PGA: 2009 Rule Changes Likely to Add More Strokes on Major Championship Scores

Recently there has been a lot of talk as to whether or not the courses selected for major championships have gotten difficult to the point of being unfair.

The average score at the US Open has increased by 2.5 strokes in the past 10 years and the USGA is showing no signs of waning from their strategy of continuously increasing the difficultly of the courses.

The 2008 US Open host course, Torrey Pines, was the longest course to ever host a major championship, playing more than 7,600 yards

Never to be outdone, Augusta National has also significantly lengthened their jewel of a golf course in recent years. The result has been an increase of more than two strokes on the winning score over the past 10 years. 

The PGA of America has certainly grown tired of forever being referred to as the easiest major of the year.

The average winning score at the PGA Championship has increased by 1.2 strokes over the past 10 years; however, the PGA has given us a glimpse of things to come with their handling of the 2008 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills.

Oakland Hills is a beast of a golf course in the most perfect of conditions, but the PGA of America wanted to take the difficulty of the course up another notch in 2008.

They decided to refrain from watering the greens, which obviously produced rock hard surfaces where even the best of approach shots were seen rolling off the back edge of the greens.

The PGA of America also went as far as to literally rake the rough upwards around the typical landing areas, making a slightly wayward tee shot an almost automatic bogey. 

Now, due to recent rule changes on the cross sectional area and edge sharpness of golf club groves, scores are very likely to increase even more in 2009. 

Plainly put, this means that the depth of the groves on the face of the club combined with a razor sharp bottom edge has been allowing tour professionals to gain a significant amount of back-spin on shots out of even the deepest rough. 

"Our research shows that the rough has become less of a challenge for the highly skilled professional and that driving accuracy is now less of a key factor for success," said USGA Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge. "We believe that these changes will increase the challenge of the game at the Tour level, while having a very small effect on the play of most golfers."

"The PGA TOUR supports the decision of the United States Golf Association and The R&A regarding new groove specifications, and we plan to implement the rule change as a condition of competition for our events across the three Tours beginning January 1, 2010," PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement.

Now granted, we have been seeing many shots coming out of knee-high rough and landing on the green with enough spin to allow ball to check-up as if it had been hit from a pristine cut fairway.

Think back to Tiger Woods’ approach shot on the 72nd hole of the US Open.

Woods was in the thick rough on the right side of the fairway. His powerful swing pierced through the almost knee-high rough allowing his ball to come out cleanly, land on the green and spin back a few feet towards the hole.

With the rule changes to the groves and sharpness of clubs set to take effect in 2009, it will be very unlikely to see a similar shot check-up on the green and spin back the way Woods’ now legendary approach shot to the 72nd hole of the 08’ US Open did.

The major championship courses have gotten difficult to the point where they have all but eliminated one of the most exciting aspects in all of golf—the Sunday afternoon charge. 

The likes of Arnold Palmer making one of his renowned late Sunday afternoon charges with the roar of his army clearly heard from every corner of the golf course is a thing of the past.

Performances such as Jack Nicklaus’ score of 30 on the back-nine of his final round at the 1986 Masters en-route to his 18th major victory, which could arguably be considered one of the most amazing two hours of golf ever seen, is something we may never see again.   

As if the scores at the majors were not increasing rapidly enough, these new rules changes are sure to put the proverbial nail in the coffin of the Sunday afternoon charge.