R & A conforming, but exceeds USGA COR limit

[dan_f]

What does this mean?

There was a sale this past week at one of the sports stores here for the TM R510, 540 and 580 drivers. I went to have a look and there was a sticker on the face of them all saying "R & A conforming" and below saying "Exceeds USGA COR limit". What does this mean? Would these drivers be illegal in a tournament?
I live in Canada but I think the RCGA follows the same rules as the USGA. The salesman didn't know anything about it, so I thought I would ask the experts here.

[Lord Thomas]

There was a point in time when the COR in the US was .83, and the COR under R&A rules was .86, this allowed clubs like the ERC / ERC II, and hi-COR variants of every other imaginable club to be produced and sold there.

 

For a short while, it appeared that the USGA and the R&A were going to agree on .83 as the "competitive" COR maximum, and .86 as the "recreational" COR maximum, but they ultimately decided to make it .83 for everyone, however, to give some time for everyone to adjust, there was a couple year delay between their decision and the rule coming into effect.

 

I believe that all of those drivers would be illegal in tournament play.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Thomas

[papichulosteve]

lord thomas pretty much nailed it on the head, i'm just surprised that no one working at the store knew what it meant.....you sure you weren't in a hardware store?

[dan_f]

Okay, thanks.

 

The store is a large chain sports store... they have a few drivers, maybe 5 golf club sets, some bags and some shoes... definitely not specialized.