Ryan Rodenberg on Putter Ban

Sports Law Blog writer Ryan Rodenberg speaks to USA Today:

"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.

. . . .

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.