Grooves may matter more than we think...

A golf industry "insider" who I will not name (although I will say "Titleist) gave a Golf Pro friend of mine a little info this week. According to our source, the World's #1 Golfer may have an even greater advantage over his PGA peers in 2010.

The tale goes something like this: As any avid golfer knows equipment manufactuerers have been scurrying around trying to retool thier club (and ball) designs to conform to new USGA parameters (V Grooves) by the 2010 deadline. The revisions to the Rules of Golf being mandated by the USGA are designed to restore the challenge of playing shots from the rough by reducing backspin on those shots. Current U and square grooves, which allow for any player to impart additional backspin and therefore make an errant shot into the rough less penal. I won't go all technical on you, if that's something of interest to you, visit USGA.org and you'll get as much tehno-babble as you need. The bottom line is that shots from the rough, which used to check up on the green, will now be likely to roll farther. The intersting part is the rest of the story.

Tiger Woods has never played the "new" grooves which are being banned. For his entire career, he has played V-grooves which are already conforming to 2010 standards. So, follow this thought further. While all Tiger's peers are struggling to adapt to new equipment and learn new shots, Tiger will be using the same specifications that he has always used. The man won six times this year, does he need any bigger advantage. The insider scoop seems to be that we could see even more Tiger victories in 2010 and by some lopsided margins!

I'm not certain that the groove issue will give Tiger an advantage for very long, if at all. These guys are still good and should adapt pretty fast to the new specs. But, another school of thought says that this will have a greater effect on the shorter hitters. Imagine a Steve Stricker or a Heath Slocum, each of whom is considerably shorter in driving distance than Tiger. In 2010 their approach shots will still be well back of Tiger. Should they miss a  fairway and have 175 yads to a green and Tiger misses the same fairway, Tiger will be left with 120 yards. Hmmm, pretty easy to see that there might be a big advantage to being Tiger...not like there wasn't already.

I'm not sure I by in to the "Tiger advantage," but it is certainly worthy of a few moments of thought. What do you think?