Players Keep Forgetting The Slow Play Discussion Is About The Fans...

Since PGA Tour executives and players do not actually pay to attend and watch their product, the slow play discussion has always been a mystery to them. When a player has turned up to watch this year to watch, he was astounded at what he saw.

But as Randall Mell notes in this GolfChannel.com rant, we all grasp that some slow play issues can’t be resolved when caused by distance gains, longer courses and faster greens. But the slow pokes exposed at select times by things like Edoardo Molinari’s tweet, and who everyone on the various tours know take their sweet time, could be addressed for the fans.

McDowell, as usual, is probably right about the overall numbers, but this is more about the viewing experience, about the frustration fans feel watching a professional take three minutes to make a two-second swing with his group a hole behind. That’s what this is all about.

“Until sponsors and TV tell the commissioner you guys play too slow and we’re not putting money up, it’s a waste of time talking about, because it’s not going to change,” Scott said.

He’s right, too. The answer may ultimately lie beyond what a player police force can do, but at least Molinari’s willing to lead a revolt that could lead there.

Slow Play Wars: Molinari Posts Bad Time And Fines, GMac Says It's Old News

Edoardo Molinari, former US Amateur champion, European Tour golfer and brother of The Open champion, has taken taken the slow play debate up a few notches while helping us figure out who should not play the Slow Play Masters.

He first posted this after his 5:30 minute round in the Trophy Hussan in Morocco:

It’s time that professional golf does something serious for slow play...5h30min to play 18 holes on a golf course without rough is just too long...way too long! #stopslowplay

— Edoardo Molinari (@DodoMolinari) April 26, 2019

Encouraged by his Twitter followers, he posted these “bad times” and the (very few) fines that ensued. These are European Tour times but obviously included the Masters given the names that popped up.

As promised...list of timings as of April 22nd. Next updates list will come out at the end of June!
There are a few usual suspects and a few surprises.
Please retweet and share to speed things up!#stopslowplay pic.twitter.com/VpR65M4Xrb

— Edoardo Molinari (@DodoMolinari) April 27, 2019

When asked about the effort, Graeme McDowell reiterated what most players and tour officials tend to say about slow play discussions: old news, we play for a lot of money, deal with it.

From Brentley Romine’s GolfChannel.com report:

“It’s not a dead horse, but it’s pretty dead. What do you want to do? We can’t get around there much quicker. Is 20 minutes going to change his life? Listen, I like Edoardo, nice kid, but I think he’s just frustrated.”

McDowell pointed out that he feels like the pace-of-play policy on the European Tour is more stringent than the PGA Tour’s policy, though he said even that is “getting tougher and tougher.”

“Listen, golf courses are long, golf courses are hard, we’re playing for a lot of money, it’s a big business, it is what it is,” McDowell said. “There’s just no way to speed the game up really. You can try these small percentiles, but at the end of the day it’s very hard to get around a 7,600-yard golf course with tucked pins with a three-ball in less than 4:45, 5 hours. You can’t do it.”

He is correct that getting around such a big course at modern speeds is becoming all but impossible, particularly given the back-ups on par-5s and drivable par-4s.

Of course, there could be remedies to this…

Bryson's Pace Of Play Theory: Walk Quickly Then Analyze Deliberately

This was an interesting and legitimate claim made by Bryson DeChambeau in his Monday Masters press conference, unfortunately for him, the rules only address the amount of time taken when reaching the ball.

Q.  Where is that balance between trying to play at a pretty good pace, and getting all the information you want to get before hitting a shot? 

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU:  Well, that's a great question.  I think we do a fantastic job of taking all the information we can in the allotted amount of time. 

Now the one piece of information that a lot of people miss is the walk to the ball.  There's a three‑minute walk, 2 1/2 minute walk that people don't take into account.  You can gain a lot more time by walking 15 seconds quicker to the ball than you can by five seconds over a shot. 

So people don't take that into account when we talk about slow play.  I may be a guy that hits it up there farther than someone, and they are taking their merry time getting to their golf ball and it's behind me and I'm already up there and I can't get any of my numbers because I'm right in their line of sight. 

