Slow Play Continues to be Major PGA Tour Issue

I’ve used this analogy for years and will continue to use it until I think of a better one: Slow play in professional golf is like traffic. Nobody likes it. Nobody thinks they’re at fault. And yet, people continue to rubberneck as flat tires are being changed on the side of the road, which slows everything down.

The main takeaway: If nobody is to blame, then maybe everybody is to blame. 

The pace of play issue – in golf, not on the roadways – reared its ugly head once again at this weekend’s Farmers Insurance Open, when the final group played in five-and-a-half hours, enough of a slog to overshadow discussions of Harris English’s victory in the aftermath.

Of course, this is nothing new.

If it wasn’t so maddening, it would be comically ironic that the issue of slow play has lingered for so long without anything close to a resolution.

One of the great things about professional golf is that it’s relatable. We don’t meet up with buddies on a Sunday morning, put on helmets and shoulder pads and play a little tackle football, but we do play golf — just like the pros! Except, it isn’t just like the pros. Most of us will ride in a cart, sip on a few cold beverages, and pick up once we reach net double-bogey.

We can all play a casual round – check that, we *should* play a casual round – in way less than five-and-a-half hours, which triggers us when we see that the pros can’t. Or at least, don’t.

The unsubtle intonation here is that our golf really isn’t anything like their golf, which is being played for millions of dollars and such perks as Masters invitations and world ranking points.

Slow play is undoubtedly a problem. The PGA Tour is an entertainment product and the longer it takes, oftentimes the less entertaining it becomes. If it wasn’t an issue, you wouldn’t be whining about it and I wouldn’t be writing about it.

With that in mind, allow me for a brief spell to explain the latest blasphemy, which shouldn’t be misconstrued as dismissing it.

First off, not all totals are created equally, just as the time par shouldn’t be the same for every round. Saturday’s final round was played in groups of three, not two, and it was contested on the South Course at Torrey Pines, which offered a pretty strong resemblance to the arduous conditions it bore for the U.S. Open just four years ago. The winning score this weekend was 8-under-par. There will be plenty of events this season where the leading total in relation to par starts with a “2”; it can be reasoned that those who enjoy a stiffer test than the usual birdie-fest must also learn to live with slower play.

Again, that was just the explanation, not an excuse.

In today’s world, where we seemingly all have some form of ADHD and platforms such as YouTube golf can produce slickly edited, fast-paced content, professional golf simply can’t be played at a snail’s pace if it wants to compete for our interest.

The new venture TGL has proven that world-class players can hit shots within an allotted time on a shot clock, Tiger Woods’ recent lapse notwithstanding. It’s a format which has been tested in DP World Tour events, as well, with few getting penalized.

The reality of the situation is that rules are already in place to counteract slow play, they’re just not being enforced.

If the PGA Tour wants to eradicate the problem – and so far, that’s a big if, for as much as the fans wail about it, there doesn’t seem to be any immediacy toward fixing it – the powers-that-be will first need to assign blame. In-tournament penalties and public castigation might be the only way to speed up a product which is starting to fall behind in more ways than one.

And when that doesn’t happen? Well, if nobody’s at fault, then maybe everybody is.