A Special to the Golfers Network

Ping Golf Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Solheim, who earlier this week called on the U.S. Golf Association to abandon its new rule on grooves, said he wasn't surprised the PGA Tour on June 30 sided with the USGA in its decision to impliment the new rule next year for Tour and USGA instead of waiting until 2011.

“It’s what I expected and we’re prepared for it,” Solheim said. "From a technical standpoint, we still have a lot of questions on how the rule will be implemented and enforced on the tours. We’ll continue to pay close attention to that process as we get closer to 2010.”

For his part, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem offered an explanation on how the new rule will be enforced.

"I think it will take on the two forms,'' the Commish said. "One form is that an official will have full authority to test equipment as he may deem fit for whatever reason. That takes on different forms.

"And then, of course, it's in an official's discretion, still under discretion, but if he is brought information by a competitor regarding a piece of equipment, it is in his discretion to test. Now, most of that - 99 percent of that - with club heads, has to do with the player asking for his own equipment to be tested, even though he is relying on his manufacturer who will have the same testing equipment.

"All manufacturers will have the same testing equipment that we do. Nevertheless, a lot of players want to double-check. So most of it will be there, I assume. But there will be the occasion where somebody hits a shot and maybe appears to have a lot of spin rate and a player says, you know, why don't you check that, and it's up to the official to decide whether he would do that, and the answer is yes.''

Lost in all the hoopla of the grooves decision is this: By siding with the USGA and keeping the implementatin date Jan. 1, 2010, Finchem reinforced his position as the most powerful man in the golf industry (sorry Joe). USGA President Jim Vernon said as much when he said last month that his rule-making association probably would have push back the implementation date until 2011 had Finchem and the Tour decided to delay the rule until then.

Did I say, "Finchem and the Tour?'' By making this rules date decision, Finchem showed that he IS the Tour and also that he's also become a powerful force in the making of equipment rules moving forward.

Consider that the Tour's nine-member policy met via conference call to discuss the new grooves rule. Discuss they did, but in the end, decided to defer the decision to Finchem. That let the four Tour players - Zach Johnson, David Toms, Stewart Cink and Brad Faxon - off the hook with their fellow players, some of whom wanted the new rule pushed back until 2011 so they would have more time to work with the new equipment.

"The way the PGA Tour works is the Commissioner is authorized to manage competitions, and that includes the use of a condition of competition that's in the Rules of Golf,'' Finchem said. "The board had a thorough discussion of the issue and did not take action, which by default means that it is left up to the Commissioner and staff to make the decision. I had come to a conclusion as to that decision, and I made that clear to the board, and they nevertheless left it up to me to move forward, and that's what I am relating to players.

"We just felt that generally speaking, or I concluded, that delaying at this point in time probably was not in our overall best interests.''

Whether or not it's in the best interest of golf to have two sets of rules really isn't Finchem's concern, but that's what will happen beginning in 2010. That is, PGA Tour players will have to play with the new grooves, which in theory at least, will spin the ball less out of rough thus taking away the "bomb and gouge'' element of the game of which the USGA and Tour seems so terrified.

No problem, Tiger Woods said at this week's AT&T Championship, which he's hosting in Bethesda, MD.

"We've had plenty of time to make our adjustments,'' the Striped One said. "We've known for over a couple years now what this decision was going to be, when it was going to come down, and we've had plenty of time to make our adjustments.

"All the companies have been testing and getting ready for this, and the guys will make the changes.

"It'll be interesting seeing guys catching flyers and not being able to spin the ball back out of the rough. Their decision is how they play par-5s whether they will they try and drive drivable par 4s now. Short-siding yourself is obviously going to pay a little more of a price, and you know, how many more 64-degree wedges you're going to see with the balls being as firm as they are. Are guys going to start going to a spinner ball.''

Ah, the ball. Rest assured golf ball companies have for some time been looking at ways to counter the new grooves rule. No doubt they will, too, which could force the USGA to address a subject - the golf ball - it has been avoiding like the plague.

But for now, it's all about grooves. The new rule won't go into affect at so-called "elite'' competition, such as the U.S. Amateur, until 2014.

Club companies can produce "square'' grooves, as they have done for better part of 20 years, and continue to ship them to retailers until the end of 2010. On Jan. 1, 2011, the companies must stop making the square grooves, but retailers will be allowed to sell off their their remaining inventories.

In other words, if you're one who believes square grooves help your game, get as many wedges while you can before the end of 2010. Heck, you'll be able to play with them until the end of 2024.

Welcome to the new world of equipment rules logic.