Grooves on Golf Clubs - New Grooves on Golf Clubs - V Grooves on Golf Clubs

How Will The New Iron Groove Rule Affect You?

Over the course of history changes to golf equipment have shaped the game, as we know it today. This new groove rule will bring skill back to the golfer and take it away from the manufacturer.

Some changes in equipment have had a profound effect on the game. For instance when the Rubber-Cored ball succeeded the Gutty ball in 1898, Harry Vardon the greatest golfer of the day claimed that the game was now so much easier to play, as before, great skill was required to get a gutty ball airborne with a Brassie from a tight fairway lie, but this new ball now made it possible for golfers of all ability to hit a good shot!

At one time the R & A considered banning the Rubber-Cored ball, but didn't. It was not until 1921 that they limited the size and weight of a golf ball.

The same could be said of the introduction of steel shafts replacing hickory, but they were made legal by the R & A in 1929. The new shaft helped to produce balanced sets of clubs, which gave golfers a great deal more consistency to their game.

Even in 1925 the R & A banned irons with deeply grooved face markings. So nothing is new!

But today the new rule covering grooves on the faces of irons with 25 degrees of loft and higher will bring skill back to the golfer. The rule changes are designed to try and eliminate "stopping spin" on the ball especially by the highly skilled player when playing wedge shots from out of the rough.

Before “square, U or box grooves” on the face of irons the skilled golfer would have to “make up” a shot from the rough to get close to the pin. Modern grooves have allowed skilled players to stop these types of shots almost stone dead and have helped to create low scoring rounds. The new grooves on irons will make this much harder to do therefore more thought and imagination will be required.

The new rule means that grooves will now be smaller than in the past and less sharp to the edges by reducing the volume size of the groove by 50%. The groove can be as deep or even as wide as previously allowed but they cannot be both together unless turning the groove into a V shape instead of the old U shape. You can have the old groove width but the depth is to be reduced by half. You can have the old groove depth but with only half of the previously width. Also there must be a softer radius to the edge of the groove rather than a very sharp edge as was with U grooves. Finally the spacing of the grooves also influences the total volume the groove is allowed.

It will be very interesting to see how this effects scoring and will be a “must watch” on TV.

Jan 1st 2010 The new rule comes into effect for Professional Tournament players. Their irons must conform to the new rule.

Jan 1st 2011 Manufacturers will now only be able to produce Tour Conforming Clubs with new grooves.

Jan 1st 2012 Players in all PGA events and Elite amateur tournaments must have conforming grooves.

Jan 1st 2024 This date now affects the rest of the golfing world. From now on no golfer will be allowed to play with the old style grooves.

For further information please visit the official R & A web link: www.randa.org/rules/groovetest/explained

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