The New Rules for Greens Books

We knew it was coming but the USGA and the R&A finalized their decision on how green-reading books will be regulated.



The new rules will limit the size of the books, the scale of the diagrams and even how you read them. (That last bit is the most interesting to me.)

• The books' size will be limited to 4.5x7 inches, which makes them small enough to put in a pocket.
• But you could just use smaller print, right? Au contraire, mon ami! The scale at which you draw the books will be limited to 3/8 inch of page for every 5 yards of green (1:480).
• And just to make sure nobody tries microprinting the details, you can't use a magnifying glass or anything other than prescription eyeglasses to read the books.

The two ruling bodies will continue to allow handwritten notes as long as the writers are the player or his caddie -- in other words, no mass printing of the handwriting!

How is this going to affect the game? I don't know for sure. I suspect we may see a surge in the number of players using AimPoint Express, and I won't be surprised if some enterprising player (Bryson, are you listening?) figures out some new way to notate the contours of the green. All those tiny little arrows you see on the photo above? A few well-placed and well-drawn complex curves might give players the same amount of info without requiring so much detail.

Of course, that would make greens book reading more of an art. But that IS what the ruling bodies are after, isn't it?