"It's not going to affect the way you play."
/Geoff Ogilvy's post-SBS Championship win transcript reads like something spit out by voice recognition software, but we'll make the best of it.
Q. Geoff, talk about the grooves now that the first PGA week is in the books. Can you assess how it played any shots that were squirrely or you approached differently strategy-wise?
GEOFF OGILVY: My only different groove clubs are my wedges. My irons have always been 10 legal, I guess. There is definitely a difference. Especially out of Bermuda rough. I had a shot into 10 from the left rough, I don't know if any of you remember it, it was a pretty good lie. The old stuff I would have been confident with a lob wedge and feel I could get some sort of spin on it. It wasn't sitting down. It was sitting nicely. It [rolls|roles] up the face with lob wedges. When I was a kid, I used to hit it. It's doing that now, sand wedge passed the hole. I can't be as aggressive on that shot. It's definitely an impact. Normal shots, no, like out of grass, out of short grass, fairway is pretty good. Once you get half wages out of that stuff, it's different.
Half wages!
So he's saying things are different with the wedges. Victory USGA/R&A! Sort of...
I think it's good because I think we've been getting away with it too much. At least in this Bermuda rough. In other grass, I don't how much difference it will make. It's not going to spin out of the rough. It's going to roll up the face. It's a bit of a difference. In some aspects, like the shot on 14, it's an easier shot. But the club is not going to spin quite as much. You take some away here, and you get some back over here.
Q. That was with from the fairway though, is it different from the fairway?
GEOFF OGILVY: Not significantly different but there is enough. There is a little difference. It's not going to affect the way you play. It's not changing the way we play. The shots are slightly different. The rough there is a difference for me. So I'm sure guys who had big grooves in their irons, having to make big adjustments with their irons. I've been hitting a flier now and then with my irons for years. If guys hadn't been doing that, it's going to be an adjustment. But for us, it's a similar change. When they did spin a lot, you didn't know if it was going to spin. Sometimes it did and sometimes it didn't. Now you know. It's not going to spin. There is something to be said for 9, what it's going to do. It doesn't matter what it does. If you know what it's going to be, it's playable. We lost a bit, but we gained some somewhere else.
No mention of throttling back off the tee for the much-hoped-for backdoor ball rollback. Well it's only week one. There's always hope.