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USGA/R&A on green reading

wadesworld

wadesworld

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Here's one that will likely cause quite a thread.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/ra-usga-review-use-green-reading-materials/

It appears they're talking about looking at whether they need to outlaw yardage books.

On the one hand, we have posters who are all for anything that improves pace of play and complain constantly about how slow the pros play. On the other hand, this will be yet-another-example-of-the-out-of-touch-USGA-outlawing-anything-golfers-use-to-make-the-game-easier.

What say you?
 
If you're removing books that have the greens mapped for them, that's going to make the pros take more time on the greens since now they're second guessing what they see. If you really want the pros to speed up, why don't you just enforce the damn 40-60 seconds they're given and then start handing out penalties for being behind on the clock? Heaven forbid you actually enforce a rule...
 
Green complex books as the same as course layout books. If you ban one, then the other should be banned. They both do the same thing, just for a different part of the course. Enforce the pace of play times and be done with it.
 
On the one hand I think this is a move I'm ok with. Eventually these guys are going to be able to just have full topographical layouts downloaded off Google Earth or something and will turn green-reading into a Video Game.

On the other hand I'm opposed to anything that will cause Tour Pros to slow down even more than they already crawl around the course. I think enforcement of the current pace-of-play rules NEEDS to go hand-in-hand with these decisions.
 
They just can't get our of their own way. They looked to be making progress with the proposed changes and now this just gies back to the same thing as usual. If every player on tour has the same info there is no competitive advantage. It's not like they are getting real time info like weather conditions via an app, etc
 
You can have a Book or Caddy but not both
 
I agree with this move, let them have a green map that shows shape and pin location, that's it.

Golf is all about having skills without the help of advanced tech and these green read books offer something that resembles a video game cheat code.
 
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I'm actually torn on this.
 
I'm fully ok with removing them.
 
MrDC said:
I agree with this move, let them have a green map that shows shape and pin location, that's it.

Golf is all about having skills without the help of advanced tech and these green read books offer something that resembles a video game cheat code.
Click to expand...

These books have been around for years though. Again, they still have to execute.

I don't know what the pace of play impact, but I bet it slows down. I don't see a way to speed up pace of play without penalizing them. As for competitive advantage, they all have caddies using these, so I don't see an advantage either way.
 
I'm actually kind of torn on this. That being said, if the intention of this move is to help speed up play, why not try and incorporate it at the lower Web.com levels like we've seen and see if it has a tangible difference (ala baseball and the pitching clock)?

But wait, this is the USGA we are talking about...
 
If it's about skill, and part of that skill is reading greens. Then by all means get rid of it. Also get rid of caddies, because caddies assist a player in club selection, etc.
 
While we're at it. Might as well remove yardage stakes and yardage markers on sprinkler heads too.
Yeah this is only going to slow the pace down even more. Trying to figure out why they need to do this.
 
I have never seen a single golfer, not on TV use a yardage book. So, sure ban them. Why the hell start being logical now.
 
blugold said:
I have never seen a single golfer, not on TV use a yardage book. So, sure ban them. Why the hell start being logical now.
Click to expand...

I have. They're frequently used at high school, collegiate, and top amateur levels.
 
wadesworld said:
I have. They're frequently used at high school, collegiate, and top amateur levels.
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I suppose. I haven't ever played where GPS or rangefinders weren't allowed.

But this doesn't change my position on the matter.
 
don't care


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I'm in the "don't care" group. I don't know if it would improve pace of play or not, if it would I say get rid of them.

Also in the "enforce the rules we have" camp.
 
Didn't they just penalized someone this last week in New Orleans for slow play? Something like the first time its been enforced in 22 years.
 
If it would speed up the damn game, let them use bubble levels and range finders!
 
Getting rid of yardage books won't actually speed up play. I find it interesting that they trot out Ian Poulter to advocate for the removal of green maps saying, "No one got their tour card because of those books..." considering he very recently lost his tour card. I don't mind them. I imagine, just like yardage books, greens maps are incredibly varied by golfer/caddie duo. Saying everyone's books should be banned when some of them are very simply seems draconian. I like the idea of rewarding players that come back to the same events over and again and increase their course knowledge, which includes maintaining and updating yardage books.
 
campilobaxter said:
Didn't they just penalized someone this last week in New Orleans for slow play? Something like the first time its been enforced in 22 years.
Click to expand...

You beat me to this... When the slow play rule hasn't truly been enforced in 22 years, something is wrong. So we allow TV VIEWERS to call in penalties, but we just hand out verbal warning for slow play...until a 2-man "circus" scramble that many top players skipped. Perfectly logical to me.

As for the green reading books, allow them to keep using them. Who cares. Removing them will only lead to more players resorting to the William McGirt 2+ minutes to putt routine without fear of actually being penalized.
 
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