Once they do their whole process that takes maybe 25 seconds compared to my 35‑second to 40‑second preparation to hit the shot, by the time we walk back over and get the number, do all that, you can view me as a slow player.

In the end I look at it from another standpoint saying there's a whole other piece to this puzzle that we are not looking at yet.

The Real Reason Nothing Is Done About Slow Play: Players, Executives Don't Ever Pay To Watch Pro Golf

Eamon Lynch explored the lack of movement on the slow play front even Rory McIlroy called it an epidemic last week. Furthermore, the 2019 Players was not able to get the field around Thursday and the broadcast ran 20 minutes long Friday to show the conclusion of a star group.

He writes:

Like a persistent rash, pace of play was again an irritant at the Players Championship. When the first round was called for darkness — despite daylight saving time — Anirban Lahiri still faced a short putt on the final hole. He had to return Friday morning to finish up. The Tour’s invariable stance is to insist there’s nothing to see and that everyone should just move along (at their own pace, of course).

“They don’t do anything about it. It’s become somewhat of an epidemic on Tour,” Rory McIlroy said after his second round, which took more than five hours to complete. “Look, it’s our livelihoods and people are going to take their time, and as the course dries up and gets firmer and gets tougher, guys are going to take their time. But the fact that someone didn’t finish yesterday … I mean, that’s unacceptable.”

“Honestly, I think they should just be a little tougher and start penalizing shots earlier, and that would be an easy way to fix it,” he added.

Even easier? Make executives and players pay to watch golf in person. They’d learn the art of standing around watching others stand around and other tedious acts like not-ready golf.

The conclusions they would reach are summed up in this Tweet from Steve Flesch, who attended last week’s Players:

Spectated for a few hours at the Players today. Fantastic crowds and the course looked impeccable. Surprising though how “slow” the game is to watch live. Glacial is the only word to describe it. Players...we ALL need to do better.

— InTheFlesch (@Steve_Flesch) March 15, 2019

Justin Rose: I Watch The Crowd For Amusement When Slow-Pokes Get Over The Ball

Justin Rose has spoken to the UK Golf World about slow play and his comments are posted at JustinRose.com.

He notes the difference in twosomes vs. threesomes, which we saw a little of at the Honda last weekend (though the “two-balls” were still taking 4:30). But it’s the image he paints of watching the crowd that you can file as example 45,921 of why something should have been done long ago.

I love playing in two-balls, but we don’t really get that experience until we move away from the West Coast on the PGA Tour. It’s amazing the difference that makes. When you play your first two-ball of the year, it feels like you’re running round.

I tend to watch the crowd when certain players get over the ball and see their reaction to how long it takes them to hit a shot. It can be quite funny to see the reactions, looks of disbelief and sometimes chuckles in reaction to a guy taking so long. I try to use it as amusement and a diversion rather than letting it frustrate me.

And remember, this is coming from a player who plays at a nice enough pace, but by no means is a speed demon!

Instant Poll: Higher Priority For Tournament Golf: Pace Of Play Or Protecting The Field?

The recent backstopping incident in Thailand was arguably the worst case yet in terms of optics and in helping a player save a stroke. I wrote about it here for Golfweek.

My colleague Beth Ann Nichols defended the players because of their pure-hearted nature.

Brandel Chamblee and Mark Rolfing were pretty tough on the players involved and you can see the latest incident here if you haven’t already.

Randall Mell agreed this was ultimately an effort to speed up play (on the 18th green?) even as he’s written about the perils of backstopping.

The LPGA issued this statement absolving the players of any wrongdoing.

So I ask, even though Ariya Jutanugarn could have tip-toed to the ball in 20 seconds, walked in 10, and marked, is that time saved more important than the shot lost to the field in the name of faster play?

Higher priority for tournament golf: pace of play or protecting the field?

Pace of play, even if it means bending the rules

Protecting the field, even if it adds time to the round

 

pollcode.com free polls

Is A Player Entitled To Wait Out Wind As Long As He Wants?

Of course not!

J.B. Holmes epitomizes the same weird entitlement Matt Kuchar and Sergio Garcia exhibited in recent weeks after years of the PGA Tour coddling players.

