Slow play continues to be a topic of conversation on golf's professional tours, so what will be done? Here’s a novel idea: A shot clock. Like the one used for the Shot Clock Masters. Remember it?
1. Tour definitely needs to allow lasers. 2. First player to ball in fairway gets 50 secs. , but subsequent players get 30 secs as already at their ball most of time and waited 50 secs for furthest player to hit. Same on the green as closer player(s) get to wait when furthest player putts. 3. Increase number of rules officials so as to speed up rulings on course. 4. First 20 groups off must play in under 4:15 or be penalized 2 strokes. This will keep field moving.
Shot clocks with penalties starting with a stoke penalty on the third infraction would be good. Banning AimPoint and putting lines on golf balls would help also. Allowing use of lasers would be helpful also. Something has to be done.
Too bad people didn't listen to Jack Nicklaus many years ago. Roll the ball back 20% and build some 12-hole courses. That would have saved thousands of acres and encouraged many more courses to be built. Pro rounds would be played more quickly and more amateurs would be accommodated at lower cost.
Gee, have you missed all complaints about pace of play in pro golf? Speeding it up makes a better TV product, better in person viewing and better for competitors. It's hardly going to be "rapid-fire." Surely you're not in favor of slow play?
I agree with all the comments so far: ready golf, no alignment lines (if those are permitted why not alignment sticks, too?), no stepping on or anywhere near the line of putt (other than repairing pitchmarks and spikemarks), limits to caddie interaction, use of lasers.
However, I'm not a great fan of a limit to each and every stroke time. Some strokes in a round are much more awkward and important than others and some you might make a decision then have to change your mind when you address the ball. But the rule should be "is the player inconveniencing another competitor", whether playing alongside or waiting behind. If so the marshal should alert him to that, and a certain number of alerts should risk a penalty under the rules of golf: "play shall be continuous".
But a further point is that the comparison with stadium sports is not relevant. There is only one point of action in those and the whole audience - TV and at the venue - is looking at that one point, so delays affect everyone. TV audiences for golf, and most of those spectators on the course, aren't solely with the slow player so very few are concerned. The TV producer can easily switch to another player somewhere else and, if it's of interest, go back to the first player live or a recording from a few seconds before.
I would love to see a tournament on TV where there was fast cutting between players, also showing all the shots a player had taken on a hole in quick succession - one an eagle, next a triple bogey with a penalty or two. Viewers would stop complaining about speed of play then, they would have trouble keeping up with the action!
With respectful considerations to all the previous comments, even yours Gary, life & golf was never intended to mirror assembly-line manufacturing. To what gain - half an hour? Why not remove the 'gentlemanly' rule so that players don't wait at all but merely play their shots as soon as they are ready. Isn't that the essence of 'ready golf'??? Faster players would automatically drag slower players with them as Arnie said, "While we're still young".
But somehow, I think rapid-fire golf would make for a lesser game.....
The answer is simple. If the Lords of Augusta would implement a shot clock, there would be wailing and crying and threats of legal action and boycotts, but in the end everyone would show up and play (in about 3 hrs and 50 min), a Masters champion would be crowned, and the shot clock would become a standard part of the pro tour. The LOA are the only ones with the clout (and the BALLS) to get this done.
A further thought: Ban all alignment lines on golf balls. Do the math, up to 144 players bending over and carefully aligning their ball, stepping back to check, often stepping forward to do it again. I record all my sports broadcasts so I can fast-forward to the good parts.
Do you mean that having the EXACT perfect alignment of the lines on the ball isn't necessary on a 50-foot putt? How did anyone ever make a putt before they put those lines on the ball?
Caddies add to slow play. I don’t get to consult some guy about my next shot or the line on my putt. I look at my watch if I’m in doubt and then hit. Give golfers all the same watch and tell the caddies to shut up. No help on putts at all.
Absolutely true. How incredibly annoying is it to see a player and his caddie have what seems like an endless conversation on a basic shot from the middle of the fairway? Both while staring at a yardage book, of course!
