New rules on green-reading materials coming in January

IN a welcome development, January 1, 2019 will see the introduction of new legislation regarding the use of green-reading materials after the R&A and the USGA have finalised interpretations to Rule 4.3 (Use of Equipment) of the rules of golf.

The new interpretation has been introduced following a six-week feedback period and reaffirms both governing bodies’ view that the ability of golfers to read greens using their own judgement is an essential skill that should be maintained, while defining how such materials may be used and limiting the size and scale of detailed putting-green maps and any similar electronic or digital materials that a player may use during a round to assist with reading of the putting green.

Under the new rules, any image of a putting green must be limited to a scale of 3/8 inch to 5 yards (1:480) or smaller and any book or other paper containing a map or image of a putting green must not be larger than 4 ¼ inches x 7 inches, although a “hole location sheet” that displays nine or more holes on a single sheet of paper may be larger, provided that any image of a single putting green meets the scale limit.

No magnification of putting-green information is allowed other than a player’s normal wearing of prescription glasses or lenses and hand-drawn or written information about a putting green is only allowed if contained in a book or a sheet of paper meeting the size limit and written by the player or their caddie.

A player will be breach of Rule 4.3 if he/she uses any device that

(a) Increases the size of the green’s representation beyond the scale or size limits.

(b) Produces a recommended line of play based on the location (or estimated location) of the player’s ball

These new rules or changes to rule 4.3 are indeed welcome in my humble opinion as I have already stated, because I firmly believe that the element of skill is slowly being taken away from the game of golf and this has been happening for a number of decades through a number of changes to equipment.

Technology has certainly had a detrimental effect on the game in the five decades that I have been playing it, beginning with the introduction of the “Big Ball” on this side of the Atlantic.

My generation and, of course, those generations before me, learned to play golf with the 1.62 ball while the Americans used a 1.68 ball, and as a child growing up in Ballybunion I would find an odd one of these on the course, which was obviously lost by a visiting American golfer.

If you think that golf is a difficult game nowadays, the small ball was much more difficult to hit, believe me. However, the American ball slowly but surely, became more common over here and it was then made compulsory by the R&A in 1990, hence a change to the rules.

The next changes that technology made to the game were the introduction of graphite shafts and metal woods which allowed even the poorest of players to propel the ball huge distances and in the thirty five years or so since their introduction, golf club manufacturers have made even more advances.

These along with further improvements to the golf ball, have resulted in courses being altered because of the distances that the ball now travels and once again it meant changes to the rules.

Playing by yardages was another American idea that caught on here and the introduction of the par-saver booklet in the late seventies and early eighties, took away somewhat from the skill at looking at a particular shot and judging the distance and the wind direction in order to select the correct club.

This was then taken a step further when distance devices became popular within the last twenty years or so and once again the Rules of Golf had to be changed to accommodate these. So what’s next?

I have to admit to playing both sides of the fence here however, as I am something of a traditionalist when it comes to golf and how it should be played and administered, but I do of course use modern balls, modern clubs and of course for the past ten years or so, a distance measuring watch that I would feel disadvantaged without on the course.

I’m quite sure that the generation before mine, who played with hickory clubs and primitive balls, had a bit of a moan when steel shafts and more modern balls were introduced back in the day, but now doubt, they too embraced what was for them new technology at the time.