Mickelson is one of several players at this week’s tournament at Torrey Pines using a Ping-Eye 2 wedge, manufactured two decades ago with square grooves. The square grooves are now banned on the PGA Tour because of a new US Golf Association regulation that club faces have V-shaped grooves.
However, the square-groove Ping wedges remain legal because of a lawsuit that Ping filed against the USGA that was settled in 1990. The outcome of that action was that any Ping-Eye 2 manufactured before April 1, 1990, is approved for play.
“It’s cheating, and I’m appalled Phil has put it in play,” McCarron told the San Francisco Chronicle in a story published on Friday.
McCarron said Mickelson’s use of the wedges was against the spirit of the new rules. While a ‘cheat’ label is abhorrent in golf, a game that prides itself on honesty and self-policing, Mickelson refused to enter a debate with McCarron.
Instead, Mickelson criticised the rule itself. “It’s a terrible rule. To change something that has this kind of loophole is nuts,” Mickelson said.
“But it’s not up to me or any other player to interpret what the rule is or the spirit of the rule.”
