McIlroy decries club ban

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland wants golf authorities to reconsider their new regulations on the shape of grooves in club heads.

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"I don't see why they don't firm greens up and get the rough longer to bring scores down," McIlroy said Tuesday. "They can make golf courses a lot tougher and turn 20-under winning scores into 12 under."

The USGA and The Royal & Ancient in January introduced rules designed to prevent tour professionals from putting excessive spin on golf balls when playing out of long, rough grass.

The measures have been greeted with mixed reactions and confusion on the PGA and European tours. Phil Mickelson has found a way around the ban on "U"-shaped grooves by playing with a 20-year-old Ping wedge. Tour player Scott McCarron has claimed that its "cheating" to use them.

The new regulation shrinks the volume and softens the edges of the club head grooves. Mickelson was among at least four players at Torrey Pines last week who used the Ping wedges, which have square grooves. The Ping wedges made before April 1, 1990, are approved for competition because of a 1990 settlement from Ping's lawsuit against the USGA.

AIMING HIGHER: Anthony Kim won tournaments at Quail Hollow and Congressional, starred in the Ryder Cup and climbed to No. 6 in the world ranking. That was two years ago, and it would seem the 24-year-old Californian would strive to get back to that level.

But as he makes his PGA Tour debut this week in Los Angeles, Kim is aiming higher.

"After the year I had two years ago, even though people said it was a breakout year, I don't feel like I did anything super special," Kim said Tuesday morning while driving to Riviera. "I would like to do something super special this year."

And what does he have in mind?

"Win golf tournaments," he said. "Nobody cares if you finish in the top 10."

Kim became the scapegoat for the Bob Hope Classic's weak field when he was among nine PGA Tour players who took releases to play in Abu Dhabi. All nine were European Tour members, six of them were Europeans. Kim took heat as the only American, not to mention a kid who went to high school a few miles from the tournament.

VOTAW DIVORCED: Less than four years after Ty Votaw married Sophie Gustafson of Sweden, whom he began dating while still commissioner of the LPGA Tour, the couple has divorced.

According to records in St. Johns County, Fla., the marriage was dissolved Jan. 25, and the judge ordered the case sealed a day later. Votaw is the PGA Tour's chief spokesman, who also spearheaded the successful bid to get golf back in the Olympics. Gustafson has 23 victories worldwide and has played on the past seven Solheim Cup teams.

DALY DOINGS: John Daly already has received two sponsor exemptions on the PGA Tour this year. Pebble Beach is not one of them.

The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am has one of the more peculiar criteria. It takes winners of the tournament, the four majors and The Players Championship dating to 2005 -- and all such winners before 2000.

Daly qualifies because of his majors (1991 and 1995), while Todd Hamilton (2004 British Open) does not.

Daly, meanwhile, said on Twitter that his partner next week would be Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo .