"We have 'legal and conforming' grooves, and we have 'approved for play,' and I have sent in legal grooves that have not been approved, and these grooves in my opinion are, just like Scott felt, are non-conforming grooves, but they are approved."

Phil Mickelson addressed Scott McCarron's charges following the second round at Torrey and unfortunately, was all over the map in his comments. See if you can make sense of this:

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I agree that the rule -- it's a terrible rule; to change something that has this kind of loophole is nuts. But it's not up to me or any other player or interpret what the interpretation of the rule is or the spirit of the rule. I understand black and white. And I think that myself or any other player is allowed to play those clubs because they're approved. End of story.

Again, I totally agree with them. I think it's a ridiculous rule. But whoever wants to play them, they're approved. And like I said before, we have two things going on. We have legal and conforming grooves, and we have approved for play, and I have sent in legal grooves that have been not approved, and these grooves in my opinion are, just like Scott felt, are non-conforming grooves, but they are approved. And as a player when you ask the PGA TOUR or the USGA or whatever, all that matters is if they're approved.

So I guess I'm left with the question, did Phil play the PING wedge to make a point? It's sounding like it, in which case it's hard to sympathize with any heat he's taking. Though he has certainly made his point! But was it worth it?

Q. When you hear your name and the word cheating in the same sentence by a fellow pro, what's your reaction?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, I think rather than answer that directly, I think what he's saying is the rule is a terrible rule, and I agree with them. I'm just as upset. The difference is I've been talking with Dick Rugge of the USGA and talking to the Commissioner and explaining this behind closed doors, how ridiculous all this is. I don't agree with the way he carried on about it, but that's his choice.

Q. But you kind of agree? Will you now take the club out of the bag particularly since your character comes into question now?

PHIL MICKELSON: I was skeptical about playing it this week, not because of the legality of it. I think anybody can play those clubs.

If you were skeptical, then why play it?

What's so funny here is that Phil continues to sound genuinely angry at the USGA over the groove rule change's intentions and its impact on his corporate partners at Callaway, and less about the PING loophole. Yet if you were to make a list of players whom this rule change helps, wouldn't you put Phil near the top thanks to his bagful of amazing wedge shot tricks?

Anyway, back to today's mess where Phil has a legitimate point here, but one very separate from his overall hostility toward the rule change:

Q. You alluded to having sent clubs to the USGA that conformed to the letter of their specifications and they were ruled illegal.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, this whole groove thing I think has turned into a debacle because we have grooves that we sent in that are legal that are not approved. We have these grooves that in my opinion are not legal, are not conforming, but they're approved for play. And then we have testing methods that are totally different amongst our two governing bodies. One is approving them, one isn't, and it's never the same. They're not on the same page, and it's been very frustrating trying to figure out what you can and can't play.

Q. So in other words you say that you think it's a ridiculous rule and you don't think they should be approved, but yet you still play them --

PHIL MICKELSON: Because they're approved. There's a lot of guys that are playing them this week, and I don't blame them.

It was probably that quote which caused golf.com's Cameron Morfit to write:

It takes a special issue to make all involved and even the game of golf itself look completely ridiculous. This is that issue.

Morfit also noted a PGA Tour statement later in the day:

"Leading up to the implementation, we have been aware that under the USGA Rules of Golf, the pre-1990 clubs would be allowed and that there was the potential that some players might choose to use them. We will monitor this situation as we move forward and under Tournament Regulations, we do have the ability to make a local rule which would not allow the clubs. There's been no decision made at this time."

In other words, uh, hang on until we think of something.

Well, we have an answer to the question of whether a local rule could have prevented this mess. And I guess we'll continue to wonder why that wasn't done?

Jeff Rude suggests that there is a way out, though it doesn't sound like PING is really too eager to help out.

The central question: Can the PGA Tour, USGA and Ping get together and close the loophole?

The answer appears to be maybe. But then maybe simply means anything is possible, not necessarily probable.

Ping CEO John Solheim told Golfweek’s James Achenbach, “They (PGA Tour) do have an out to that, where they can go through several procedures and prove they have a need. It’s not an easy thing to do, by any means. I think there is no way they could meet the protocol.”

Steve Elling took Scott McCarron to task for the suggestion that Phil was a cheater:

In golf circles, he might as well have characterized Mickelson as a bank robber who didn't wear a mask, somebody who is brazenly taking money off the table of others. In a roundabout way, that's what McCarron, a member of the PGA Tour's 16-man Player Advisory Council, has done.

Frankly, it's unfair and absurd. This isn't bonny and Phil isn't Clyde.

Bob Harig offered this reminder:

There are some who might wonder what all the fuss is about. After all, Daly has been using the Ping wedges and they haven't helped him much.

And finally, John Vander Borght offers an excellent post (thanks, reader Erik) on the background in this saga and suggests it's not a big deal when he cleverly reminds us of McCarron and Mediate's long putters:

According to an article from Golfweek, Dick Rugge of the USGA says the clubs may not be re-grooved.  I assume that is because Rule 4-1b says that any club that is modified must conform in its new configuration and that the modified club would have to conform with the new regulations.

So, my conclusion is that this is all a tempest in a teapot and that the players who are crying foul really don’t know what they are talking about.  As someone on Geoff Shackelford’s website pointed out, McCarron and Mediate should talk since they use long putters which many feel contradicts the spirit of the game a lot more than these wedges.