Slow Play on the PGA Tour, Tiger Shares His Opinion

[mvmac]

With Kevin Na's troubles pulling the trigger last week there is a lot of buzz about slow play in tour.  I know players get warning but never knew what happened if there was multiple violations.  Players get fined, and not that much.  To actually be assessed a penalty stroke the player has to fail twice while on the clock, something that rarely happens.

Here's Tiger take .  He wants to to penalize a player every time they get a warning, simple solution and I like it.

Quote:

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The longer in the tooth Tiger Woods gets, the longer it takes to play a round of golf.

Asked Sunday to assess the pace of play on the PGA Tour compared to four years ago, Woods simply said, "Worse."

"Last week, we were playing 4:40 (on Thursday and Friday at Quail Hollow) and there's no wind. That's hard to believe."

It was worse than Woods thought. He took 4 hours, 52 minutes to play on Friday before missing the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Slow play has become a higher-profile issue as Woods and his peers make their dissatisfaction with the pace more public. It has been on display this week at TPC Sawgrass as 54-hole leader Kevin Na has struggled to – as he says – "pull the trigger."

The PGA Tour threatens players with penalty strokes for falling out of position relative to the field and continuing to play slowly. A player must falter twice while on the clock, however, to be penalized. Woods believes in skipping an initial warning before a penalty stroke is assessed.

"I think it's very simple," he said. "If you get a warning, you get a penalty. I think that would speed it up."

With the difference between first and second place this week costing $684,000, Woods rejects the Tour's existing system of fining players between $5,000 and $20,000 for consistent pace of play violations.

"Strokes is money," he said. "I would take the five grand (fine) over the 800K. That's one shot. That's the difference. That's what people don't realize – that one shot is so valuable out here."

There is a lot of talk about the youth movement on the PGA Tour, including three 20-somethings in contention to win this week. Woods believes many of his younger peers don't move fast enough.

"College has gotten just incredibly slow," he said. "It's so bad that now they are giving the guys the ability to use lasers to try to speed up play. And they're still playing in 5:45, six hours plus."

[DocPangloss]

Originally Posted by mvmac

With Kevin Na's troubles pulling the trigger last week there is a lot of buzz about slow play in tour.  I know players get warning but never knew what happened if there was multiple violations.  Players get fined, and not that much.  To actually be assessed a penalty stroke the player has to fail twice while on the clock, something that rarely happens.

Here's Tiger take.  He wants to to penalize a player every time they get a warning, simple solution and I like it.

It's gotta suck to be a fast player among slow players. But making a warning a penalty means its no longer a warning. If there was near-5-hour rounds and no penalties being assessed, then maybe they need to adjust their pace-of-play rules first.

And if college players really are taking that long, they'll be penalized left and right if they make it to the tour, so I don't see the problem there.

[Kapanda]

How about a penalty after a warning? But I bet Tiger just said that out of frustration anyway.

[newtogolf]

College and Nationwide Tour players should only be alloted 30 seconds per shot compared to the 40 - 60 seconds alloted to the pro's.  If they are forced to play faster when they are younger they will be better prepared to maintain pace of play as a pro.

[laconic517]

College golf is BRUTALLY slow.  It is unbelievable.  I've been to the big 10 tournament when it was in east lansing, and I couldn't believe how bad it was.  There were guys sitting in the fairway for like 10 minutes trying to "pick a club" they also would talk through their shots like Phil and Bones.........

It has carried over into city tournaments. I don't even play city tournaments anymore because I don't feel like playing 5.5 hr rounds.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by DocPangloss

It's gotta suck to be a fast player among slow players. But making a warning a penalty means its no longer a warning. If there was near-5-hour rounds and no penalties being assessed, then maybe they need to adjust their pace-of-play rules first.

So what? If you're out of position enough to get a warning, just give the penalty.

It obviously wouldn't be called a "warning." "You're out of position and you took too long to play that shot. Penalty stroke."

I'm with Tiger on this one. I think the PGA Tour could do a LOT more to eliminate the slow play issues. This would be a start.

[caniac6]

Do individual players get warnings, or do they warn the group?

[brocks]

Do individual players get warnings, or do they warn the group?

Individual players get warnings, but the whole group is on the clock. So if player A played so slowly that the group got on the clock, and then player B, who has been super fast up to then, takes a bit too long over his shot, B gets the warning, not A. Also, if you are put on the clock 10 times in a year, you get fined, even if you are the fastest player on tour, and it was always somebody else in your group that caused it. I guess this is the tour's attempt to get some peer pressure going.

[clubchamp]

I actually agree with Tiger they need to just start penalizing them for taking too long instead of warning them once. If I was the PGA tour I would start thinking that it could become almost unbearable to watch if the rounds keep getting longer. Obviously all of the players have different pre shot routines but at the end of the day it's still not a hard concept to understand you have X amount of time to hit the ball.

[LuciusWooding]

Get rid of caddies if you really want to kill slow play. They talk to certain players a lot while others just get the yardage or club. Also I think certain players would have a hard time without a professional caddy being the brains of the operation, which would be interesting to see. I'd also like to see them break down the times based on the player's scores and the course conditions; I'd bet wind slows down everyone.

And Tiger's no one to talk, he balks in the wind and waits for it to shift all the time. Not to mention barking at people with cameras and the like. He usually plays decently quickly but he has slow holes all the time.

[Double Bogey]

I have to agree with caddies possibly being the issue.  I have never been a caddy but I have played with one before.  It was nice that they knew the yardage and could just tell you front/middle/back.  No range finders just experience.  Not all this Phil/Bones banter just give me the yardage and let me fire away.

[Paradox]

Every professional player will take time in the wind...thats kind of expected and accepted because as Tiger said "1 stroke is the difference"  I don't recall Tiger being put on the clock, though.  Even Phil isn't a slow player.  Heck, you always see tiger reading putts right up until a competitor is getting into their routine.

Anyway, its far too painful to watch a slow group.  Its getting worse and worse, too.  I agree with going straight to a 1 shot penalty for every violation.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Didn't Tiger used to be one of the slowest players on tour?

[zipazoid]

You're only going to play as fast as the slowest player, and it shouldn't be difficult to identify who that player is.

One warning, then one stroke penalty. Done.

[mosnas]

I think they should do something similar to how they measure curling.  What they do is between each shot from when they are analyzing it to the time that they actually hit it and it stops they should be timed. (not walking up the fairway) But if you time them like this i garuntee you they will be faster.  If they go over the time limit they are either DQ'd or allotted a stroke penalty depending on how severely they are over the time minute.

[sflemon]

College golf is terrible.  Highschoolers that are good get big egos when they get to college and are even worse then.  The kids in highschool that will make it or think they can make it to college take forever to play.  It isn't good enough to do the work while your competitor is playing (yardage, wind, break), they then have to make a show out of it when it's their turn.

I saw this all the time.  Kids wouldn't line up their putt until it was their turn.  I understand not walking in somebody's line, or being a big distraction.  But you can do some homework ahead of time.

Kids are also really bad about "not finishing" on 2 footers nowadays.  They could easily, without stepping on a competitor's line, mark, set, and putt.  But they mark, wait for the other guy, line up, line up some more, then putt.  Three kids all missing 15 foot birdies to within 2 feet goes from a 3 minute exercise to a 6 minute exercise with all the freaking crap.

Then these same kids make it to the pros..........go figure.....it starts when they're 13 to 15 years old.

[pw8iron]

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

Didn't Tiger used to be one of the slowest players on tour?

Still is.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by pw8iron

Still is.

Seems like Tiger is being a hypocrite.