ruled that square groove clubs gave an unfair advantage.
By next year, even amateur players won't be able to buy square (u-groove) clubs, and a new era in golf competitiveness will be introduced. Of course, just like I grew up in the era of out-of-regulation monstrous driver heads, there will always be people to have their trust Ping wedges spinning the ball ridiculously out of impossible roughs. Nevertheless, I like the quote the article (which I suggest everyone read) from The Shark Greg Norman:
If the V grooves do come back into play, that will be a great barometer to see how good these players are with their touch and their feel and their imagination. Understanding the spin of the golf ball. Its not just a pure given fact if you hit it in the rough, it just drops on the green. That’s not going to happen next year.
Through family that has worked with printers going back to the early 1980's, I have had a bit of a light education on the mechanics and reasons for what makes a printer good, and where it's best used. I myself no longer work with pen and paper. I'm done. I use my computer and my iPhone, and sign off for FedEx packages.
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