Slow Play will kill Golf

Slow play is an epidemic through all levels of competitive and recreational golf. Some of it is unavoidable; overcrowded courses, bad tee time gapping, inability, inattentiveness and poor etiquette can all lead to a round slowing down. I’m willing to forgive the occasional hunt for a lost ball or struggle to putt out. I’ve been there, I’ll be there again. As play rises from recreational to competitive levels though the pace gets dramatically worse, even at the most junior of levels. Slow play is not only permitted but encouraged and being actively taught. “take your time” “think your shot” “keep your process the same” are all common coaching idioms. This problem will get exponentially worse before it gets better unless golf starts acting like a sport instead of a game. Hell, even chess has a time clock.

Here's my real-world example from my public play course. We recently had a high school girl’s match between 5 high schools on our course. The JV teams played 9 holes and the varsity, 18. Walking of course, but pull carts allowed, shotgun start. There was shuttling between the holes that were hilly or longer walks. As a caveat I should say the course I’m at is very hilly and a good time to complete 18 in a cart without slowdowns is 3:45. Most 18-hole rounds for this match came in at 5:45 to 6 hours! The tee times were gapped at 9 minutes and all players had some level of experience and golf knowledge, some were downright legit sticks. Our more seasoned golf workers were betting an over/under of 5:45 at the beginning of the day. I thought they were being sarcastic, but they were right on the money! To have a round take that long in any arena is stunning but it’s not an outlier. When I told our head PGA pro how long the rounds were taking he said “yea that’s tournament golf”.

He’s right, sadly. We routinely see players finish in the dark on the PGA and a five hour rounds are consider a good pace. Players will do their routine and take their time and hit when their damn god and ready and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Sure, players get warned and put on the clock but it meaningless and no one ever gets punished.

So what can golf do? Start acting like a sport is one thing. What would happen if an NFL team just ignored the play clock and ran their play after fidgeting around for a while and analyzing the grass on the field? What about if Steph Curry needed everyone to stop moving and be really quiet so he could think about the 3 pointer he had to hit? Shots have to be hit in the 40 second alotted window by rule, and if they’re not? To quote Brooks “start stroking guys”.

It will have to start at the top and it will eventually trickle down, the major pro tours need to enforce the 40 second rules with the same veracity as if Patrick “Treed” was using his trusty foot wedge. They need to invest in officiating, One fat old man in a golf cart and few octogenarian volunteers will no longer do, a rules official needs to be present on every hole to walk with the group. 18 officials, one per hole, rotating, walking with the group. Maybe someone gets 5 stroke penalties in a single round the first season its introduced? So be it. Look at formula one. This past weekend in Miami Kevin Magnussen got 60 seconds in penalties making his race weekend a mockery. He wasn’t penalized less because he continued to commit infractions, each infraction was punished on its own merit.

I know it sounds shocking and harsh but golf needs to come to the realization baseball did a couple seasons ago. The fan is who matters not the players, players come and go but if the fans go they stay gone and the clock is certainly ticking. A player wanting to do their 3-minute putting routine isn’t more important than the sports integrity or the fans enjoyment. Rules are rules and if you can’t compete within the rules you can’t play the sport. Players will miss cuts, lose money, lose matches and yell and scream and whine, but what else is new? They’re going to do that no matter what happens so why not better the sport while we can.

Until next time, I’ll be here screaming and whining – The Starter