And while his reading green books, not playing ready golf and in general taking his sweet time amounts to offensive behavior, couple that with the suggestion of a right to wait out gusts, and you are dealing with a mindset only remedied by penalty strokes.

From his post 2019 Genesis Open victory press conference:

So I was never even close to being on the clock all week.  I mean, yeah, when I first got out here I was really slow, but I've sped up quite a bit.  Like I said, the conditions made it tougher, too.  Sometimes you're waiting for the wind to stop blowing 30 miles an hour.  Like I said, I've gotten better.  There's times when I'm probably too slow, but it is what it is.  I was never on the clock.  Nobody ‑‑ never even got a warning.  TV wants everything to be real fast all the time.

The irony of the PGA Tour fearing the negative press from penalties? Situations like this, which have overwhelmed the “day after” chatter at the Genesis Open and overshadowed a great leaderboard, a win, a famous tournament host, amazing work by all to get the tournament in and the sponsor.

It is, after all, a player organization!

JB Wins Genesis, Pushes Back On Slow Play: "You play in 25 mph gusty winds and see how fast you play when you're playing for the kind of money and the points and everything that we're playing for."

JB Holmes overcame a four-stroke deficit to fellow Kentuckian Justin Thomas in winning the Genesis Open.

My Golfweek game story on a weird day to wrap a weird week.

Obviously Holmes is no fan favorite after last year’s debacle at Torrey Pines but today’s conditions certainly were difficult. That said, as the video embedded below shows, there is a lack of urgency and ready golf issue, as well as a green reading book in this example.

But first, his comments after a final round 70 at Riviera:

Q.  The conditions made things really tough, but there was a lot of discussion on the broadcast and social media about the pace of play today.  What were your thoughts about the pace and is that something you were thinking about or working on?

J.B. HOLMES:  Well, you play in 25 mile an hour gusty winds and see how fast you play when you're playing for the kind of money and the points and everything that we're playing for.  The greens are fast, the ball  Adam had a putt, he kept setting the ball down and it was rolling.  

You can't just get up there and whack it when it's blowing that hard.  You've got to read wind and there's a lot of slope on these greens.  It's not an easy golf course and you throw in winds like that.  On 13 or 14, the par 3, I hit a 5iron and it stays pretty good.  He hits a 5iron really good and a gust of wind comes up and he comes up like 15 yards short, and I think he hit it better than I hit mine.  It's very tough.  Then when you get putting like that, it's just not going to be fast anywhere. 

And…

Q.  Adam Scott said just before that we know J.B.'s a slow player and there was some discussion on the broadcast.  Do you think that's a fair assessment?

J.B. HOLMES:  I've been slow in the past.  I don't think as slow as  I mean, I'm not the fastest player, but I mean, like I said, it was really windy today and we waited a lot early.  At the end, I took a little bit longer at the end, but you're talking about getting down to the tournament, you're talking about the last nine holes of the tournament.  I mean, I think  correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of times the last group of the tournament gets a little bit behind.

So I was never even close to being on the clock all week.  I mean, yeah, when I first got out here I was really slow, but I've sped up quite a bit.  Like I said, the conditions made it tougher, too.  Sometimes you're waiting for the wind to stop blowing 30 miles an hour.  Like I said, I've gotten better.  There's times when I'm probably too slow, but it is what it is.  I was never on the clock.  Nobody  never even got a warning.  TV wants everything to be real fast all the time.

Earlier today on the fourth hole:

JB Holmes takes an eternity to putt pic.twitter.com/uiAS1eBpEF

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) February 17, 2019

It's Come To This Files: Adam Scott Begs To Take A Slow Play Penalty Just So The PGA Tour Will Finally Start Enforcing Its Rules

Over the years I’ve seen my share of slow play stories and silly quotes—mostly Tim Finchem’s infamous moratorium on penalizing slow pokes—but this takes the cake.

After the 144-player Genesis Open officially became a 120 player event in part because pace dictates a change, Adam Scott has offered to be the first player (of note) to be penalized in hopes of the PGA Tour finally enforcing its rules.

