"How to cure the bane of slow play in golf"
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Daniel Zeqiri pens a lovely slow play analysis for The Telegraph based on the continued heat after Sunday’s slow match play finale and the ongoing realization that, as a player-run organization, the PGA Tour is unlikely to do anything. Even when they cost their network partners money running consistently long, as they have the last several weeks with twosomes taking well over four hours to play.
Plus, Zeqiri is talks banning green reading books and rolling back the ball so he gets it.
He writes:
As ever, there are those who would like to see Tour officials reach for punitive measures more readily. ShotLink data also means they can be forensic and indiscriminate in their application of the rules, just as technology has enabled in other sports. No more complaining about a capricious rules official: if the clock says you were too slow, then there's no debate to be had.
In 2019, there was a change in the rules to prevent caddies from lining their player up on the greens. The reasoning was that alignment - a player's ability to align his body and feet with the target - was a fundamental golfing skill. Quite right too, although even this straightforward change brought teething problems with Haotong Li issued a harsh two-stroke penalty in Dubai when his caddie appeared to walk away before he took his stance.
There is an argument that reading greens is also an integral part of the game and a skill in itself. While players will occasionally 'call in' their caddie to help them read the break of a putt, they will pride themselves on their ability to read greens. It is part of what separates great putters from the merely good. Any player who backed themselves to be an above average green-reader would welcome the guides being outlawed.
The counter-argument is that these books are for players to consult on their walk to the green after their approach shot. As Phil Mickelson tweeted in 2019: "The greens book allows me to do 80% of my read before I even get to the green. For anyone to say they slow up play is flat out idiotic."
Actually, they slow up play.
Anyway there is more to read in the piece and I’m sure Zeqiri has been added to the Fairhaven war room bulletin board.
Oh and this was fun from Monty:
