The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Slow play policy to be reviewed after criticism
The PGA Tour has announced plans to review its current pace-of-play policy after golf’s slow-play debate turned personal.
Bryson DeChambeau came in for stinging criticism from fellow professionals during the Northern Trust after video emerged of him taking two minutes and 20 seconds – the limit is 40 seconds – to hit an 8ft putt during the second round at Liberty National.
England’s Eddie Pepperell labelled the American a “singleminded twit” while Ian Poulter implied that the world number eight was one of the players who “continually disrespect their fellow pros and continue to break the rules without a conscience”.
It is not the first time DeChambeau’s slow play has been highlighted and world number one Brooks Koepka made no secret of his displeasure at the time taken by playing partner JB Holmes during the final round of the Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
Rory McIlroy said last week that slow players receive too many warnings before being penalised and, although PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has previously said he does not consider slow play to be a problem, the latest incident may finally prompt action.
“The Tour’s current pace-of-play policy only addresses players whose groups have fallen out of position,” the PGA Tour said in a statement.
“The Tour is now exploring whether to expand its policy to also address players whose groups are in position, but who take an excessive amount of time to hit a shot.”
Tyler Dennis, the Tour’s chief of operations, said: “We are really focused at the moment on leveraging our ShotLink technology to assist us with these factors.
“This year, we have rolled out version 2.0 of an application which allows the officials to monitor every group in real-time, from their positions out on the course, and respond more quickly when a group is getting behind.
“We know that the individual habits of players when they are preparing to hit a shot can quickly become a focal point in today’s world, and our players and fans are very passionate about this issue.
“We are currently in the process of reviewing this aspect of pace of play and asking ourselves, ‘Is there a better way to do it?’
“We think technology definitely plays a key role in all of this and we are thinking about new and innovative ways to use it to address these situations.”
Under current guidelines, a player’s group must be deemed to be out of position before being timed.
At that point an individual would receive a warning the first time he exceeded the allotted time limit (50 seconds if first to play, 40 seconds thereafter) and would only be penalised for a second such “bad time” in the same round.
Pepperell apologised for his “twit” comment in a tweet yesterday.
DeChambeau’s habits are such because they’ve been allowed to grow like a weed by the PGA Tour’s inaction
Regular readers (both of you) will know I rarely miss the chance to point out when I’ve been proved right about something.
Well, the latest triumph in this regard comes with the news that the PGA Tour is “exploring adjustments to our pace of pay policy” in the light of the firestorm surrounding Bryson DeChambeau’s ludicrously slow antics at the Northern Trust play-off event in New Jersey at the weekend.
I’d like to think my coruscating column on this subject had a marked effect on their decision. Well, I’d like to think so, but it was published 18 months ago.
Hey, things move super slowly in the halls of PGA Tour Towers in Ponte Vedra, Florida, even slower than Bryson to lining up a 10-foot putt.
I’m definitely still claiming some credit.
That column followed the most egregious example of slow play in recent times, JB Holmes taking four minutes to decide he’d lay up and settle for finishing fourth in the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
In comparison, Bryon’s two and a half minutes to line-up a reasonably routine putt on the eighth at Liberty National on Friday was rapid. But Holmes is a bland kind of character; other than his incredibly irritating slowness, he’s quite a pleasant and inoffensive sort.
Holmes, nor Kevin Na – a former poster boy for the snails who has sped up – nor any other serial slowies from recently has actually been a figure prominent enough to base a campaign upon.
Bryson, however, is something else entirely.
He’s one of the tour’s new stars. He has an image he’s cultivated – “The Scientist”.
A physics major at university, he’s looked to find imaginative ways to bring science into his golf game.
Some of my journalistic brethern have lapped this stuff up, labelling Bryson as a new thinker in the game – probably true – or even a genius.
But let’s be straight, describing Bryson as a physics genius is probably insulting to actual physicists and definitely insulting to actual geniuses.
DeChambeau went to Southern Methodist University on a golf scholarship, not because of his super smart physics brain.
In addition, he checked out of his degree course early to pursue his pro golf career.
Anyway, some of the so-called
science stuff might have worked, because Bryson has played very well since turning pro; but probably just as well as you’d expect from one of only five players to have won the US Amateur and the NCAA Championships in the same year. Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are three of the others.
Bryson has talked about the science stuff to anyone who has asked.
He’s done so with an air of “I’m definitely smarter than you” which has rubbed one or two up the wrong way.
He’s definitely different, and in the super-conservative world of golf, that’s enough to narrow the eyes of many people in the game who follow it closely.
But put all that aside, and there’s no denying – he’s really, really slow.
There are multiple examples – the Dubai Desert Classic this year, the Memorial Tournament he won last year, and several other events.
So much so that even Justin Thomas, who you may remember defended JB Holmes after Torrey Pines and was one of DeChambeau’s playing partners on Friday, felt moved to say: “I like Bryson as a person, but he’s a slow golfer”.
And this weekend’s examples – two of them blatant and spread across social media because the TV cameras stuck on him – were extreme even by his standards.
In addition, perhaps crucially, they came after arguably the three most prominent players of today – Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka – had made public comments decrying the pace of play on the PGA Tour.
It was almost as if Bryson was making a point in reply.
The watching public, it has to be said, have not taken it well.
DeChambeau’s defence of his position has been an embarrassing mess. He decried players not confronting him face-to-face about it, only choosing to do so to Koepka’s caddie, not to Brooks, you know, “faceto-face”.
He has pointed out he’s nice to kids and high-fives volunteers. He has said he’s the entertainment – debatable, especially when you consider the three names above criticising slow play. He’s said he only takes as long as he did on the eighth on Friday “1% of the time”.
OK, Bryson, you’re not that slow 100% of the time. But you’re slow to some degree closer to 100% of the time than you are 1%. A lot closer.
But DeChambeau’s habits are such because they’ve been allowed to grow like a weed by the PGA Tour’s inaction. What happened with Holmes 18 months ago effectively gave Bryson the licence to be like this.
But it seems it needed a marmite character like Bryson to garner enough attention on this blight on the game for the Tour to actually act.
I’m not holding my breath on actual action against slow play. The Tour will brush it under the carpet if they can.
But Koepka, McIlroy and, to a lesser degree, Woods are now vocal about it, and if the marquee names are on board, there’s at least a chance.