Lords of Golf Teeing Up New Controversy

The game of golf, which prizes courtesy and often demands silence, is now in an uproar over the product that has revolutionized the sport in the last decade: those oversized metal drivers used by low-handicappers and duffers alike.

The U.S. Golf Assn., the game’s governing body and rules arbiter, is mulling whether to “outlaw” some or all of the big drivers and other high-tech clubs on grounds they’re undermining the game’s integrity--in other words, making it too easy.

That might seem prosaic, but golf in America has 26 million players and $15 billion in annual sales of green fees and merchandise, including $2 billion in clubs. And while modern-day golf seems far removed from the quaint game first played on the Scottish moors a century ago, the sport is steeped in tradition, and players’ reverence for the rules--though voluntary--is an important aspect of the game. So when reports emerged that the USGA may be weighing a potential rule change, the golf-equipment industry got teed off in a hurry.

Callaway Golf Co., the Carlsbad-based concern that pioneered the metal club era and still dominates the field with its Big Bertha drivers, lashed out at the USGA with full-page newspaper ads earlier this week.

The ads accused USGA insiders who support the change of “elitism” and of acting “without regard for the interests of the millions of golfers who will be affected.” They also said metal drivers, which supplanted traditional wooden clubs, have not made the game easier, just more enjoyable.

Moreover, Callaway said the USGA, which previously had approved of the metal clubs made by Callaway and other major brands--risks disenfranchising golfers everywhere who have invested in the gear.

The clubs use lightweight metals such as titanium, oversized club faces and lighter, longer graphite shafts to help players hit the ball farther. Larger club faces have bigger “sweet spots,” which help compensate for poorly struck shots. The drivers can also cost up to $500 or more apiece.

Callaway isn’t alone. Acushnet Co., a Fortune Brands Co. division that makes the Titleist and Cobra metal clubs and counts pro star Tiger Woods among its endorsers, is also taking the offensive.

It’s running magazine ads in which Acushnet President Wally Uihlein cites statistics showing that the high-tech clubs have not significantly lowered even the pros’ scores and that technology should be part of golf “without unnecessary intervention” by critics who fear the sport “is about to experience some form of irreversible tragedy.”

The dispute surfaced two weeks ago when the trade magazine Golf World reported the USGA “is prepared to act on its concern” that modern clubs and balls are “threatening the integrity” of the game, and that its actions “could mean a divisive showdown with manufacturers.”

The USGA, based in Far Hills, N.J., then issued a vague statement saying it regularly tests equipment “to ensure that skill, rather than technology, remains the decisive factor in the game.” Without even mentioning metal drivers, it said it “has not reached any definite conclusions” about changing the rules, and noted that compliance with its rules “by golfers and manufacturers alike, is voluntary.”

The USGA has refused any further comment on the issue. But speculation runs high that the USGA will make a major statement about the clubs during the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, June 18-21.

The dispute raises the interesting question of whether golfers nationwide--whose ranks have soared by one-third over the last dozen years--would much care if the USGA decides that their clubs break the rules.

Golf is imbued with protocol, and voluntary or not, the rules are strictly followed by the pros, who are represented by the Professional Golfers’ Assn. of America, and top-flight amateurs. Many weekend players strive to follow suit.

Moreover, the USGA runs more than a dozen big tournaments a year, including the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open, and its rules are also sacrosanct at events at many of the 16,000 private and public golf courses nationwide. So, for players in those events, they’d have to switch clubs if the USGA changed its rules.

“I would be devastated; I like the oversized driver,” said Dave Gannon, one of the club professionals at Brookside Country Club in Pasadena. But he estimated that 75% of players would switch if the USGA alters the rules, because “most of the people buying these drivers are serious golfers.”

But golf is also an exceedingly hard game, and players are constantly looking for the latest gizmo to help lower their scores. Legendary player Lee Trevino supposedly hit balls with a Dr Pepper bottle tied to a stick when he was still a local hustler in Texas, but millions of average players today have each invested several hundred dollars or more for the latest high-tech clubs.

Would those golfers ditch their clubs if the USGA decides to yank its seal of approval?

“I think people would keep using them anyway,” said Richard Mora, chief executive of Coastcast Corp., a Rancho Dominguez-based producer of the metal heads that Callaway, Taylor Made and other brands use in their finished clubs. Outlawing the drivers “would be an unrealistic move,” he said.

Ely Callaway, the 78-year-old founder and chairman of Callaway Golf, agreed that “we can’t conceive” of the USGA banning metal drivers “and taking the game backwards” and that he hoped “wiser and cooler heads will prevail.”

But Callaway can’t take chances, because he’s got investors to worry about.

Indeed, Callaway Golf needs the USGA mess right now like Tiger Woods needs a duck hook into the trees. The Asian economic slump, industrywide price-cutting and El Nino’s heavy rains in California and Florida have pummeled Callaway’s earnings and stock price in recent months.

The USGA flap also has put Callaway, Titleist and others in the odd position of saying that their clubs don’t promise to lower golfers’ scores but rather make the game more fun.

“Hitting the ball is probably the most rewarding part of the game for most people who play it, rather than scoring,” Callaway said. “We’re selling the enjoyment of helping the average player pull off more satisfying shots.”

Outlawing metal clubs also would put the sport’s top pros in a tight spot, since they make their living with the equipment. PGA officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment, but published reports say the pros are split over the issue.

Callaway also said it’s “very premature” to say whether his company would sue the USGA to block a rules change, but he doesn’t dismiss the idea either. After all, Callaway sold stock on the basis of its clubs being USGA approved. “I have to protect the interests of our shareholders,” he said.

The USGA has been dragged into court before over an equipment dispute, which might explain the group’s reluctance to speak publicly about metal woods.

In the late-1980s, Phoenix-based Karsten Manufacturing Corp., maker of Ping clubs, sued the USGA for $100 million after the USGA refused to recognize Karsten’s Ping Eye-2 irons. The equipment featured square grooves on their club faces as opposed to traditional V-shaped grooves.

The suit was settled out of court in 1990. But Karsten President John Solheim said that the USGA’s willingness to consider outlawing metal drivers shows that a wide gap remains between the USGA and the mass of golfers.

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Unfair Advantage?

Most metal drivers are now being made lighter-weight and with larger club faces, providing a bigger “sweet spot” hitting area. Here is a standard-sized driver as compared with an oversized club.

Clubhead / Weight Composition

Standard: 12 oz. Usually steel

Oversized: 10 oz. Titanium

****

Shaft / Composition

Standard: Graphite

Oversized: Graphite

****

The benefit: Larger sweet spot allows even off-center hits to travel long and straight; lighter-weight titanium can make larger but lighter clubheads, which combined with larger shafts allows for more powerful swings and longer drives.

Source: Callaway Golf

Researched by JULIE SHEER / Los Angeles Times