Rugge: "I'm not going to get into a response to Phil Mickelson on that. He's entitled to his own opinion."

Garry Smits tracks down Dick Rugge for his reaction to Phil Mickelson's continued criticism of the USGA.

Rugge said the process is hardly "one man."

"I have a staff of 16 people, including six engineers with PHDs," Rugge said. "We get about 2,500 clubs submitted to us every year and we approve about 80 percent of them as conforming. And the 20 percent have an appeal process. They can go to the USGA executive committee, so there's 15 more people involved. We can't please everyone but I think we do the best we can."

Rugge wouldn't criticize players who use the Ping Eye2 irons in competition and didn't have an opinion of whether the use of the clubs violates the sprit of the USGA ban on U-groove clubs.

"They're conforming clubs," he said of the Ping Eye2s. "I have no problem with a player who uses them."