"Not so, Rugge said, with conviction. His conclusion is that driving distance has stabilized."

Jim Achenbach files notes from the USGA annual meeting and this was discouraging (but not surprising) from the USGA's Dick Rugge:

Some golfers maintain that new groove rules are a poor substitute for golf-ball legislation. The real problem, they say, is a modern golf ball that goes too far.

Not so, Rugge said, with conviction. His conclusion is that driving distance has stabilized.

Okay I'm just going to interrupt with a small question. Uh, the word stabilized? Here's one definition:

2 : to hold steady: as a : to maintain the stability of (as an airplane) by means of a stabilizer b : to limit fluctuations of (as prices) c : to establish a minimum price for

To limit fluctuations. Now, in the ball's case, wasn't there a big fluctuation? So, might we do something to offset the earlier fluctuation that made a total mess of things?

Looking at major professional tours around the world, he cited statistics that show that average driving distance has gone up only about 1 foot in the past six years.

On the PGA Tour, for example, the average driving distance was 286.3 yards in 2003 and 287.9 yards in 2009. Driving distance on the Japan Tour actually went down by a half-yard in the same period. The LPGA tour was up seven-tenths of a yard.

I guess that's a no to my question.

Also guess this means year-seven of the ball study isn't going to end with a conclusion to the one-and-only ball study?

Meanwhile, in the buried lede department, the fruitless look into banning wedges of certain lofts is dying a premature death, Achenbach reports.