December 21, 2013 – The Royal Spanish Golf Federation has informed about the decision that the condition requiring clubs to meet the specifications on grooves and punch marks that took effect on January 1, 2010 will apply to the elite level competitions of the Male and Female Committees detailed below and to all competitions of the Professional Committee to be held from the second half of February 2014.

In particular, in addition to professional competitions, the competitions of the Royal Spanish Golf Federation in 2014 in which this condition will be applied are:

Men’s Committee

• Copa de S.M. El Rey – 26/02/2014-02/03/2014 – La Reserva
• Campeonato de España Sub 18 Masculino 2014 – 13/04/2014-16/04/2014 – Escorpión
• Campeonato de España Individual Masculino 2014 – 24/07/2014-27/07/2014 – Las Palmas
• Internacional de España sub 18 Masculino Stroke Play – 04/09/2014-07/09/2014 – Hacienda del Álamo

Women’s Committee

• Copa de S.M. La Reina – 26/02/2014-02/03/2014 – El Saler
• Internacional de España Stroke Play – 09/05/2014-11/05/2014 – Panorámica
• Campeonato de España Amateur Femenino – 29/05/2014-06/06/2014 – Guadalmina

Full details of this condition can be found in Decision 4-1/1 of the Decisions on the Rules of Golf and it is applicable to all clubs except putters and drivers.

As for international competitions, The R & A has also decided to apply the condition to all its competitions, including the Amateur Championship, the Seniors Open Amateur Championship, the Boys Amateur Championship and the Junior Open Championship, among others. You can learn more about this decision in the following link.

The European Golf Association (EGA) has also decided to apply this condition to all its championships to be held from January 1, 2014. To access the press release from the EGA click here.

It is each player’s responsibility to confirm that his/her clubs meet the specifications on grooves and punch marks in force on January 1, 2010. The Royal Spanish Golf Federation recommends that any player who wishes to participate in any of the competitions listed above checks in advance that his/her clubs conform to these specifications.

Clubs manufactured after January 1, 2010 and submitted to the USGA or R&A already meet these conditions. For those clubs manufactured before January 1, 2010 there is a database in which to determine whether clubs meet the condition, which can be accessed through the following link.

The RFEG Rules Committee and the R&A Equipment Standards Department are available for any questions regarding this issue, particularly if you have a club manufactured prior to 2010 that is not in the database or is listed as ATR (Additional Test Required).

Players are reminded that, according to the recommendation of the R & A regarding haw a committee should proceed when queried on the conformity of a club, they should recommend that the player does not use that club during the competition unless they are satisfied that the club conforms with the Rules. Therefore, the Royal Spanish Golf Federation recommends that players check the conformity of their clubs well before the championship in which they wish to participate.

Por REDACCIÓN