"My sense is that players and manufacturers would have a lot of difficulty, as courts generally defer to unilaterally-imposed sports league rules," according to Ryan Rodenberg, assistant professor of sport law at Florida State University.
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Rodenberg likens this case the "spaghetti-string" tennis case from 30 years ago, Gunter Harz v. USTA.
"The judge in the Gunter Harz district court case (before it got to the court of appeals), ruling in favor of the USTA's ban on spaghetti strung rackets, posited that 'the court is not to substitute its own judgment for the of the ITF or the USTA,' " Rodenberg wrote in an email.
A rule that may make some golfers less competitive does not mean the rule is anticompetitive. For this reason, I agree with the authors. This is certainly within the authority of the USGA, and I do not see a case for the players. It would be nice to see an exemption for players who use belly putters for health reasons, such as Fred Couples, but where would the line be drawn on that issue?
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