A golf-ball-shaped device that blows talc into the air is the subject of the latest dustup over what's legal on the links.
The small Rochester company that makes the squeezable product, called the Windage, is battling the powerful U.S. Golf Association (USGA) over whether the device constitutes an illegal way for players to judge wind direction.
The USGA, which has the final say in most golf equipment matters, has made up its mind. It calls the Windage an "artificial device for the purpose of gauging or measuring conditions that might affect play."
Windage inventors Brian Trachsel and David Healy this week sued the USGA in federal court in Minneapolis, accusing the 700,000-member organization of violating anti-trust laws by using its product-approval muscle to keep Windage out of the mainstream golf marketplace.
The Windage folks call the USGA decision "arbitrary and capricious." They claim it denies them access to professionals and low-handicap amateurs who typically won't touch a product that doesn't pass USGA rules, thus limiting its exposure to the golfing public.
The USGA says it will "vigorously defend" its decision against the Windage.
The company's owners contend that old-school methods for judging wind direction -- tossing blades of grass into the air, or keeping an eye on wafting cigarette or cigar smoke -- are bad for the turf, expose golfers to dangerous ground chemicals and give smokers an unfair advantage.
The suit contends that some professional caddies who were nonsmokers "now light up on the course and pretend that they do smoke with the sole purpose of putting smoke into the air to assess the wind."
