CADDIE'S ROLE:WE CAME to the end of a very pleasant, three-week visit to the desert last Sunday evening with the customary revelry at the clubhouse of the Emirates Club.

There is a big screen facing the terrace overlooking the putting green, and as the players walked towards the locker room, having signed their cards in the scorers room, the main protagonists in the Dubai Desert Classic got a rapturous applause from the cocktail crowd on the patio.

The hospitality structures and the stands have progressed as rapidly as the development in the rest of this fast-forward emirate. The temporary buildings looked permanent with their hard- finished cladding. The 150, give or take a couple, skyscrapers that loom over the Emirates course in the nearby Marina are a constant reminder to those of us who first came to golf in the desert back in the 1990s that there was nothing but sand and the well irrigated grass and no buildings in sight.

The talk on tour was the advent of the new groove rule for professionals. Without too much unnecessary detail, the grooves on the face of the irons have to be more of a v shape rather than the previous square shape that afforded the players so much control and spin. The rules limit the groove volume and the groove edge sharpness.

It might sound like a minor inconvenience to those of us who don’t generate enough pressure on the ball with our irons to encourage anything but top spin. But to good golfers the difference is marked. The past three weeks in the desert has reflected this.

Starting in Abu Dhabi, then Qatar and ending in Dubai, the quality and condition of the courses was, by European Tour standards, second to none. The greens were smooth and firm, the rough thick and the fairways narrow.

In fact, the rough was so thick that getting “fliers” was not a problem on approach shots, as so many had feared with the new grooves. It was more of a help to have the v grooves coming from the dense rough adjacent to the fairways.

The real difference was around the greens. If you missed the pin on the short side, then you had real difficulty in getting the ball close to the hole unless you had an exceptional lie in the rough. The first observation that I made after the first week in the desert was that after four rounds I had had not seen one player hit it “gimmie” distance from the hole. The ball just kept rolling. A good shot was now one that came to rest within six feet of the hole as opposed to two feet with the old square-grooved wedges.

This pattern was not unique to the first week in Abu Dhabi, it was to be the case all three weeks. Our expectation for a good chip shot was not as high as it had been last year. The firmness of the greens and the density of the rough were a decided factor. But also the players’ lack of familiarity with the new grooves was apparent. Last year golfers would hit at tight pins with impunity. If they missed the green they would be confident they could chip close with their square grooves. The last three weeks in the desert has challenged this strategy and the savvy that is required to play the game is once again required. Don’t short side yourself with the new grooves.

As ever in the great capitalist system in which we operate, there are always loopholes and lawyers close at hand. The court case in the US involving the club manufacturer Ping in the early 1990s resulted in their clubs manufactured up to that date being deemed legal. Which of course means they are still legal. Thus the loophole which has been queried in America by some players. Phil Mickelson and our own Pádraig Harrington had the “legal” wedges on hand at the Riviera Club near Los Angeles, ready for use, if they thought it would be the right thing to do.

Naturally, this has led to a lot of on-course discussion between players about the morality of the decision of players to use these “banned” clubs made legal through a loophole. Given the advantage that the square grooves give a talented golfer, this is no trifling issue. These grooves are worth a lot of shots and therefore a lot of money at the end of a tournament. Legally the players are entitled to use the clubs. Certainly the feeling from the players I have talked to on the European Tour is that using the grooves is reprehensible.

Interesting, then, that such high-profile players considered using the controversial clubs. All players are looking for the marginal difference to win. Perhaps it is what separates the great from the good, that willingness to push the envelope to find that telling edge.

It is important for the authorities to take an ethical stance on this issue. The US Tour has the ability to make it a local rule on tour to ban the offending clubs. It would be a better solution than tempting those looking for the edge to make the wrong ethical choice.

For the good of the game and those icons who play it professionally, this loophole should be dealt with urgently.