Two of the largest stars within the recreation, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas, known as for the PGA Tour to make gradual play points extra clear forward of The Gamers Championship.
They need names of the offenders.
“I believe [names and data] needs to be launched. I don’t know why you wouldn’t need it to be launched.
“What I’ve realized is that financial fines are ineffective. We make a lot cash, and a few guys frankly may care much less about — I don’t know the way a lot the fines are, however no matter X quantity they’re, and I believe they care extra about enjoying good golf and ensuring they make the playoffs and ensuring they make, you recognize, 70, 50, 30. That’s the place it hits exhausting.
“And I see no concern with it. I believe what’s there to cover, proper? When you’re gradual, you recognize you’re gradual. I imply, should you don’t know, then there’s a difficulty. To me, there’s no concern with letting it out, proper. It’s solely going to make issues higher as a result of you then’re both going to have a goal on you, put a bit extra strain and hopefully you decide it up, otherwise you get penalized. Prefer it’s quite simple.”
Thomas, who admitted to being a gradual participant himself, echoed these sentiments.
“If we put it within the locker room or put it out, which might clearly find yourself getting out, however no person needs to be generally known as that,” Thomas mentioned.
“It bothers me, however I’ve talked to many officers about it. I need to know why I’m gradual as a result of clearly, the very first thing that any slower participant thinks is that they’re not gradual. I by no means need to be the man that will get paired with anyone and that particular person is like oh, my gosh, I’ve to play with Justin, he’s so gradual, as a result of I do know guys that I get paired with that I’m like, oh, my gosh, I’ve to play with so-and-so, they’re so gradual, and it’s not feeling as a result of you recognize you’re going to be on the clock, you recognize, and that’s not enjoyable.”
After Morikawa and Thomas made these feedback, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan introduced a brand new set of pace-of-play tips, one thing golf followers have clamored for for years. These new procedures embrace releasing names to the general public, which ought to assist velocity issues up.
“We’ll start publishing speed-of-play-related statistics later this season. We will even start testing a brand new speed-of-play coverage on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas, starting subsequent month on April 14th particularly, which is able to embrace assessing penalty strokes for gradual play,” Monahan mentioned.
“We can be testing vary finders on the six tour occasions between the Masters and PGA Championship. We’re excited to be taught extra in regards to the affect of elevated transparency and accountability via these efforts.”
Implementing rangefinders is one thing that Annika Sorenstam mentioned wouldn’t assist with this concern. As a substitute, Sorenstam known as for the tour to evaluate penalty strokes for gradual play violations. Possibly rangefinders will change issues on the PGA Tour, however ‘naming and shaming’ the culprits ought to function a wakeup name. The gradual play police power is simply getting stronger.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By. Observe him on X @jack_milko.
