By Ryan Ballengee
If you're a Geoff Ogilvy fan, then you know he is a golf equipment and architecture aficionado. That and his patented honest answers are why the media love him so much. Need a quote about course setup? He's your guy. Want to banter about golf balls? Turn to Ogilvy.
Conversely, turn to Joe Ogilvie anytime you want to get a quote that sounds like a C-list PGA Tour player whining about anything. Must be the phonetics of the last name.
In Ogilvy fashion, Geoff discussed the impact he felt the new grooves had on his game this week at Kapalua. It was quite a diatribe, but here are the key quotes:
- "There is definitely a difference. Especially out of Bermuda rough."
- "It's definitely an impact. Normal shots, no, like out of grass, out of short grass, fairway is pretty good."
- "In some aspects, it's an easier shot. But the club is not going to spin quite as much."
Notice how Ogilvy paid close attention to what was actually happening as he tried to execute shots. The guy has a clear grasp of the role that equipment may play in his game this year.
Meanwhile, Lucas Glover has exactly zero interest in equipment or grooves. Late in '09, I went on a field trip of the USGA headquarters along with Lucas Glover, Annika Sorenstam, Morgan Pressel, and a number of American Express cardholders.
We took a tour of the spec shop, headed by Senior Technical Director *** Rugge. He showed off the equipment that the USGA uses to test golf club and ball conformity and fielded questions from tech geeks. Lucas Glover was noticeably disinterested in this part of the tour, hanging in the way back of the group like a fifth grader bored with science class.
As we went into another part of the lab to discuss groove measuring equipment, I turned to Glover and asked, "What? You don't want to learn more about grooves?"
He looked at me kind of surprised, made a scoffing gesture, and said, "No."
Maybe Ogilvy just got into Glover's head by talking about equipment specs.