Rahm On Green Reading Books: "I don’t think they should be allowed."
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Apologies for missing this from Jon Rahm’s Wednesday WGC Workday/The Concession press conference but given his status in the game and views it’s never too late to point out his comments on green reading books.
The full exchange is interesting:
Q. Jon, I had some super golfing questions for you. Dustin said that with the detailed greens books, it's actually easier to learn a golf course these days than in the past. You might even be able to figure out a golf course before you even get here. I'm just curious, do you think that negates some of the challenge or perhaps even some of your advantage of having some prior golf course knowledge?
JON RAHM: You mean the greens books like the little map with all the slopes?
Q. Yeah. All the charting is so good now that he basically figured it out before he even arrived on site.
JON RAHM: Well, I don't use those books.
Q. How come?
JON RAHM: My caddie gets them. I don't look at them because I just--I'm a feel player, I trust what I see. If I have a question, I'll ask him, and he might look at it if we're in doubt. I've never spoken of this, I have to be honest, I don't think they should be allowed. That's my opinion. I think being able to read a green and read a break and understand the green is a talent, it's a skill that can be developed, and by just giving you the information, they're taking away from the game. Again, I think being able to read greens and understand greens, it's a talent, it's part of the game, and like I said, it's a skill that can be developed or not. So that's my take on it.
Besides the de-skilling and dumbing-down component at a time the governing bodies are reviewing those matters, there is the horrible optic of a professional golfer staring at their little cheat sheet on national TV while we wait for them. The situation has been made worse (not better) by the rule change restricting rendering sizes.
Essentially the only people wanting to keep them in the professional game profit from their creation and sales.
Elliott Heath at GolfMonthly pointed out Rahm’s remarks and also reminded me of Ian Poulter’s very prescient Tweet in 2017 taking a similar stance:
