Finding his groove

Phil Mickelson may be dead set against the USGA’s new groove rule, but it’s probably safe to say PING isn’t complaining.

If PING wasn’t getting overly excited that several PGA Tour regulars including John Daly, Hunter Mahan and Brad Adamonis were using 20-year-old PING-Eye 2 wedges to get around the rule, they must have been doing cartwheels inside their corporate head office when Phil Mickelson went with the model for his season debut at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Thanks to a lawsuit settled two decades ago, PING Eye-2 models made before April 1, 1990, are exempt from the rule, despite having square grooves.

Confused? Don’t be. As lawyers are fond of saying, it’s nothing more than a loophole, even if critics suggest those using the PING wedges are violating the spirit of the rule.

Mickelson, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the groove rule, doesn’t quite see it that way.

"I've sent in grooves that are legal but have not been approved for play," says Mickelson. "And I feel like the Eye-2 grooves are not legal, or don't conform, but they are approved for play. And after talking about it to the tour and the USGA, the only thing that matters is, 'Are they approved for play?' So I don't feel that there's any problem if I were to play those clubs or if anybody else were. All that matters is that it is OK under the Rules of Golf."

Mickelson had several wedges from when he played PING clubs during his first year at Arizona State University. He is only using the lob wedge, which he had Callaway bend from a 60-degree to a 64-degree club. Mickelson adds he believes he will pick up even more spin this year in his other wedges because he said Callaway was "fractionally more aggressive" with the V-grooves, and he is using a slightly softer ball.

The folks at Callaway have no reason to worry about Mickelson jumping ship. Lefty is as loyal to the brand as ever, and will use just one wedge to combat a rule he has referred to as a “ridiculous change.”

"I feel like my Callaway wedges have been the best wedges that I've ever used, so I'm only switching the one," Mickelson says. "What we found in our testing is that the top edge of the groove is what's been changed, and so it's not as sharp."

"As we add loft and create a shallower angle, if you will, into the ball, the top edge isn't catching the ball once we get past 60, 61 degrees of loft," said Mickelson. "So what I did was a took a 60 degree i2 wedge and turned it into a 64, and those grooves seem to be catching the ball similar to what my wedge did last year."

Thanks to players like Mickelson, those PING Eye-2 wedges are back on tour in a big way – 20 years later.
More articles by Marty Henwood