Leading Edge

When third-round leader Ricky Barnes uses driver at Bethpage Black – and like everyone, he’s been doing it judiciously – it’s a Callaway FT-9. That’s the pear-shaped model that relies on fusion technology: titanium cup face, composite body. The lightness in the body allows the center of gravity to be moved good and low, which helps get the ball up quickly. That’s consistent with the modern tee-ball way: the longer the ball is in the air and going forward, the farther downrange it lands.
 
Barnes' loft is a thin 8.5 degrees, so you can see why a higher launch angle would compliment that nicely to nail down a controlled flight that gets up, but not too high. Barnes also has Callaway X fairway woods – 3 and 5 – plus an Odyssey White Hot XG9 putter and a Callaway Tour i golf ball.
 
Padraig Harrington (missed cut) also had a FT-9 in his bag this week, because his deal with Wilson allows him to freelance the driver. Those deals are becoming less and less common, and Harrington is by far the biggest name who can do it.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – In a press conference today at the 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park, USGA president Jim Vernon was asked if the USGA and the PGA Tour might push back the implementation date of new groove regulations designed to limit the effectiveness of grooves on shots from the rough. A delay would give manufacturers more time to fit their players and get their clubs in compliance with the rule.
 
“The new groove regulations include a condition of competition for elite play, such as the PGA Tour,” said Vernon. “The PGA Tour will make its decision at some point as to whether they will implement that condition of competition for 2010. It is likely that if they were not to adopt it for 2010, we certainly would not adopt it for the U.S. Open (at Pebble Beach Golf Links next June) either.”
 
The condition of competition Vernon spoke of above becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2010, and would require new groove cross-sections (limiting the sharpness of the current groove edges) for all clubs with lofts of 25 degrees or more. Recreational golfers will be allowed to use clubs made prior to the implementation date until at least 2024.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – With rain in the forecast for the next four days of the U.S. Open, driving the ball in play will be critical to winning this week at Bethpage Black. The good news for Tiger Woods is that he's driving the ball more accurately than ever. Woods hit all 14 fairways during the final round of the Memorial two weeks ago and 49 of 56 fairways for the four rounds.
 
And he did so after switching from a 9.5-degree driver to 10.5 degrees.
 
"As we all know, loft is your friend," said Woods. "The reason why you hit a 3-wood straighter is obviously because it's got more loft. That helps. My release has changed over the years and I just need a little more loft now."
 
Make that a lot more loft. When Woods was a rookie in 1997, he played a driver with 6.5 degrees of loft.
 
"...now I'm up to 10.5," he said of his Nike SQ Dymo prototype driver. "I hate to see when I get to 40 how it's going to be. I may have to get a 46-inch driver and a 15-degree lofted driver. But it is what it is. Technology has changed; the ball doesn't spin as much as it used to. You must have more loft than you used to play."

Always interesting to see what adjustments players make just before a major championship. Sergio Garcia has put TaylorMade-adidas’ R9 460 driver in the bag after hitting it for just a short time in Memphis, said TMaG representatives. He likes the bigger head, figuring he can use it to more easily work the ball both ways. Sergio’s 460 has 9.5 degrees of loft, and he has the adjustable head set two degrees open. (He does this with TMaG’s FCT, or flight control technology, which allows the shaft to be inserted into the hosel in a predetermined position and locked in for use in competition.) Eric Axley and Scott Gutschewski, also in the field next week at Bethpage, also switched into the R9 460.
 
Sergio also got new R9 3- and 5-woods, and requested a set of wedges – the latter is standard procedure for El Nino; he likes to get fresh grooves three times a year. Timing couldn’t be better, what with U.S. Open rough looming in New York.
 
It’s not unusual for players who don’t appear frequently, such as Sergio, to lean on the equipment truck guys pretty hard during a U.S. visit. The truck guys see it coming, and they’re only too happy to help. So is Sergio…more than once we’ve clambered up the steps to the TMaG truck and thrown open the door to see Sergio himself at the grinding wheel, working carefully on a wedge head.
 
