Undoubtedly, some players will be annoyed by the change. DeChambeau could even be one of them, although he stuck to his trend in late 2021 and didn`t speak to the media after his round. Like DeChambeau, Erik Van Rooyen has often relied on detailed books in the past, but he`s already ready to move forward and say, „I`m going to find out. No matter what they do, I`ll find out. One day, at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the field can agree on three things: the weather in Hawaii is beautiful, Kapalua`s journey is sweet, and these changes in the Green Reading books, well, after all, it doesn`t matter. Here I really feel with the regular officials. They do a phenomenal job week after week, setting up classes, making decisions and making sure the tournament runs smoothly. So I`m afraid they`re in a dead-end situation. It is inevitable that some players and caddies will have suspicious notes that they may have copied from an old Green book or information previously collected with a level. Suppose a player is suspicious of an in-game competitor during a round.
This competitor constantly checks his book as if it were a green paper. The accusing player can request that the book of a caddy or player be consulted by a rules agent. This may seem extremely cautious, but if the accused player says he collected it legally, that`s it. If some players are suspected of using illegal notes or information and they are not punished for it, others will say, „This is BS. We`re not on the same pitch, and if this guy is going to do it, so am I. Suppose someone is suspected of illegally collecting information by copying an old book or writing something they heard but didn`t experience. Can you imagine a player saying, „Yes, you have me. I tried to have one on the ground. I can`t, but here`s the penalty structure: First offense: 2 shots. Second offence: disqualification.
It seems easy. Unless a player says, „Yes, I used illegal information on the second green, but I didn`t use it for the rest of the round.“ Again, I feel with the regular officials. „It`s not that it`s really an advantage, it just takes away a skill that takes time and practice to master,“ PAC president Rory McIlroy said at the U.S. Open in June. „I think reading greens is a real skill in which some people are better than others, and it just negates that advantage that people have.“ I`ve never used a Green Reading book,“ said Kevin Na. I remember seeing it once on the 17th at the Sony Open last year when I had the chance to shoot 59, and it didn`t work very well, so it was the last time I saw it. The PGA Tour took a big step toward banning green reading books on Monday by sending a memo to players and caddies detailing a proposed new rule. According to the memo, a copy of which was obtained from Golf Digest, the new tournament rules being developed by the USGA and R&A will be submitted to the PGA Tour Advisory Board on Nov. 8, if approved, and will take effect Jan. 1.
The tour`s decision should come as no surprise to professionals, many of whom voted to ban current yarding books at a meeting of the player advisory board at the memorial tournament in June. Changes to the books, which included accurate measurements of slope and fracture, had been speculated for some time. Critics of the books said they reduced an art form (green reading) to a science and provided players with so much information that they completely destroyed the value of green reading. The memo also confirms that a player can use approved books and handwritten notes to read a line of play on the putting green and for other moves during the round – a remarkable move since Green Reading books have long been cited as the cause of slow play on the PGA Tour. Infinitesimal improvements and differences that cannot be correlated exclusively with green papers. An improved knowledge base, a goal point, better coaching with exercises and equipment, better agronomy (read: smoother greens) have all contributed to this. In addition, players have been allowed to hit spikes for the past three years, which has never been correct in the history of the game. For statistical comparison, the average circuit for the distance covered in 1996 was 265.9 yards. Last year? 296.2. Hmm. If players have the power to diversify the rules, what happens, can they adopt other local rules? As a tour, can they decide that the ball goes too far and the driver`s head is too forgiving? Questionable because there is a lot of money from these equipment companies. not much comes from Mark Long, the manufacturer of green papers.
So far so good. Dahmen shot 68. Among the few professionals in Hawaii, the answers all seemed to come from a deployment of little or no player. Patrick Cantlay says he only refers to books occasionally. Taylor Gooch, like Dahmen, thinks he spent too much time calculating reading based on the book. He wanted to be more responsive, he said, and was excited about the change. The local rule gives the circuit the ability to create an officially approved yard book at each tournament, so putting green diagrams show minimal detail (e.g., steep slopes, steps, or incorrect edges that indicate sections of greens). In addition, the local rule restricts the handwritten notes that players and caddies are allowed to add to the approved yard book. It has been said that players want green reading to be a skill based on vision, feeling, and experience. If so, why are shopping carts allowed to help? I`ve seen caddies that are incredibly skilled at reading greens.
So much so that there are days when his player would not even bother to look, that he would just wait for instructions from his shopping cart. „Start here and give it some rhythm.“ So, really, it`s not a skill that a player has to have. He can pay someone to read greens for him. If a shopping cart fails or is fired during the week, a player can still use his notes and the notes of his new caddy. If you have a player who hates the new rule and wants to throw a key at work, can they hire an Aimpoint instructor as a caddy on Monday and Tuesday, fire them on Tuesday nights, and be allowed to use all their notes? An extra $2,000 a week for someone is a drop in the ocean when a putt can be worth millions. The first thing you need to know is that this is a local rule that is only applied to PGA Tour events. Eco-friendly reading books are completely legal under R&A and USGA rules. They exist for thousands of courses, with the exception of Augusta National, and all the courses that have hosted a PGA Tour event in the past five years. This rule will not remove these old books from circulation.
So, to put this in malicious terms in high school, fraudulent documents exist. According to Rule 4.3 (Use of Equipment), „books at the scale of green diagrams are so limited that a grid should not be more accurate than 3/8″, which corresponds to 5 metres of green“. The note gave a four-point overview of the suspension and told players that they and their caddies were only allowed to use „committee-approved“ yard books for tournament rounds. These books will be similar to the yard books used on tour today, with one main difference: they will only provide „general information about slopes and other features“ for the greens. This is different from the green reading books that have gained popularity and use laser renderings of greens to detect precise breaks in each section of the betting surface.
