Kenyon Points Out The Inconsistency Of New Green Reading Rules
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The pending rule change attempting to restore certain skills by killing off green reading books and other gizmos has run into some criticism. And the point is a legitimate one but I have an easy solution.
Short game specialist Phil Kenyon argues in an Instagram post at the oddity of going after levels and other machinery possibly used to test green conditions. This seems like an effort to cut down on the number of people on greens, devices on greens or, if you’re a bit forward thinking, players bringing Stimpmeters or moisture-reading devices into the practice round equation. The entourages also add unnecessary traffic on the greens. Mostly, the art of golf’s rugged individualist scouting out things on their own is in danger.
Still Kenyon makes this point:
So you can take a TrackMan or quad or range finder on to the course and check how certain shots or holes “play” yardage wise but you can’t take a level onto a “practice” putting green to calibrate your feel for slope.
What a ridiculous rule. It’s stupid in fact. It serves no purpose. It’s indeed skill limiting.
I actually don’t think the governing bodies understand the complexity of the scenarios in front of them.
Is using a level in practice hurting the game more than how far the ball goes or the speed of play ?
There is an inconsistency here. Tee to fringe players can max out the technology and outside sources to gain insight, but once on the greens they must revert to conditions of a decade ago.
The easy solution: lose the launch monitors on the course. Oh, and stop providing slope-adjusted yardages in official books.
As for the ball going too far and slow play, well those two go hand in hand.
Kenyon’s full post:
