May 10, 2002 4 min read

IRVING, Texas (AP) – A four-year debate between golf’s two governing bodies ended in a compromise Thursday that will hold touring pros worldwide to the same equipment standards for drivers, and temporarily create separate rules for recreational players. Under the agreement announced by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club and the U.S. Golf Association, the amount of trampoline effect from thin-faced drivers will be allowed to increase during a five-year period that starts Jan. 1.

That means recreational players can use drivers, such as the ERC from Callaway Golf, in posting scores for their handicap index, and perhaps in their club championships.

However, the R&A and USGA recommend that tours around the world apply the stricter limit of springlike effect – known as the coefficient of restitution (COR) – for the “highly skilled players” in tournament golf.

Previously, players could use thin-faced drivers at the British Open and World Golf Championship held overseas, but not at PGA Tour events or the three American majors.

“It’s a great step to make the rules uniform on both sides of the Atlantic,” Thomas Bjorn of Denmark said. “There is no doubt they had to be.”

The dispute began in 1998 when the USGA set a limit of 0.83 on the COR for drivers, saying they generated too much distance and threatened to make golf courses obsolete.

The R&A, which governs golf everywhere in the world except the United States and Mexico, refused to place limits on drivers and said it did not consider extra distance created by the clubs to be a threat.

Under the compromise, the USGA agreed to increase the limit to 0.86 for recreational players – no club is believed to have tested for that much COR – while the R&A for the first time agreed to restrictions on the springlike effect.

“This is a return to uniformity, and that’s in the best interests of the game,” USGA executive director David Fay said. “I’m delighted we were able to reach this compromise.”

Starting in 2008, the both groups will return the limit to 0.83, which will apply to touring pros and recreational players alike.

“We regret the rules will be different, but it was an integral part of the compromise to be achieved,” R&A secretary Peter Dawson said from St. Andrews.

Tiger Woods said he was surprised by the agreement, especially since it creates two sets of rules for five years.

“Our game has always been one where everybody plays under the same rules,” he said.

The PGA Tour, European tour and Augusta National were among those who praised the compromise, which satisfied even some of the manufacturers.

“This is a victory for golf,” Callaway chairman Ron Drapeau said. “We have said for several years that there are two games of golf. There is tournament golf, played by elite golfers at the highest levels, and there is recreational golf, played by the other 95 percent of the golfers in the world.”

Taylor Made said it would begin U.S. sales of a driver that approaches the new limit.

The division between golf’s two rulesmakers had threatened to disrupt the game. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said this year he might have to set his own rules for tour golf if a compromise was not reached soon.

“This addresses the tour’s concern that official money events today are being contested under different sets of rules, depending on the competition’s location,” he said.

Masters chairman Hootie Johnson, who ordered a redesign of half the holes at Augusta National because he feared technology was making the course to short, also said he was pleased to see the USGA and R&A “restore uniformity to the rules worldwide.”

Fay said he was not sure if the USGA’s other championships, such as the U.S. Amateur or the U.S. Juniors, would adhere to the new COR limits. That will be discussed at its meetings next month.

Along with solving the great driver debate, the USGA and the R&A pledged to stay on the same page in guarding against excessive technological advances.

“The purpose of the rules is … to ensure that skill is the dominant element of success throughout the game,” the groups said in a statement

“The R&A and the USGA believe, however, that any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable.”