Rules
Masters 2025: Why one PGA Tour winner needed to consult with rules officials before the tournament even began
Augusta National
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Take a stroll around Augusta National during a Masters practice round and you're bound to see several staples. Patrons hauling around big bags of merch. Players putting to numerous hole locations on the course's signature greens. Players and caddies having extended conversations.
But you don't expect to see the latter between players and rules officials. As Allen Iverson famously said, "We're talking practice!"
However, that's exactly what happened on Wednesday morning with Robert MacIntyre. The Scottish lefty was walking off the first green when he consulted with a trio of rules officials. No, there wasn't some big money-game dispute, but he wanted to clarify something regarding a local rule.
You see, Augusta National doesn't allow the green-reading books used at regular PGA Tour events. Those aides were limited in scale and size everywhere by the USGA and R&A beginning in 2019, but they're still a big part of how tour pros read greens. Again, at other tournaments.
At Augusta National, players are only given yardage books that have a much more bare-bones look as Collin Morikawa took us through in great detail a few years back. And they don't have the slopes lasered off.
MacIntyre, who uses Aimpoint—which takes those exact percentages into account—wanted to confirm that he could make notes in his yardage books about slopes. Specifically, slopes he was reading/measuring by using his feet going through his Aimpoint process.
All three officials were quick to say this was OK as long as MacIntyre wasn't using any kind of device to measure the slope, which, of course, he wasn't. It seemed obvious that he was well within his rights to do that, but, hey, better safe than sorry when it comes to the rules of golf—especially at Augusta National.
The way Augusta National does yardage books is a big reason why experience plays such a big role at the Masters. Earlier this year, Akshay Bhatia told us about getting a glance at Phil Mickelson's 'mind-blowing' Masters notebook that he's been working on for more than 30 years during a practice round last year. And just this week, Steve Williams shared an amazing story about how his notes from decades before helped Adam Scott sink a critical putt on his way to winning the 2013 Masters.
MacIntyre has previously played in two Masters including a T-12 in his 2021 debut, but he didn't qualify the past two years. The 28-year-old is back at Augusta after a breakout 2024 in which he won both the Canadian Open and Scottish Open. If he keeps up that form, he'll have plenty more years to pad both his finishes—and yardage book—here.