You may or may not recall that last June, the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council took the first step to eliminate those pesky, detailed green-reading books that some players studied relentlessly, perhaps adding to the Tour’s slow-play issues.
The Tour’s Policy Board will vote on November 8 to make it official and put an end to the use of said greens books on the PGA Tour.
“I use a green book and I’d like to get rid of them,” Rory McIlroy said during the 2021 U.S. Open. Rory also added that he felt that green-reading books have made players “lazier.” Note that McIlroy is also President of the Players Advisory Council — which made the recommendation to the Tour board.
The Tour is anticipating the board will indeed vote those books out of existence. The Tour sent out emails to its members, in advance, that the ban will take play on January 1, 2022. It’s being referred to as the “Local Rule.” “The purpose of this Local Rule is to return to a position where players and caddies use only their skill, judgment and feel along with any information gained through experience, preparation, and practice to read the line of play on the putting green,” the notice read.
Players and caddies will now have to use “committee approved” yardage books. Players and their caddies can still put notes into the new books but devices, levels and other greens-reading technologies may not be used, even in practice rounds and pro-ams.
Jordan Spieth Back In The World’s Top 10:
Jordan Spieth won three majors and became No. 1 in the world at the tender age of 23.
The past few seasons, Spieth slumped. He was ranked 82nd in the world at the end of the 2020 season. But last year Jordy turned things around. He won the Texas Open, his first victory since the 2017 Open Championship. Things are still trending up for Spieth and this week he moved into the Top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
In the latest rankings, Jon Rahm remains No. 1 followed by Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele in the top five. Vacationing Bryson DeChambeau checks in at No. 6 followed by Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Louie Oosthuizen and Spieth.
4 Comments
baxter cepeda
I’m definitely in agreement with Rory about green reading books but I’m not sure this is how it should have been handled.
Telling players how they can and cannot prepare seems risky. Those books now do exists, as do technologies to help understand greens better, so players are naturally going to use them. And they should use them.
It’s simply not cool to tell people to not remember something that is basically public information.
The question is where and when and for how long can players use them during competition?
As I’ve mentioned before a simple rule such as no looking at books upon reaching the green or a reasonable but stricter time standard for each and every shot could have done the trick and helped speed up play.
What golf doesn’t need is simple: other players, 10,000 fans around the green and millions more watching live on tv waiting 2 minutes or more for a pga tour player to study a book on a putting green. Tv mostly hides this issue but It’s extremely evident watching Bryson live where he looks like he is cramming for some big test while competing on the pga tour.
But again this doesn’t mean the Tour needed a weird honesty policy rule of never ever looking at a readily available green reading book, or taking a level out for practice putting, or whatever other crazy things OCD golfers like MAD might come up with to help them prepare to putt better.
baxter cepeda
*BAD (not MAD)
baxter cepeda
Tom doesn’t have an opinion on this ?
Tom Edrington
The vast majority of the players wanted them gone….that’s fine with me!