Scott McCarron has accused Phil Mickelson of cheating for using wedges with square grooves. Said clubs are illegal under a new USGA regulation that irons have V-shaped grooves. Yet due to a technicality (an old lawsuit filed by Ping against the USGA that was settled in 1990), any old Ping-Eye 2 wedge made before April 1, 1990, is still approved because it takes precedence over any rule change.
Thoughts, Dopers?
I don’t know if he’s a cheater or not, but I think the old Ping Eye 2 irons I have in my golf bag just became extremely valuable.
According to most reports Mickelson is an asshole too, and that is far more important. After all they are only playing a game where you hit a ball into a hole.
The spirit of the new rule is certainly being broken.
The counter: if he doesn’t do it, someone else will and he will be using inferior equipment if he doesn’t. Legal is legal, after all.
That’s the entire “story” right there. Why is anybody complaining about somebody using legal clubs?
Complaining to tour officials that the clubs in question are legal is more appropriate.
Scotty McCarron is a whiner. The rule allows those clubs. Period. The person violating the “Gentlemanly” aspect of the game is one Scott McCarron. Not Phil. And I am no fan of Phil-- trust me on that.
Its ironic that Scott McCarron (and Rocco Mediate) have been screaming the loudest about Mickelson. Many of the blue bloods in the USGA and other stuffed shirt golf purists think the long putters that are anchored against the belly, or the chest are a more egregious breach of the spirit of the rules than grooves are.
McCarron and Mediate use (or have used) a long putter.
The USGA is at fault for this whole mess. IMO, the rule should have never been changed.
Imagine if due to a lawsuit, a certain full body racer swimsuit was unable to be banned, despite the swimming governing body wanting to ban all full body suits.
Would it be cheating for one competitor to motor through the water covered from head to toe in a high tech super suit, while everyone else lagged behind in trunks?
I think that would clearly be cheating, even if the lawsuit technically made it impossible to ban.
Same here.
Is there a reason that other competitors can’t use similar equipment?
Random guess: they’ve been paid ridiculous amounts of money to use different clubs.
Why would they ban a shape of groove?
They banned the square groves because people feel that they work to well from the rough. The powers that be feel that because of this the game has devolved into hitting the ball as hard as you can with little regard to accuracy. They want to get back to a time where you needed to hit straight not just hit hard.
No. They’re designated as “conforming” clubs and anyone can use them. I don’t believe that those particular grandfathered clubs are being manufactured or sold anymore, so it’s more a matter of whether or not you happen to have some old ones laying around.
Michelson was interviewed by the Golf Channel as he came off of the course yesterday, and I think he made some excellent points. He said that he thinks that these particular wedges should be banned, and that he has made his opinion clear to the PGA and the USGA.** But** (and this is an important “but”), as a PGA player he has no say in what equipment is declared conforming and non-conforming, and all he can do is play as best he can using the tools that the PGA and USGA have declared are available to him. He also said that his sponsors have submitted a lot of clubs to the USGA and PGA that in his opinion were legal and conforming but those bodies declared otherwise and he as a player abides by their decisions.
If he doesn’t use them he will be competing against players who are. That argument was the steroids argument all over again.
The two statements aren’t even remotely similar. Steroids are harmful to the athlete who uses them; using a Ping Eye-Two wedge is hardly harmful to the athlete. Conversely, steroids as a class were not banned; the “U”-grooved irons are. So the wedge in question is more like an old, specific drug that has escaped the ban on steroids, even though it works just like them.
When come back, bring relevant comment.
I disagree that it’s clearly cheating to use legal equipment.
Please convince me otherwise.
Here we go again. (I promise I wouldn’t have brought it up myself! ;)) The coverage I saw the past couple of days from the tournament consistently described how wonderful he is for the sport. Not a mention of him being an asshole to be heard. Yes, there have been reports of him being an asshole - including from a doper who claims to be in position to know. But I maintain that “most reports” is exaggerated.
Re: the wedges - I think he is spot on. They are ruled legal, so he is using them. If they were illegal, he would cease. No golfer ought to be prohibited from using any legal technology that he believes will improve his game. Any other golfer who thinks they convey an advantage is free to search out similar wedges to use themself.
I don’t understand what the “spirit of the rule” is, and how it is being violated.
Actually, the rule itself is being violated. The trouble is, the rule isn’t allowed to be applied to the Ping Eye-Two wedges, made before the magic date, thanks to a settlement made in a legal case way back when. So the spirit AND the letter of the rule are being violated; it’s just that the PGA can’t do anything about it.
(Caveat: It’s possible the rule is indeed written to include an exception for the wedges in question, but I don’t think it really matters for the point being made) 
Steroids give a player an edge. The square grooves give a player an edge. Come back when you can think logically.
The L-Wedge does not conform to the rules but it is approved for play. Ergo, it is NOT cheating.
Callaway (Phil’s sponsor) has submitted wedges that they claim conform to the rules, but USGA has either ruled against them, or they have not approved them yet. Phil has also alleged that the USGA has changed specs. Since the USGA has implemented a new rule, they need to roll up those stuffed shirts and get into the lab and start approving clubs that meet specs.
Apparently the USGA is in no hurry to approve clubs. Basically the USGA season doesn’t start until late Spring, so what is the hurry for them? They are on winter vacation. But the PGATour is in full swing, 4th tournament of the year.
The root cause of the problem is the USGA. They implemented a rule with no regard on its ramifications.
FTR, these clubs are not rare. I have a full set of Ping Eye 2’s in my spare room. I made a few calls from my golfing network the other day. I found a handful of PE2 L-wedges, S-Wedges, P-Wedges. My golf network is limited, I am sure there are thousands of these clubs around, if they look.
Well, the explanation sounds silly enough to remind me how different the game I play is from the one they are regulating.
I don’t understand everything the USGA does, and I think a lot they do silly, but the bottom line for me is if they say it is legal, by definition it is legal. No?
Anyway, Lefty’s wedge isn’t doing enough today to make up for his putter!