The PGA Tour’s sluggish play downside has been a thorn within the facet of golf followers for years, and it looks as if an enduring resolution has been discovered after the Tour introduced plans to publish speed-of-play-related statistics, together with the names of the quickest and slowest gamers, in an effort to disgrace gamers into choosing up the tempo.
The Tour’s commissioner, Jay Monahan, made the announcement forward of The Gamers Championship final month. The PGA Tour will begin releasing speed-of-play statistics later this 12 months which can publicly present which gamers are quick and which gamers are sluggish based mostly on stroke/time information. They can even take a look at rangefinders at six Tour occasions between the Masters and PGA Championship to see if that helps. As well as, there might be a brand new tempo of play coverage on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas together with the potential for extra stroke penalties which started on April 14th.
“We’ve dedicated to addressing the velocity of play,” Monahan mentioned. “To that finish, I’m excited to formally announce these suggestions from our player-led speed-of-play working group. We’ll start publishing speed-of-play associated statistics later this season. We can even start testing a brand new speed-of-play coverage on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas, starting subsequent month (April), which can embrace assessing penalty strokes for sluggish play.”
Gamers Optimistic Over New Rule
Whereas the foundations are a welcome growth, there have been questions from many corners about whether or not this new method will really work. Some gamers, like Justin Thomas, suppose it’s a step in the precise course. Thomas admits to being on the slower facet and welcomes the chance to enhance his tempo of play. Others, like Collin Morikawa, imagine that stricter penalties, equivalent to stroke penalties, are wanted to actually make a distinction.
Rory McIlroy has additionally weighed in on the problem, suggesting that smaller fields might assist enhance tempo of play. Nevertheless, this resolution additionally comes with its personal disadvantages, as it could restrict taking part in alternatives for some golfers.
The LPGA Tour has already taken a extra aggressive method to addressing sluggish play, introducing harsher punishments for gamers who exceed their time allotment per shot. Beneath the brand new tips, gamers who take too lengthy will obtain fines and even stroke penalties.
Whereas it stays to be seen whether or not the PGA Tour’s new method might be efficient, it’s clear that one thing must be achieved to handle the sluggish play downside. Many would agree that it is a welcome step in that course. With the sport’s high gamers and governing our bodies lastly taking motion, there’s hope that golf followers will quickly be capable of take pleasure in a faster-paced and extra thrilling recreation.
Picture by Soheb Zaidi on Unsplash
