Tiger - driving force behind new rule.
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Looks like Tiger Woods has won his battle with the Tour authorities to ensure players ranged against him are using legal drivers. A new test will be introduced in January.
In terms of length off the tee, Woods only just scrapes into the top 30 on the PGA Tour, which led him to seek an audience with commissioner Tim Finchem, requesting a level playing field.
Advances in technology have produced an astonishing increase in yardage - much of which, says the World No.1, is down to the driver and not just the ball.
Woods wants to remove suspicion about cheating golfers, by introducing first tee tests using a simple pendulum method, which identifies immediately which clubs conform, and which don't.
"First hole, here's my driver," Woods said last week at the Buick Classic. "Make sure it's legal. Green light, red light. That kind of thing."
As his driving distance slips farther down the rankings at 292.2 yards, Woods has become increasingly suspicious that some players are using drivers with a little too much spring off the face.
Asked if there were illegal clubs on Tour, Woods, who plays in this week's Western Open, replied: "You could say that."
Announcing that the PGA Tour will begin using a test at the opening Mercedes Championshjip in Hawaii in January, Finchem confirmed that in keeping with the game's integrity and tradition, tests won't be mandatory. Players will be expected to monitor themselves.
"A player who has the opportunity to make sure his equipment is conforming will take advantage of it," he says. "They will have the comfort level of knowing their equipment is conforming. It's nothing new, merely taking the mystery out of the equation."
Finchem admits that 'rumours are running rampant' and the Tour needs to dismiss them.
"The only way is to verify. This system allows us to verify without taking the clubhead apart."
At issue is a physics term called the "coefficient of restitution" (COR), which measures how quickly a golf ball springs off the face of a club at impact. When the face is ultra thin, it allows for more of a trampoline effect.
Golf's ruling bodies last year set the limit at 0.83 COR (a measure of the trampoline effect of ball on clubface) for professional Tours. Amateur golfers will be able to use non-conforming drivers until December 2007.
The pendulum weight, which measures vibration will be used for a trial period on the main, nationwide and champions (Senior) Tours.
While Finchem doesn't believe anyone is cheating, he concedes some players could be using "hot" drivers without knowing it and some players, Woods among them, are convinced there are drivers out there with too much spring.
The European Tour will watch events closely and may well go along with the new mechanism when its own season gets under way in South Africa after Christmas.
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