Life in the slow lane is a real turn-off
YOUNG Americans Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay are two of the most fascinating players in golf. One with his uniquely scientific approach and the other for the manner in which he has overcome adversity.
Paired together in the final group for the Memorial Tournament in Ohio on Sunday, we saw something else they have in common. They are both so slow as to be all but unwatchable.
How sad that two players you want to root for make you reach for the off button instead.
When they announced that tee-times had been brought forward on Sunday because of the threat of thunderstorms, it was tempting to wonder whether the real reason was to make sure eventual winner DeChambeau and Cantlay had time to finish.
Alongside another slow player, Kyle Stanley, and with no one holding them up, they would need five-and-a-half hours to complete 18 holes.
Meanwhile, the finish at the US Women’s Open ought to have been riveting as well as Thai player Ariya Jutanugarn blew a seven-shot lead over the closing stages (she would eventually compose herself sufficiently to prevail in a four-hole play-off against South Korean Hyo-Joo Kim).
I turned on just as Jutanugarn plonked herself on the ground on the 16th tee and prepared for a long wait because play in front was so slow. I switched off again.
Slow play is the thing that will kill golf as a top-level attraction. But in America they seem oblivious. When people call golf the most boring sport in surveys, this is exactly why they have that impression.
Yes, we know that hundreds of thousands of dollars and prestigious titles can be decided on the strength of one shot. But watching is also supposed to be entertainment, not a chore.
At least on the European Tour, they are making a concerted attempt to speed the game up. This week, those efforts will be taken a step further, although I wish they had not made it sound like a gimmick by renaming the Austrian Open and calling it the Shot Clock Masters. This is far too serious a problem to be categorised as a gimmick.
Anyone who loves the game ought to applaud the intent, though, as players will be timed on every shot, with one-shot penalties issued to offenders.
I bet few penalty strokes need to be imposed and a lot of the field score better for playing quicker because they will not be overthinking shots.
That’s the other thing about slow play — it rarely works. If Sunday marked a new low in the battle against this insidious disease, let’s hope events in Austria this week herald an antidote.