The Final Round Of The Players Took...

...how long? I've been told by a few people it was 4 hours, 40 minutes. The last pairing teed off at 2:30 according to PGATour.com and Paul Goydos missed his par putt on 18 at 7:10. 

But to confirm, I thought this pretty relevant statistic would be mentioned in a game story. I've searched them here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. No luck. Plenty of mentions of 40 m.p.h. winds, but no mention of an equally important stat noting that the grueling round took an hour longer than a normal PGA Tour twosomes round.

Isn't that kind of important to know, particularly with all of the recent slow play talk?

Comments

[RM]

Maybe it wasn't mentioned because the tournament was actually exciting, compelling, dramatic, etc. I watched it on Tivo last night and never even fast-forwarded it. I even watched the trophy presentation in real time with much anticipation. That kind of personal TV viewing is normally reserved only for majors...uh-oh.

[Non-existant]

Slow play doesn't exist on television--it's almost never mentioned, unless the commentators become annoyed that they can't stay on until the sked finish (usu on Sat.) as cranky Venturi used to remark upon (w/o any backup facts as to time it took).

It has never been mentioned except in passing maybe at Masters. Frank Hannigan used to harp on it during USGA events on ABC/ESPN, making fun of the fact that the women's Open couldn't even get the first or 2nd rounds completed even w/o a weather delay..I'm sure it didn't endear himself to his successors at Far Hills anymore than his equipment rants have. The two-tee start for the men's Open was basically a concession to slow play and to avoid the problem of not completing the first two rounds.

With all the talk about getting more people to play and take up golf, isn't "it takes too much time'' usually reason 1 or 1-A people cite against it? And isn't it the pro tours' and governing bodies' inherent responsibility to set a good example? They've failed here as miserably as in equipment standards. It only gets worse.


The USGA and PGA Tour have clear-cut, established guidelines on how long it should take to play a hole, make a stroke, etc...If anyone wanted to make for compelling TV, they'd put a stopwatch on these guys vs. what the guidelines are and then ask the (obvious) question, "What aren't the guidelines ever enforced?"

Of course, such an approach would surely not please Sawgrass or Far Hills. But it sure would or could be riveting!!

[Joe]

Best line about slow play was uttered by Lanny Wadkins a few years ago as Ben Crane was taking forever sizing up his approach shot from the rough.

"The lie isn't too bad here, the rough isn't that long, of course it could grow some before he hits it"

lol

[iacas]

To be fair, it was pretty windy, and the stakes (read: $$$$) were pretty high. That course isn't one that lets you get away with small misses.

And 3:40 for a PGA Tour twosome on Sunday? When's the last time that happened?