
Slow Play is Killing Pro Golf And This is What Needs to Happen
View From The Fairway by Derek Clements
Here we go again. Have you watched the early-season coverage of the PGA Tour?
It’s been pretty shocking, hasn’t it? I am not talking about the quality of the golf. This, yet again, is all about pace of play. It has been like watching paint dry.
With TV viewing figures tumbling, the PGA Tour is facing something of a crisis.
And when it takes world-class players almost six hours to complete 18 holes is it any wonder that we are switching off in such huge numbers? Remember that they have ball spotters so do not have to look for golf balls. They have professional caddies who can tell them exactly what distance they have to the flag. And they know exactly how far they hit each and every club in their bag.
Make no mistake, this is a crisis of the tour’s own making.
If a group at your club took 20 minutes to play each and every hole I am pretty confident that action would be taken.
There are all sorts of things about watching the PGA Tour that are now driving me to the edge of distraction. Right at the top of that list is a player who has watched his partner lining up and taking a putt failing to get his line sorted out before it is his turn to play. There is simply no excuse for it.
And after having a ball cleaned and rolled it up to 12 inches on a flawless putting surface why on earth do these players feel the need to have it cleaned again? I despair, I really do.
Ludvig Aberg is one of the quickest players in the world from tee to green. But once he gets to the putting surface he is a different animal. He is one of a huge number who now use the abomination that is aim point. What on earth happened to trusting your eyes or using the old plumb-bob method? What happened to getting down on one knee and reading the line?
(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)
The encouraging thing for me is that a number of influential individuals are starting to make the right noises.
The latest of these is Dottie Pepper. During the Farmers Insurance Open she turned her ire on Harris English and the leading group.
Speaking to fellow CBS analysts Frank Nobillo, she said: "You know, Frank, I think we’re starting to need a new word to talk about this pace of play issue, and it’s respect. For your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it. It’s just gotta get better."
Sky Golf’s Sarah Stirk has also taken to social media to ask whether it is time for the talking to stop.
Prior to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Rory McIlroy said: "I don't think we should try to dumb down golf to appeal to more people. Golf is golf at the end of the day. It’s been this way for hundreds of years. There's a lot of things about golf that are very different than other sports, but I think that's what makes it unique."
I am sorry Rory, but six-hour rounds have not been part of golf for hundreds of years and have nothing to do with its rich tradition. And if the TGL league you are involved with is not dumbing down golf then what on earth is?
Slow Play is Killing Pro Golf
You will not be surprised to learn that I believe with every fibre of my being that we need to address this issue once and for all.
So why is the tour to blame? That is easy - they set time limits on how long pros should take to play shots and have the facility to penalise them if they exceed those times. But they do not impose them. Why? Really, why? Are they frightened of their players?
Professional sport is meant to be entertaining. It has a duty to the public.
We keep hearing about groups being put on the clock but that is the end of the story.
PGA Tour players have 40 seconds to hit a shot. The next time you watch a tournament on TV or in the flesh get your stopwatch out when they step on to a green. I can 100% guarantee that the vast majority take far longer. It is pitiful.
I know these guys are playing for vast sums but there is no excuse. And let’s not kid ourselves that the women are any better because we all know that they are not.
We all know that slow play is killing professional golf and has done so for as long as most of us can remember but this feels like a tipping point. The more that people of influence complain about its impact on the viewing public the more likely it is that the powers-that-be at PGA Tour HQ at Sawgrass will finally dig their heads out of the sand and finally do something about it.
The broadcasters who pay the PGA Tour vast sums to show their product should be listening to Pepper. They should be telling the tour that it is slow play that is killing viewing figures. If viewing figures continue to fall those same broadcasters will be looking to renegotiate their deals - and perhaps even consider cancelling them.
And that would be a disaster because broadcast deals are worth a staggering $700m a year to the PGA Tour - it is a sum they cannot afford to lose.
There has been much talk about the tour improving its broadcasts but there is no suggestion that addressing slow play features among its proposals - and that defies all logic.
It has also been suggested that the PGA Tour is about to approve the use of rangefinders. Do I believe this will make an iota of difference? I do not.
How to Solve The Problem
I have been droning on about this for years but here goes one more time:
Every match should be accompanied by an official carrying a stop watch.
If a player fails to hit a shot within the 40-second time limit he should be given a warning. If he continues to take his own sweet time to play he (or she) should be given a one-shot penalty without further warning. A further violation would incur a two-shot penalty.
And the PGA Tour should punish serial offenders by suspending them - regardless of their standing in the game. We all know that fines are meaningless for golfers who earn millions of dollars but a punitive sanction that would actually affect their scores would sort this out once and for all.
It is time for the pontificating to stop. It is time for action before it is too late.
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