Golf Finally Decides To Limit Green-Reading Materials

Golf Digest — Specifically, the proposal calls for a “minimum slope indication limit” that would allow green-reading books to continue to use numbers, lines, arrows or other indications to identify slopes on greens, but only in areas of 4 percent slope (2.29 degrees) or greater. Areas where there is less slope on the green than the minimum would remain blank.

The proposal also includes a “maximum scale limit” of 3/8 inch to 5 yards (1:480) to keep the printed material to a pocket-sized publication.

There is nothing more off-putting when watching golf than seeing a player standing behind a putt studying a chart. Fuck that. Putting isn’t about charts; putting is about getting down in the catcher’s stance and reading your line. Sure you may have a yardage book where you’ve drawn some lines and arrows of your own, but outside of that you shouldn’t have a chart showing you precisely how the greens slopes. You should be required to use the skills you’ve honed through hours and hours of practice and experience to determine, for yourself, how the ball will roll on the grass. That is what golf is about.

Really it comes down to this, per the senior director of my close personal friend USGA.

“Reading a putting green is a skill that should be part of the game, it’s traditionally been a skill that’s part of the game,” [Thomas] Pagel said. “You think about architects and the subtleties that they sometimes put into greens, it’s part of the challenge of the game. And these materials were just eliminating that challenge and eliminating the need for skill of a player.”

Sneaky best part about this ruling will be see what it does to Bryson DeChambeau’s brain. The meltdown of all meltdowns may be upon us.

Did somebody say, no charts? …

Pray for Bryson.