Here at Waggle Room, we're going to do the cliche thing around this time of year and do a countdown of the top such and suches of the year.  For us, we're going to do the 9 golf stories from the year that fascinated us.

The USGA really stepped it up this year.  It had been in the doldrums after the awful presidency of Walter Driver.  I mean, really, the guy set the place back a good ten years with the poor goodwill toward the game and the bevy of controversies that he initiated.  But, with the turning over a new leaf - in the form of the new presidency of Jim Vernon - the USGA may be turning the corner.  This year was very significant for the USGA and a lot of the news it created was good.

First, let's start with Mike Davis.  The championship setup man for the USGA was finally given full reign to make his imaginative setups shine.  No more did Davis do than make Torrey Pines into an acceptable, compelling, and even fun Open venue.  It helped to produce one of the most intriguing Opens in history - if not the most - and really showed that the USGA may be having a change of heart when it comes to punitive, boring championship setups. 

Yes, breaking par was still an amazing challenge.  Still, the Open felt like it was breaking with more recent USGA championship trends and moving toward an exciting setup style that will dazzle us for years to come.  Seriously, I almost have a mancrush on Mike Davis.  Ok, that's taking it too far.

Also, I should mention Jim Vernon.  In what I have read and heard about Vernon from people at the USGA and in interviews, Vernon is just what the USGA needs.  Vernon is a man who understands that the organization needs to change in some ways to be able to preserve itself and thrive.  He is a fan of equipment regulation - and even wants to look at the golf ball.  He never comes across as arrogant, but he is an avid defender of the game and the organization.  Even when he defended the USGA's practice of inviting sponsorships, I wasn't nearly as angry reading his thoughts on it as I was Driver's.  That's an upgrade.

Last, we should discuss grooves regulation.  We've talked about it at length here, at the old GNN Blog, on air, and anywhere someone would listen.  The semantics of the ruling aside, this is a landmark move for the organization.  While I think that the manufacturers may have already outsmarted the USGA by designing the golf ball to outperform the newly regulated club grooves for irons, Dick Rugge and his team have set a precedent that many within the organization feared was not possible.

Many thought that serious regulation would lead to monstrous lawsuits from the manufacturers that would drive the USGA into the ground.  As it turns out, Rugge and his team talked to the golf community - everyone in it - and listened to their comments.  The kind of style in which the team engaged the golf world may have proven invaluable in preventing that massive lawsuit.

As I have said before, Rugge's team has created precedent for future regulation - the kind truly necessary to keep golf technology in check.  The next target should be the golf ball.  While that may not happen until 2014 or later, there is bigger room for  hope that it may happen.

After several years of organizational black eyes, the USGA may be beginning to hit its stride again.  Now, if the organization is able to corral the golf world into promoting the sport and growing it in a way that benefits already existing golfers (sub five hour rounds, please), then I might even step up my level of giving.