It’s come to this. And Scott isn’t even slow.

From Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com:

Adam Scott said he recently told the PGA Tour’s chief of tournaments and competitions Andy Pazder that he’d be willing to take a penalty in order to get guys to speed up, the theory being that the tour would show that it was serious about pace of play and enforcing a penalty that is rarely enforced.

“Make me the victim,” the 2013 Masters champion and 13-time PGA Tour winner said. “I’ll take the penalty. The only way it’s going to work is if you enforce it.”

Scott goes on to explain that some of the problems with pace—like spending 20 minutes around walking to back tees—is out of the player’s hands. Some is solely a slow-poke issue. And all of it starts at Tour HQ where, for over 25 years, the idea of tainting a player’s brand with a penalty stroke has been considered sinful.

90 Years Later: Slow Play Escapades Were Part Of Riviera's First Los Angeles Open

Ninety years since Riviera hosted its first $10,000 Los Angeles Open and fourth played, the world’s best return to play for $7.4 million and a Genesis luxury automobile.

Just getting tees in the ground and 72 holes played that week was a miracle, as organizers were having trouble raising funds for the purse and days were too short for getting a full field around the brutal test Riviera posed.

A December Sportsman’s fundraising dinner was hosted by comedian Will Rogers—fresh off an aborted run for President—at the incredible price of $100 a plate. Rogers paid his way at what was called the first $100 a plate dinner. A total of $9000 was raised for the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce to host the event, which founded by Scott Chisholm, Sherman Paddock and Willie Hunter (gracing the 1929 program cover below and later Riviera’s longtime pro).

As I detail here for Golfweek, headliner Walter Hagen threw a bit of a fit when faced with a slow pairing alongside Tommy Armour. Given Brooks Koepka’s recent criticism of inconsistent pace enforcement, some things never really change. Well, Hagen never used a private parts reference. That we know of.

But as I note in the piece, the slow play issues at Riviera are now less a player-driven issue and more of a product of traffic jams brought on by the shortening of holes. Fitting for this city.

My Instagram post of the 1929 program:

View this post on Instagram

One of my favorite memorabilia purchases turns 90 next week. Thanks Gil Hanse for this! The 1929 LA Open program commemorated the first LA Open @riviera with its future head pro, Scotland’s Willie Hunter, gracing the cover. Also included are great club and course descriptions, early Riv photos and tourney details. There are also ads for the Ambassador Hotel and Agua Caliente resort, along with the story of how the $10,000 purse was funded by an LA Junior Chamber of Commerce $100-a-plate dinner hosted by Will Rogers (fresh off of his presidential bid). What a time! See you at Riviera next week for @genesisopen hosted by @tigerwoods @tgrliveevents @tgrfound #laopen #genesisopen2019

A post shared by Geoff Shackelford (@geoffshac) on Feb 7, 2019 at 9:52pm PST

Koepka On Pace Of Play: “Guys are already so slow it’s kind of embarrassing."

Brooks Koepka sat down with Golf Monthly’s Michael Weston in that progressive haven known as Saudi Arabia to discuss various topics for a podcast. Inspired by Bryson DeChambeau’s pace last weekend in Dubai, Koepka expressed a lack of patience for slow pokes.

“I just don’t understand how it takes a minute and 20 seconds, a minute and 15 to hit a golf ball; it’s not that hard,” Koepka said.

“It’s always between two clubs; there’s a miss short, there’s a miss long. It really drives me nuts especially when it’s a long hitter because you know you’ve got two other guys or at least one guy that’s hitting before you so you can do all your calculations; you should have your numbers.

“Obviously if you’re the first guy you might take ten extra seconds, but it doesn’t take that long to hit the ball, especially if it’s not blowing 30.

“If it’s blowing 30 I understand taking a minute and taking some extra time with some gusts, you know changing just slightly, I get that but if it’s a calm day there’s no excuse.

“Guys are already so slow it’s kind of embarrassing. I just don’t get why you enforce some things and don’t enforce others.”

The full pod is available at the link.

Field Size Isn't Always To Blame: 33-Deep And Final Group Cannot Break Four Hours At Kapalua

Whenever PGA Tour slow play is discussed, field size is the go-to excuse for tepid pace in a world that has little patience for golf taking even longer.

