© Reinhold Matay/Imagn
Perhaps the biggest issue on the PGA Tour these days is slow play. Players can often take around or upwards of five hours to complete rounds of play in a threesome, and it makes the viewing experience an absolute bore. Whether players are taking too many practice swings or using the aim point system to line up their putts, they’re taking a three-hour viewing experience and adding around 90 minutes to it.
The PGA Tour knows it has a problem and has worked to come up with solutions, however not all of them are particularly practical. One thing that is practical, however, is naming and shaming the worst offenders. The golf world generally knows which players take the longest to complete a round (looking at you, Brian Harman), but the PGA Tour has the actual data to back it up.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced Tuesday that the Tour is planning on overhauling its pace of play rules beginning April 14 (the day after The Masters). The planning includes stricter enforcement of rules, experimenting with range finders and, most notably, releasing average stroke time data on Tour players.
Harman, Tom Kim and Patrick Cantlay are considered some of the biggest abusers of the current slow play rules.
“Currently Tom Kim. Brian Harman, he has 12 [wiggles] before he hits it. You get dizzy watching him,” Matt Fitzpatrick’s caddie Billy Foster said on the 19th Hole Uncut YouTube show last year. “They are good players, great players, it takes all types. But get on with it lads, will you.”
But now there will be nowhere to hide. Everyone will know exactly how long it takes each golfer, each week. And while that could be a detriment to that player on the course, it could also hurt off it as well. Many PGA Tour players reel in significant money with endorsement deals. Companies may be less willing to endorse players who are known for their slow play.
It’s past time for the PGA Tour to address this issue. But it seems they’ve found a fantastic way of doing just that.