Let’s be clear: When it comes to fast-paced excitement, watching golf, even at the elite level, requires an investment of time, patience, and passion.
But when the pace of play becomes glacial, the likely outcome is that viewers will switch channels and head elsewhere.
Golf ratings are sagging, with a declining number of eyeballs watching on any given media platform. The ongoing split with LIV Golf has not helped either, as golf’s talent pool is divided into different camps.
Viewership has also not been helped since Tiger Woods, the man who moved the needle for years, went from serious competitor to TGL sideshow performer.
The net result?
Pro golf is not keeping viewers engaged.
Case in point—Tom Kim.
During the final round at last week’s AT&T event at Pebble Beach, the talented player came to the famed par-5 18th and promptly hit his tee shot into the adjoining rocks that form the boundary with Carmel Bay.
When Kim arrived at the spot where he believed his ball had finished, he was told ocean waves had carried the ball away from the sandy beach area.
Kim then returned to the teeing area to get a ball back into play. As he played the rest of the hole, his overall pre-shot routine, in concert with his standing over the shot for an excruciatingly long period of time, was mindbogglingly painful to observe.
In all sincerity, one could have ordered food at McDonald’s and had it promptly served before Kim completed the sequence of a single golf shot.
Those leading the PGA Tour—paging Commissioner Jay Monahan—have too long ignored the dreadful pace-of-play issues, which are becoming more and more prevalent.
For years, and continuing even now, the Tour has declined to state whether players have been fined or suspended on any matter tied to their performance on or off the course. Without meaningful transparency, the seriousness of the Tour in dealing with such a heavyweight, vexing issue as slow play can be rightly questioned.
Final pairings at PGA Tour events have featured groups that exceed five and a half hours of play. Keep in mind, unlike with recreational golf, the players have spotters watching play with galleries lining each hole. Players also have caddies to assist in just about every way humanly possible.
How bad has it become?
The allotted television time is now routinely being exceeded because the tortoise-like crawl is becoming a normal occurrence. Such a situation has become unbearable for sponsors, the network, and most critically, the fan base.
Courageously, former LPGA star player Dottie Pepper, who serves as the on-course reporter for CBS Sports, summed up her revulsion in a succinct comment on the ongoing selfish nature of a number of players during the recent Farmers Insurance event.
“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,” Pepper said. “It’s just got to get better.”
The candor was most welcomed—most notably because broadcast partners of the PGA and LPGA Tours are loath to hold accountable those clearly responsible—highlighting the players and tournament officials as being totally responsible for the s-l-o-w crawl optics that are as deadly as any cancer.
Given the money being put up by sponsors and the television time allocated, the need to keep matters moving at a sensible pace of play is long overdue.
Major League Baseball saw the painful writing on the wall and instituted a pitch clock. Pro golf needs to follow similarly with a shot clock and then have an escalating series of penalties—with fines and stroke penalties imposed. And if such behavior continues, there should be a suspension of playing privileges for violators.
This past week, the PGA Tour did announce at the AT&T event a series of guidelines that will be implemented:
• Publicizing pace-of-play data for players using “average stroke time,” which is the average amount of time it takes a player to take a stroke using Shotlink data.
• Disclosing fines and penalties for players who violate slow-play rules in order to satiate fan feedback for more transparency, as well as players who have called for more slow-play accountability.
• Using the PGA Tour’s new video review center to make calls on rulings more quickly and efficiently.
Late last year, the PGA Tour announced that starting in 2026, field sizes will be reduced to 144 from 156 players. Watching players on a telecast go through an endless checklist of pre-shot routines is beyond embarrassing; it’s entirely selfish of them.
There’s no question elite-level golf can be stressful. There’s big-time money involved; and for many players, remaining in the competitive lane is a year-to-year proposition in order to stay on the grand stage. No question playing on a tournament-prepared course is also not remotely the same as when recreational players tee it up at their local club.
Reasonable guidelines can be enacted and enforced consistently. But the bigger unanswered question remains: Will Tour leadership seize the proverbial bull by the horns and put in place a sustained effort that sends an undeniable message? The message should be that the tortoises playing have to be put on notice or there will be impactful consequences.
What pro golfers at the elite level often fail to fully comprehend is that they are in the entertainment lane. Holding viewers hostage when going through an endless pre-shot checklist will now be measured and acted upon.
Quantifiable measures can be put into place that eliminate the arbitrary application of stroke penalties and fines. And that would mean equal justice for all—irrespective of that player’s name or position in an event or the round in which it occurs.
The tired phrase often heard on telecasts is that slowpoke players are “placed on the clock.” So what? It’s nothing more than talk, and no action is taken.
In years past, slow-play penalties were only applied to those so far down the totem pole of name recognition that the impact was utterly meaningless.
Case in point: At the 2013 Masters, 14-year-old amateur Guan Tianlang incurred a one-shot penalty for slow play during his second play in the tournament that year. It was nothing like the people at Augusta stepping out on a limb and really going after the more prominent names who consistently cause such issues.
Amazingly, the issue of slow play is equally pronounced on the female side via the LPGA Tour. The reason why it does not receive the same level of scrutiny is the lack of overall television exposure the women receive. For years, a number of key players on the LPGA Tour have lobbied for more serious consequences.
Pro golf at the top of the competitive pyramid is a stressful occupation. No question about that. Equally clear is the broader harm caused by slow play, as it metastasizes to the general masses playing the sport.
Some facilities in the United States are taking proactive stances by mapping out their courses with specific time intervals and following up with clear sanctions for those who fail to comply. However, that’s more of the exception than the rule. In today’s world of filling in the time sheet, golf needs to show it can measure up, or else prospective players will opt for other pursuits.
Tournament officials at both the PGA and LPGA Tour have a very good idea of who the usual suspects are that cause the overwhelming majority of the weekly slow play issues.
The inmates cannot continue to run the asylum, no matter how high their net worth is.
Golf is not meant to be played as if players were on roller skates, but the zombie-like procession must end.
The first two letters of the word “golf” say it clearly—G-O.
It’s time, no pun intended, to do just that.