Yet as Xander Schauffele was posting a magnificent 62 to Gary Woodland’s final round 68 at the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions, pace seemed fine even as Rory McIlroy hit a few wayward drives. Yet the final tally of 4:13 time for the final twosome in a 33-player field, with no obvious slowpokes dragging the field down, might have been considered embarrassing at one time. Now over four hours for twosomes constitutes the new normal.

Even with some shuttle rides thrown in, light rough, marshals to look for your ball and amazing athletes who never have to stop for air, the pace at Kapalua wasn’t great. File it away the next time someone says the best players in the world, even making a ton of birdies, are only slow because of bloated field sizes.

Shriners Field Reduced To 132 Players, 70 Break Par And They Still Can't Finish Before The Sun Sets!

Just work with the idea that 70 players broke par, 51 broke 70 and 11 shot 66 or less led by first round leader Peter Uihlein.

Not many strokes being played, right? No high rough and crazy tough conditions to slow down the pace, correct?

No.

The Shriner’s Hospital For Children Open, already facing a reduction of 12 spots this year to help get the field around before dark (as reported by Rex Hoggard a few weeks ago), still could not finish the first round.

Why? Sure, today’s players are slow but more than the usual tedium, their prodigious driving distances mean the entire field is forced to wait for every par-5 green to clear and every short par-4 green to become available to their drives.

But as you know, nearly all players and their recent Commissioners have stated that slow play is not an issue, nor is distance in the game causing problems for getting a tournament field around.

Hopefully next year the Shriners shrinks to 120 players. Because maybe losing two-dozen “playing opportunities” will help the players and officials realize there are some very basic financial ramifications for chasing distance.

Tour Slow Play Wars Taking On Added, Enjoyable Dimension: Chipping Away At Field Sizes

For those who’ve watched the various Tours and players defend the pace of today’s game and fight to preserve the rights of entitled, selfish daily repeat-offenders, I have good news!

Field sizes are about to take start taking hits. If there will ever be one thing to make players actually stop defending slow pokes, the loss of playing opportunities might do it.

Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com reports on the continued player chatter after Corey Pavin—not known as a super slow player like Bernhard Langer—got zapped with a PGA Tour Champions penalty last weekend.

On the PGA Tour, the inability to finish at tournaments in the winter and spring months is putting pressure on officials to reduce playing opportunities. As it should be. The players can’t play fast enough? Time to start reducing fields!

The Tour’s policy board approved a plan to reduce the field size in Las Vegas from 144 to 132 players. According to a memo sent to players, the decision was made “to give the tournament a better chance of completing Rounds 1 and 2 on schedule.”

To be fair, part of this problem was driven by the event’s move from mid-October to early November, when the daylight window is slightly larger. But there’s no denying the fact that if threesome rounds didn’t regularly stretch past the five-hour mark, this would not be an issue.

Correctorama!

This was a fun fact. Television masks this, but think of the fan in attendance who can expect to lose valuable minutes of their life watching a player prepare for a shot.

Perhaps more eye opening are the Tour percentages. Eighty percent of all players took between 31 and 44 seconds to hit shots so far this season, while only 40 percent took between 35 and 40 seconds, which in theory should be the goal given the fine print of the circuit’s policy.

Which means a very large percentage took more than the Rules of Golf allow for. Charming.

But hey, they take their hats off at 18 to shake hands and call penalties on themselves!

Fingers crossed the Genesis Open at Riviera is next on the chopping board. 156 players used to get around there in January. Now at 144 in February, that’s too much for today’s turtles even with almost no rough. Let’s cut those playing opportunities so the serial slow pokes are protected!

The Final Numbers Are In: Faster And Better Play) In Shot Clock Masters!

I didn't see much coverage of the final Shot Clock Masters numbers, so here they are from the European Tour.

Note the scoring improvement...

European Tour Chief Keith Pelley talked about the response of players, social media and referees:

🗣️ Keith Pelley on the #ShotClockMasters pic.twitter.com/suppeGjKRc

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 10, 2018