Tour outlaws 'trampoline' drivers
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Your support makes all the difference.The controversial thin-faced drivers, currently banned in America, will be made legal on a worldwide basis until 2008, except for the leading professionals, after a compromise between the game's two governing bodies, the Royal and Ancient and the United States Golf Association.
For the last few years the two bodies have disagreed over a test for the "trampoline" effect which has been introduced by the USGA but not the R & A. Drivers such as the Callaway ERCII were thus legal virtually everywhere but in the States, and could be used at The Open but not the US Open. But, from next year, a condition of play will be introduced temporarily banning the drivers from all major championships and the professional tours so, for the first time, the top pros will be playing under different rules from the majority of golfers.
However, from 2008, the R & A will fall in line with the USGA's current limitation on the "coefficient of restitution" when, it is hoped, a new test will have been developed. Recently, Peter Dawson, secretary of the R & A, admitted that regaining uniformity in the rules had become more important than the issue itself.
"Golf is an international game, particularly at the élite level, and needs a uniform set of equipment rules," he said. "A return to uniformity, which this proposal seeks to achieve, is in golf's best interests."
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