How could we play golf without equipment? Most sports rely on something besides our God-given parts, and golf is certainly one of those games in which equipment has a starring role. In what other sport do you lug around 30 pounds worth of gear where each of those items has a unique purpose? Take a look at Dick’s Sporting Goods – about 20% of their store is devoted to the game that we love. Every year manufacturers develop and manufacture new clubs, balls, shoes, bags, swing aids and accessories. If you’re driver’s more than 10 years old, you’re probably 20 yards behind where you could be.
It continues to amaze me that there is still room for equipment changes that can lead us to better performance. My first set of clubs were Wilson Sam Sneed’s – a full set of my Dad’s that he borrowed back from the guy he gave them to back in the 60’s. Persimmon woods, blade irons, simple putter – they looked like the clubs in just about everyone else’s bag, and it wasn’t until Joe “Jumbo” Ozaki brought the first metal driver from Japan back in the 80’s that the development of golf clubs (and subsequently balls) exploded. Today we have cavity-backed irons, massive drivers, hybrids, putters that cost $400 and are the size of a cereal bowl.
Speaking of cost, just look at the range of prices on a dozen golf balls. They range anywhere from $10 a dozen all the way to just over $50. Is the expenditure worth it? Balls that travel farther off the driver with low spin, hit the green with high spin and softness are all the rage.
The revolution in technological innovation in the last 40 years has certainly changed the game – especially on the professional level. 300-yard drives were once mythical beasts launched by burly men who grunted on contact. Today, if you’re not AVERAGING 300 yards off of the tee, you’re falling behind. That increase in length has translated into fewer golf courses that are able to host PGA and USGA events, and if you are one of those courses, you have to have a plan to add real estate in the future. Some great courses are no longer considered elite, simply because they’ve been relegated to driver, pitching wedge.
The wedge game is another issue. With the increase in length emerged the need to figure out how to hit shots between 50 and 120 yards – the 4-wedge golf bag came into being. I grew up carrying 1 wedge and never feeling like I was missing anything until I got my first sand wedge in 1990, and then shortly after, a lob wedge. Today I carry a pitching wedge, a gap wedge, a sand wedge AND a lob wedge.
So, we leap into the USGA rules on Equipment. Rule 4 is actually pretty long, so we’ll be taking a few weeks to go over it. This week we’ll go over Rule 4a on clubs.
“4a. Clubs Allowed in Making a Stroke
(1) Conforming Clubs. In making a stroke, a player must use a club that conforms to the requirements in the Equipment Rules:
· A club used to make a stroke must conform not only when the club is new, but also when it has been deliberately or accidentally changed in any way.
· But if the performance characteristics of a conforming club change because of wear through normal use, it is still a conforming club.
“Performance characteristics” means any part of the club that affects how it performs in making a stroke, such as its grip, shaft, clubhead or lie or loft (including lie or loft of an adjustable club).”
So, you ask, how do I find out if my clubs conform to the equipment rules? There’s a website for that: Conforming Club and Ball Lists (usga.org)
If your clubs or the ball you play aren’t on the conforming list will there be hell to pay if you use them in the Ruggles Evening Golf League? Probably not. No one has ever inspected my bag either to count clubs or to verify that my clubs conform to the USGA equipment rules (they do as a matter of fact, but at our level of play I really don’t care and I doubt if anyone else in our league cares either).
However, if you desire to play in a high level amateur event or want to play in a U.S. Open Qualifier (we’re all eligible to do that by the way), you’ll need to have conforming clubs.
By the way, the penalty for making a stroke with a non-conforming club is disqualification for the event.
(2) Use or Repair of Club Damaged During Round. If a conforming club is damaged during a round or while play is stopped under Rule 5.7a, the player normally must not replace it with another club. (For a limited exception when the player did not cause the damage, see Rule 4.1b(3)).
But no matter what the nature or cause of the damage, the damaged club is treated as conforming for the rest of the round (but not during a play-off in stroke play, which is a new round).
For the rest of the round, the player may:
· Continue to make strokes with the damaged club, or
· Have the club repaired by restoring it as nearly as possible to its condition before the damage happened during the round or while play was stopped, while still using the original grip, shaft and clubhead. But in doing so:
· The player must not unreasonably delay play (see Rule 5.6a), and
· Any damage that existed before the round must not be repaired.
“Damaged during a round ” means when the club’s performance characteristics are changed because of any act during the round (including while play is stopped under Rule 5.7a), whether:
· By the player (such as making a stroke or practice swing with the club, putting it in or taking it out of a golf bag, dropping or leaning on it, or throwing or abusing it), or
· By any other person, outside influence or natural forces.
But a club is not “damaged during a round ” if its performance characteristics are deliberately changed by the player during the round, as covered by Rule 4.1a(3).
(3) Deliberately Changing Club’s Performance Characteristics During Round. A player must not make a stroke with a club whose performance characteristics he or she deliberately changed during the round (including while play is stopped under Rule 5.7a):
· By using an adjustable feature or physically changing the club (except when allowed to repair damage under Rule 4.1a(2)), or
· By applying any substance to the clubhead (other than in cleaning it) to affect how it performs in making a stroke.
Exception – Adjustable Club Restored to Original Position: If a club’s performance characteristics were changed by using an adjustable feature and, before the club is used to make a stroke, the club is restored as nearly as possible to its original position by adjusting the feature back to where it was, there is no penalty and the club may be used to make a stroke.
Penalty for Making Stroke in Breach of Rule 4.1a: Disqualification.
· There is no penalty under this Rule for merely having (but not making a stroke with) a non-conforming club or a club whose performance characteristics were deliberately changed during the round.
· But such a club still counts towards the 14-club limit in Rule 4.1b(1).
That’s a lot of words, but I’ll attempt to summarize in a few paragraphs:
Generally, you have to play a round of golf with the clubs that you started with. There are exceptions for clubs that are damaged by outside or natural forces, and if you started a round with less than 14 clubs you can add to your bag if you don’t unduly delay play, but other than that, you’re stuck with what you have. If you damage a club (even if you abuse it), you can still use it in its damaged state or (if you’re not delaying play) have it fixed as long as you don’t change the grip, shaft or clubhead. If you’re playing in REGL and you damage your club, you’re not going to be able to stop off at the pro shop and have someone fix it – you’ll have to either continue playing with that club or use another club in your bag.
You must not deliberately alter a club to change its performance characteristics during a round of play. The vision this conjures up for me is a guy that bends his shaft over his knee to add a few degrees of loft to his lob wedge. Ridiculous, I know. However, most of today’s drivers (through weight adjustments or shaft angle adjustment) allow you to change the draw/fade characteristics of the driver. On holes that turn left to right you could change the setup of the driver to optimize the trajectory and then change it again for a hole that turns right to left. However, the rules clearly say that you cannot do that. Once your driver is set for the start of play, you are not to deliberately alter its performance characteristics.