Ohio Golf Journal November 2018

ON THE PROFESSIONAL TOURS 4HE SIMPLE FACT THE PUTTING AVERAGE ON THE 0'! 4OUR FOR THE PAST YEARS HAS ACTUALLY GONE UP DIDNmT APPEAR TO HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE TO WHAT WAS ASSUMEDLY AN ALREADY FORMED OPINIONo The new rule does not ban green reading books, nor APPs, but does require some minor limits on the content. The rationale for the new interpretation ignores the facts concerning PGA Tour putting statistics. The USGA said, again quoting from the press the USGA’s announcement, n)T REAFÚRMS THE GOVERNING BODIESm VIEW THAT THE ABILITY OF GOLFERS TO READ GREENS USING THEIR OWN JUDGMENT IS AN ESSENTIAL SKILL THAT SHOULD BE MAINTAINED AND DEÚNES HOW SUCH MATERIALS MAY BE USEDo There’s no argument with green reading being an essential skill but to presume green reading books SOMEHOW MITIGATE THAT SKILL ÛIES IN THE FACE OF what the best putters in the world, those on the PGA Tour, are actually accomplishing. Another part of the reasoning was that by limiting green reading materials the pace of play would improve. There are several ways to speed up play at the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur, messing with green slope information IS DEÚNITELY AT THE bottom of the list. Even the rankest amateur knows the amount of break on a given putt depends on how hard it is struck, even knowing the line is only one factor of knocking the ball in the hole. Another issue is how will the new rule be enforced? Jim Stracka, CEO of StrackaLine, the foremost publisher of greens reading books stated, n4HE NEW RULE PLACES LIMITATIONS ON THE ;PHYSICAL= SIZE OF BOOKS AND THE SCALE SIZE OF THE IMAGE OF A GREEN BUT THOSE LIMITATIONS WILL HAVE NEGLIGIBLE IMPACT ON 3TRACKA,INE AS THE COMPANY WAS BUILDING ITS BOOKS WITHIN THOSE SPECIÚCATIONS PRIOR TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE RULE o Is this like the NBA? No blood no foul? It looks like all of this wasn’t for the sake of greens books giving an unfair advantage, not when the most salient factor in putting is proper speed. The new rules didn’t really change what Jim Stracka and his people do. Why did the USGA and R&A go through this exercise? That is a very good question and one that remains unanswered. It does, however, bring up another much more important issue of relevancy. O h i o G o l f J o u rn a l