1. Tour definitely needs to allow lasers. 2. First player to ball in fairway gets 50 secs. , but subsequent players get 30 secs as already at their ball most of time and waited 50 secs for furthest player to hit. Same on the green as closer player(s) get to wait when furthest player putts. 3. Increase number of rules officials so as to speed up rulings on course. 4. First 20 groups off must play in under 4:15 or be penalized 2 strokes. This will keep field moving.
Lasers are allowed in PGA Championship. seems to work just fine. good point. thx!
Another good point. thx!
Shot clocks with penalties starting with a stoke penalty on the third infraction would be good. Banning AimPoint and putting lines on golf balls would help also. Allowing use of lasers would be helpful also. Something has to be done.
Too bad people didn't listen to Jack Nicklaus many years ago. Roll the ball back 20% and build some 12-hole courses. That would have saved thousands of acres and encouraged many more courses to be built. Pro rounds would be played more quickly and more amateurs would be accommodated at lower cost.
absolutely true. shot clock solves that problem, too. thx for reading.
Gee, have you missed all complaints about pace of play in pro golf? Speeding it up makes a better TV product, better in person viewing and better for competitors. It's hardly going to be "rapid-fire." Surely you're not in favor of slow play?
I agree with all the comments so far: ready golf, no alignment lines (if those are permitted why not alignment sticks, too?), no stepping on or anywhere near the line of putt (other than repairing pitchmarks and spikemarks), limits to caddie interaction, use of lasers.
However, I'm not a great fan of a limit to each and every stroke time. Some strokes in a round are much more awkward and important than others and some you might make a decision then have to change your mind when you address the ball. But the rule should be "is the player inconveniencing another competitor", whether playing alongside or waiting behind. If so the marshal should alert him to that, and a certain number of alerts should risk a penalty under the rules of golf: "play shall be continuous".
But a further point is that the comparison with stadium sports is not relevant. There is only one point of action in those and the whole audience - TV and at the venue - is looking at that one point, so delays affect everyone. TV audiences for golf, and most of those spectators on the course, aren't solely with the slow player so very few are concerned. The TV producer can easily switch to another player somewhere else and, if it's of interest, go back to the first player live or a recording from a few seconds before.
I would love to see a tournament on TV where there was fast cutting between players, also showing all the shots a player had taken on a hole in quick succession - one an eagle, next a triple bogey with a penalty or two. Viewers would stop complaining about speed of play then, they would have trouble keeping up with the action!
With respectful considerations to all the previous comments, even yours Gary, life & golf was never intended to mirror assembly-line manufacturing. To what gain - half an hour? Why not remove the 'gentlemanly' rule so that players don't wait at all but merely play their shots as soon as they are ready. Isn't that the essence of 'ready golf'??? Faster players would automatically drag slower players with them as Arnie said, "While we're still young".
But somehow, I think rapid-fire golf would make for a lesser game.....
The answer is simple. If the Lords of Augusta would implement a shot clock, there would be wailing and crying and threats of legal action and boycotts, but in the end everyone would show up and play (in about 3 hrs and 50 min), a Masters champion would be crowned, and the shot clock would become a standard part of the pro tour. The LOA are the only ones with the clout (and the BALLS) to get this done.
A further thought: Ban all alignment lines on golf balls. Do the math, up to 144 players bending over and carefully aligning their ball, stepping back to check, often stepping forward to do it again. I record all my sports broadcasts so I can fast-forward to the good parts.
Do you mean that having the EXACT perfect alignment of the lines on the ball isn't necessary on a 50-foot putt? How did anyone ever make a putt before they put those lines on the ball?
Limit caddie involvememt. Sometimes on the LPGA it looks like the player is a puppet or robot.
Let' move the players into the 21st Century and let them use range finders or GPS watches...
Then they don't have to have a 5 minutes discussion wit their caddie...
We all use devices in amateur tournaments... so why not let the pros do the same.
Caddies add to slow play. I don’t get to consult some guy about my next shot or the line on my putt. I look at my watch if I’m in doubt and then hit. Give golfers all the same watch and tell the caddies to shut up. No help on putts at all.
Absolutely true. How incredibly annoying is it to see a player and his caddie have what seems like an endless conversation on a basic shot from the middle of the fairway? Both while staring at a yardage book, of course!