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May 21, 2013
The USGA cherishes its strong partnership with our USGA Member Clubs, and we are honored to work closely with you to lead the game toward a sustainable future. Your membership supports the work of the USGA in many important ways, and has helped make the game more enjoyable for golfers of all ages and skill levels.
Because of this enduring partnership, and recognizing the critical role that you play with golfers all across the country, we want you to be among the first to know about an important announcement.
Last November, after an extensive review, the USGA and The R&A proposed Rule 14-1b, a new entry to the Rules of Golf that prohibits anchoring the club in making a stroke. This morning, together with The R&A, we are announcing the adoption of Rule 14-1b for players at all levels of the game, effective January 1, 2016.
Final approval of Rule 14-1b follows a comprehensive and unprecedented process for playing Rules in which comments and suggestions from across the golf community were collected and considered. In our best judgment and having considered all of the input that we received, both before and after the proposed Rule was announced, we concluded that Rule 14-1b was necessary to protect the essential nature of the traditional method of stroke and eliminate potential advantages that anchoring the club provides.
Throughout the game’s 600-year history, the essence of the traditional method of golf stroke has involved swinging the club with both the club and gripping hands held away from the body, requiring the player to direct and control the movement of the entire club. Anchoring one end of the club against the body, and creating a point of physical attachment around which the club is swung, is a substantial departure from the traditional swing. Our judgment, based on tradition, observation and experience, is that anchoring creates an unacceptable risk of changing and reducing the challenge of making a golf stroke.
The new Rule does not alter current equipment standards and allows for the use of all conforming golf clubs, including mid-length and long putters, provided such clubs are used in a non-anchored manner. The Rule narrowly targets only a few types of strokes in which the club is anchored, while preserving a golfer’s ability to play with a variety of permissible gripping styles, putter types and swing methods.
The effective date of January 1, 2016, at the start of the next four-year cycle for revisions to the Rules of Golf, provides an extended period in which golfers currently using an anchored stroke may adapt their method of stroke, if necessary, to conform to the requirements of the new Rule.
We know that not everyone will agree with our final decision. However, we hope the new Rule will bring to a close the longstanding, controversial debate about anchored putting and its place in the game. Of equal importance, we hope that those who have expressed concerns know that they have been heard; can understand our reasons for concluding that Rule 14-1b is in the best interests of the game; and will now join with us in assisting any golfers who need help moving to a non-anchored stroke.
Recognizing that you may receive questions from golfers, we have developed videos, images, and other materials that are available at www.usga.org/anchoring to help you and the players you serve become more familiar with the specifics of Rule 14-1b. We have also provided a comprehensive document that explains the basis for our final decision and addresses the primary questions and concerns voiced by those who expressed opposition to the new Rule.
Thank you for your support and passion for the game as we continue to serve all golfers around the world and work to secure the health and traditions of the game for current players and for future generations.
Sincerely,
Glen Nager
USGA President
Mike Davis
USGA Executive Director
For the good of the game®
by Shawn Zawodni on April 15, 2013
Miles of Golf has been collecting driving data for GAM tournaments for 5 years. We use this information in our club fitting, but it also tells players something about their driving skills. We have data for the 2012 Men’s GAM Championship, the Men’s GAM Senior, and the Boy’s GAM Junior Championship. Shawn Zawodni, who has been fitting clubs at Miles of Golf for 6 years, has written a critique of the test results from these tournaments comparing driving characteristics from each of these groups. We think you will find his comments very interesting.
1) Optimum launch and spin is easy. We want just enough spin to keep the ball on its optimum trajectory which depends on speed and launch angle. The faster the ball is going, the less spin it needs to stay on it’s optimum trajectory. For example a ball launched at 170 mph at 10* only needs about 2300 rpm of spin to achieve its maximum distance potential. However a ball launched at 145 mph and the same 10* will need around 3000 rpm of spin to achieve its maximum distance potential. As the ball is launched higher, then it needs less spin to stay on its optimum trajectory regardless of speed. This is why high launch combined with low spin is so desirable (launch and spin are of course relative). A general rule that can be made is that the slower the ball is traveling, the more it will benefit from a higher launch angle and a lower spin rate. The faster the ball is going, the less launch and spin we need. However relatively speaking, all speeds can benefit from higher launch and lower spin. Hypothetically the ideal numbers and I mean absolutely perfect numbers that would create maximum distance no matter what the speed is a 45* launch angle, and 0 rpm spin rate. It’s impossible to achieve with a golfclub, but those are absolute perfect numbers.
2) The club head speeds ranged quite a bit between the different tournament groups. The woman ranged in club head speed from 73.9 mph – 102.6 mph, the seniors ranged from 80.5 mph – 107.7 mph, the Juniors ranged from 88 mph – 116 mph, the Publinx ranged from 79 mph – 117 mph, and the GAM ranged from 98.6 mph – 124.1 mph. The fastest clubhead speed average unsurprisingly came from the men’s GAM championship as well as the closest gap from fastest clubhead speed to slowest. This can be attributed to how close the competition is. When you get a large group of low single digit handicapped and scratch golfers, the speed is likely to vary less. One piece of data that really stood out to me is how many of the junior players are swinging above 110 mph. The women over all averaged the slowest club head speed, but there were quite a few women who were swinging in the 90-100 mph range, I would place a guess that the average clubhead speed of the males that come to the Cluboratory to get fit for a driver is in the mid 90 mph range. The Publinx had the largest variation in clubhead speed from the fastest player to the slowest, almost 39 mph. I feel that the same reason the GAM championship was so close together in clubhead speed can also explain why the Publinx has the largest variation in clubhead speed. The Publinx has a wider range of handicapped players playing in the event. Therefore a wider range of speed and skill will be playing in the event. The seniors had the most amount of players launching the ball above 10*. I feel like this can be attributed to two reasons; 1) Senior golfers (whether they need to or not) have a tendency to play higher lofted drivers than non senior golfers, and 2) I feel that as golfers get older and loose clubhead speed, they compensate and find ways to get some of their distance back. And they do this by hitting up on the golfball with a positive attack angle. The senior golfers averaged the highest attack angle, and more senior golfers hit up on the ball than any other group. A more positive attack angle combined with a higher lofted driver will help increase launch angle and hit the ball higher.
3) A couple things I found interesting is the lowest and highest launch angles, spin rates, and attack angles from all of the groups tested are eerily similar, showing the averages may be different, but the extremes in club delivery (and miss hits) doesn’t discriminate between age, gender, or ability.
