Moving The Needle:
Grooves Stay On Cutting Edge
LA JOLLA, CALIF. | One thing about the PGA
Tour, it doesn’t like a lot of bad news about the
PGA Tour, self-imposed or not.
Veteran Tour pro Scott McCarron called Phil
Mickelson a cheater for using a Ping Eye2 lob wedge,
which years ago had been allowed as the result of
a lawsuit between Karsten Manufacturing and the
PGA Tour. The legal wedges,
manufactured before April
1990, have grooves deeper than
irons mandated by the Rules of
Golf beginning in 2010.
McCarron made a strong
statement, and back at Tour
headquarters in Ponte Vedra
Beach there must have been
a lot of gnashed teeth. It was
a tennis player, Andre Agassi, in Canon commercials telling us “Image is Everything,” but golf
people pride themselves on their image.
So on third day of the Farmers Insurance Open,
after McCarron was not around, having missed the
cut, the PGA Tour issued a statement that using the
grandfathered Ping Eye2 irons is not in violation of
the rules.
“Because the use of pre-1990 Ping Eye2 irons
is permitted for play,” the statement read, “public
comments or criticisms characterizing their use as a
violation of the Rules of Golf as promulgated by the
USGA are inappropriate at best.”
Mickelson, a three-time winner of what amounts
to his hometown event — Phil grew up in San
Diego but now lives approximately 25 miles up
the freeway in Rancho Santa Fe — hung in well,
considering.
He was bothered by McCarron’s remarks, saying
when asked if a lawsuit had been considered, “I just
was publicly slandered, and because of that I’ll have
to let other people handle that.”
Scott McCarron
DALY QUITS AGAIN . . . SORT OF
John Daly implied he wouldn’t again be
playing tournament golf. Then he announced
through his Twitter account he was misunderstood, not unusual for Daly.
In an interview with Golf Channel, being done
for a scheduled reality series titled, “Being John
Daly,” the two-time major champion said after the
second round of the Farmers Insurance Open he
is finished with the game.
“I’m done,” Daly said in the parking lot of Torrey Pines. He had shot 1-under 71 Friday, but that
came after a 79 Thursday, his 150 total missing the
cut of 142 by eight strokes.
“Just can’t play like I used to . . . I’m tired of
embarrassing myself,” said Daly, who will be 44 in
April. The eight-episode Daly show is scheduled to
debut March 2.
But Friday evening, Daly rebutted the idea he
was quitting. “I never said retirement,” he said
on Twitter. “Simply saying I need my time and am
working through these bad times. My financial
situation is putting me where I cannot focus on my
game. I’m putting too much pressure on myself.”
That a few hours after Daly told Golf Channel,
“I just can’t keep taking up spots out here playing
this bad. It’s not worth it.”
ROCCO RETURNS TO TORREY
Rocco Mediate, playing Torrey Pines for the first
time since he lost the 2008 U.S. Open playoff to
Tiger Woods, made the cut but didn’t challenge.
Mediate had been receiving putting lessons
from Dave Stockton – who started mentoring
Mickelson last year. Stockton suggested Rocco
shorten the length of his putter so he could bend
more at the waist and place greater weight on his
thighs and heels.
