Euan McLean
Tours into taking some sort of decisive action against the regular offenders. Let’s make no bones about it, these guys are killing golf ’s appeal – for armchair viewers and players alike. On Sunday at Riviera, Cantlay eventually holed out from six feet for par on the ninth green – precisely two hours and 49 minutes after the American had teed off. That was almost three hours to play just half a round of golf. Check out the footage of him in a fairway bunker waggling and dithering repeatedly for a full minute before finally pulling the trigger, and you’ll understand why.
Or how about Na – a serial slow-play offender – staring out a two-foot putt, repeatedly crouching on his hunkers to studiously check, double and triple check the line.
Marking, removing, re-marking, back up, practice swing. Then repeat the whole sorry routine again before finally stepping up and tapping the ball home.
If that’s not enough to get armchair viewers screaming “just hit the bl**dy thing!” at their television, just imagine how their playing partners must feel.
Then imagine what negative impact such dithering might have on their game and ask yourself this: Is outrageously slow play tantamount to gamesmanship at best, cheating at worst, because of the distraction they can cause their rivals?
I would argue, yes. And it’s time these guys were treated and derided as such.
Of course Cantlay and Na are far from alone in a growing culture of slow play that continues to spread through the game like a cancer.
Three weeks ago JB Holmes took precisely four minutes and 10 seconds to hit his approach to the 72nd hole at the Farmer’s Insurance Open.
He had spent that time deliberating whether or not to go for the green before eventually opting to lay up.
A couple of weeks before that Jason Day sparked a furious backlash when asked about facing six-hour rounds in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
He said: “It’s good. You can take your time, take more time than you would have. You don’t feel like you’re rushed.”
Not that Day ever looks rushed as he is widely considered as one of the most unashamedly slow players on the Tour.
Well I say Day’s day has come. It’s time the Australian and his fellow ditherers were made to feel the heat from the rest of us – the fans, their peers, their sponsors and most of all from the Tours at the behest of the game’s governing bodies.
If the R&A and USGA can join forces to take on the might of the multi-millionaire equipment manufacturers to tame golf ball technology, they can most certainly lean on the Tours – particularly PGA Tour in America – to get their house in order.
Put them on the clock for every shot and get tough on clamping down on repeat offenders – regardless of world ranking or big-name reputation – by imposing penalty shots on their scorecard.
As soon as their snail-paced pre-shot routine starts to cost them strokes, ranking points and money, set your watch by them suddenly finding some speed.