Wow, talk about a hornets nest…The USGA and the new groove rule for 2010 has piqued some major interest in the not so sexy wedge. Most of you reading this post will have absolutely nothing to worry about. The USGA has changed the groove edge sharpness measurement of clubs with loft greater than 25° (your typical 5 iron) but the edge sharpness is excluded from the putter and driver! Yippy! The putter and driver are also excluded from the cross sectional area groove change..Yikes!

So this is from the USGA and it shows the New Conforming Grooves as well as the non-conforming illegal grooves…and the V grooves (isn’t that on ABC?) which are OK to play.

Conforming Grooves

Not to be used after 2024 for Public Play

These are still all good...V grooves!

What does this all mean?

All I know is that grooves developed over the past few years were shark-like. Especially with the newer thin cover golf balls. The USGA and R&A got together and decided to ban these grooves, in part to save the destructive behavior on the ball cover, and mostly to make it a penalty to hit the ball in the rough! Basically they determined that highly skilled players were not penalized enough for hitting the ball into the “long” grass and I’m sure Carl Spackler had something to say about prepping for a US Open.

The new rule is in effect for the Professional Golfer as of this year. You might have seen or heard about Phil Mickelson and his use of old Ping Eye 2 Wedges (conforming due to a legal deal made over a decade ago). For amateur golfers the rule won’t go into effect until 2024, which gives everyone plenty of time to get adjusted….

Club manufactures will need to make all clubs conforming after 2010. So if you want to use the “shark” grooves, then buy up all you can this year, because they are going the way of Prodigy or dial up.

The best explanation I’ve seen comes from the Wedge Guru’s at Cleveland Golf.