Two-time U.S. Open winner Retief Goosen is another self-grinder who we’ve seen in the TMaG truck, happily and placidly shaping away, visions of more trophies no doubt dancing in his head. This week, Retief switched into the TaylorMade-adidas TP Red ball; he found he drove it five to ten yards longer and hit it one club further with his irons.
 
Not in the field for the U.S. Open but also switching to the R9 460 driver were Tyler Aldridge, David Berganio Jr., John Senden, Matthew Borchert and Tim Wilkinson. Scott Verplank also didn’t make it to Bethpage, but he’s thinking about the future. After five years with the TMaG TP forged irons, he has taken on a 3-PW set of Tour Preferred B irons, which have a thin top line but feature a shallow undercut channel to shove the weight out and deep where it belongs. Scott had the new clubs ground for a little bit of offset, which satisfies his preference for a small, traditional head. He says they’re hired and in the bag.

DUBLIN, Ohio – Tiger Woods, something of the anti-tinkerer when it comes to equipment, continues to experiment with his driver.
 
At the Quail Hollow Championship in April Woods briefly played a different shaft in his driver before going back to his old gamer. This week at the Memorial Woods went with a driver with more loft, the result, he said, of his ongoing swing changes with coach Hank Haney.
 
“As my release has changed over time with Hank, I needed a little more loft to get the ball in the air,” Woods said. “Still hitting it just as far but probably a different way.”
 
At Muirfield Village, Woods is playing a Nike SQ Dymo prototype driver with 10 degrees of loft and a Mitsubishi Diamana White shaft. Woods said he had been playing 9.5 degrees of loft in his driver, but the Darrell Survey listed his driver with 8.5 degrees of loft at last month’s Players.
 
Either way, things seem to be working. For two days at Muirfield Village he’s hit 25 of 28 fairways, a dramatic jump over his 56 percent average this season. In fact, Woods has not hit more than 60 percent of his fairways his last six seasons and hasn’t ranked higher than 139th on Tour in driving accuracy.

A common site on the PGA Tour over the years is that of John Daly drinking a Diet Coke and hammering golf balls into the stratosphere. But in the weeks ahead, you may see Daly sipping an All Sport sports beverage or Big Red soda instead. Daly today announced on his Twitter page that he has signed an endorsement deal with ALL SPORT® and BIG RED®. He joins another of the game's longest hitters, Bubba Watson, as an endorser of these products.
 
All Sport, Inc., is a subsidiary of Big Red, Inc., and based in Austin, Texas. Big Red is the No. 1-selling red soda in the United States. Both Big Red and All Sport are distributed by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Callaway Golf announced late last week that a small number of its TOURi golf balls (less than 1 percent) exceeded the USGA's weight limit. As a result, Callaway asked the USGA to remove the version with the old sidestamp from the List of Conforming Golf Balls and replace it with a new sidestamp that features two dots on either side of the word TOURi. The old sidestamp will come off the list effective June 3, 2009; the new stamp was added on May 6. Packaging for TOURi balls with the new stamp will feature the words TOUR AUTHENTIC on each sleeve.
 
The "heavy" balls exceeded the USGA's weight limit for golf balls (45.93 grams) by a fraction of a gram, or approximately half the weight of a U.S. dollar bill. In theory, the heavier ball will travel farther if struck solidly, but not enough to make a noticeable difference.
 
Unless you're competing in professional or high level competitions, you can continue to play the "heavy" balls with the old sidestamp. It still conforms to the Rules of Golf and can be played in handicap rounds. Only those golfers playing in competitions that adopt a specific Condition of Competition must use the ball with the new stamp, beginning in June.

Now through June 30th, when you buy a Callaway Big Bertha Diablo driver, you can get a Diablo fairway wood or hybrid for $1. The Diablo has a street price of $299.
 
The madness doesn't stop there. With the purchase of either an FT-9 ($399) or FT-iQ ($499) driver, you can get your choice of an FT-i Squareway wood, FT Draw fairway wood or '08 FT Neutral hybrid for $1. You can also substitute your choice of two of the following – '08 X fairway wood, X hybrid – for the fairway woods and hybrids mentioned previously.
 
Head to your local golf retail store or Web site to take advantage of this deal, while supplies last.