Pandora's groove: analysing the effect of the U-groove ban on PGA Tour golfers' performances and strategies

Abstract

This study examines how PGA Tour golfers' playing strategies offset a ban on technologically superior golf club grooves and how the strategy changes translated into performance changes. The ban, which was implemented at the beginning of the 2010 season, effectively decreased golfers' abilities to spin the golf ball from all on-course environments and offers a unique opportunity to examine offsetting behaviour in the light of a ban on the type of technology. We compare 2009 and 2010 PGA Tour results in a manner consistent with previous studies of offsetting behaviour and golf club groove construction. Our results suggest that offsetting behaviour mitigated the effects of the technological regulations on golf clubs in an economically and statistically significant way, as golfers' performances improved following the technological ban.

Keywords:

• sports
• golf
• offsetting behaviour
• risk
• technology

JEL Classification:

• L83
• L80
• L51
• D81

Notes

²The USGA views the amount that shots roll after hitting the ground as being inversely related to the amount of control a golfer has on a shot. For instance, the USGA Study notes that shots struck with a club with technologically inferior grooves rolled approximately 60% more than shots struck with a club with more technologically advanced grooves.

¹Henceforth, we refer to this study as the ‘USGA Study' (USGA, 2007).

³The groove rule change really meant that errant shots were doubly expensive to golfers because they could not control recovery shots (chips from greenside rough or shots from sand) as much as they could previously. So, minimizing the cost of a potentially errant shot is even more important after the groove rule change.

⁴This decision means that The Masters, the US Open and the British Open are excluded from this study.

⁵Of course, these calculations ignore hole-specific effects.