New LH Nonconforming Hicor ILLegal Callaway ERC II 9* Golf driver Reg Flx (RARE)

"It had a pop when you hit it, like a gun going off," Smith recalled last week.After a few more swipes, Smith handed the ERC II to Evans. Even with his old driver, Evans routinely bombs tee shots to the far end of Talamore's range, 280 yards away. But with the ERC II, he bounced one off the second floor of a house that sits 30 yards beyond the end of the range. He and Smith stood there in disbelief."We thought it was a fluke," said Smith. "So Keith hit another one."Bam. Same house, same spot."I can see why the USGA made it illegal," Smith said. "God forbid Tiger Woods should get one of those things in his hands."If the U.S. Golf Association has anything to say about it, Woods won't, and neither will you.Because of the ERC II's combination of space-age materials and high-tech construction, Callaway's latest offering to golfers has been declared "nonconforming" under the rules of golf by the USGA and banned from any and all competition, professional and amateur, from the U.S. Open down to casual rounds among friends. In recent weeks, the USGA has gone so far as warn golfers nationwide not to even post a score toward their handicap if they use the club.Not even Callaway makes specific claims about how much farther the ERC II enables a golfer to hit a ball - anecdotal reports say anywhere from 10 to 30 yards - but the USGA says the increase is enough to render many golf courses defenseless and jeopardize the integrity of the game.What has set the golf world on its ear in recent months is that California-based Callaway, one of the largest, most influential and generally respected manufacturers in the golf industry, is fighting back."Nobody likes this kind of confrontation, but they [USGA] have a bad cause here," Larry Dorman, vice president of Callaway, said last week. "We are going to continue this fight, and we are going to sell these products."Not surprisingly, Callaway is quick to point out that the game's two top governing bodies do not agree about the club. While it is banned by the USGA, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of Scotland, which rules golf elsewhere in the world, reviewed essentially the same data and concluded that the club was no threat to the game. The ERC II remains legal outside the United States, even on the European PGA Tour.Callaway also points out that the USGA has been wrong before about improved technology spoiling the game. During the 1920s, the USGA resisted for five years as the game was seeing a transition from hickory shafts to metal. The USGA caved in only after it found itself being largely ignored by clubmakers and golfers.But at the heart of Callaway's argument is that the USGA is out of touch with ordinary golfers in this country. As Callaway sees it, the USGA is concerned only with protecting the game from the likes of PGA Tour pros to the detriment of the masses of recreational golfers.Fine, don't allow the ERC II in tournaments, concedes Callaway. But why make it illegal for the hapless bloke struggling to break 100 or even get the golf ball airborne?"There is no threat to the game, at least not from 98 percent of the people who play it," said Callaway's Dorman. "The USGA is trying to protect the game from an elite few, but why impose the same rules on everybody? There is no good reason to restrict people from hitting the ball a little farther."Meanwhile, caught in the middle of this clash of titans are the thousands of golf professionals from coast to coast who are beginning to stock their pro shops for the coming season.Do they toe the USGA line and refuse to sell a banned club? Their own professional association, the PGA of America, has said it's a decision that's ultimately up to the individual pro, while at the same time stating publicly that its loyalties lie with the USGA."Quite honestly, it puts the PGA pro in an awkward situation," Jack Lutz, executive director of the Philadelphia section of the PGA, said last week.Many club professionals suddenly find themselves in the position of telling their members and customers that they will not sell the club, at least not so long as the USGA says it is illegal. Lutz also worries that pros will be cast in the role of police officers, having to check golfers' bags for the ERC II during club tournaments.The ERC II is readily available in most golf discount stores and from mail-order catalogs and internet golf shops. At Washington Golf Center in Conshohocken, owner Ken Chung said the ERC II sales had so far been fair since he got the first shipment of a dozen in early December."We've sold about half of them," he said. "A lot of club pros won't carry them, and that's an advantage for us. But I think members of private clubs are hestitant to buy them."But by Callaway's own accounting, only 11 on-course pro shops in the area stock the ERC II or are awaiting delivery of a shipment. Forty to 50 other pro shops have said they will begin stocking it in the spring or will place a special order if a member requests it."I don't know anyone in this area who's carrying it," said John Allen, head pro at Sunnybrook Golf Club in Plymouth Meeting. "If a member asks me to get one, I'd have to tell them I wouldn't. I've got to stick with the USGA on this."At Whitemarsh Valley Country Club in Lafayette Hill, head pro Jim Bromley sent a letter before Christmas advising members that he would not sell the club, that members could not post a score if they used the club, and that the club would not be allowed in tournaments at Whitemarsh."It was an easy decision for me," said Bromley. "The club is illegal. I sent the letter out because I didn't want somebody's wife to buy them the club outside of Whitemarsh and give it to them for Christmas."Smith, at Talamore, is one of the few area pros who is stocking the ERC II, even though it will be banned in club tournaments. He decided to do so only after meeting with the members of the club's golf committee."I asked them what they thought, and no one voiced a major problem with me carrying it," Smith said last week.He ordered two clubs, both of which sold quickly to elderly members. "Both of the guys who bought it are very casual golfers," Smith said. "They don't post scores, and they don't play in tournaments. For them, a few extra yards is the difference between having fun and not having fun."I'm not doing this to rock the boat or make anybody mad, I'm just trying to do what the members want me to do."Still, Smith concedes that he is walking a "fine line.""I consider myself a traditionalist," he said. "But my bottom line is, if a guy doesn't care about posting a score, doesn't play in tournaments, just wants to have fun, God bless him. I think I'm doing what the USGA and PGA stand for, which is to promote the game and help people enjoy it."