AJGA Averages 4:17 In 2013

Ryan Lavner sums up the AJGA announcement on Morning Drive to tout their 4 hours, 17 minute 2013 pace of play average.

According to AJGA Executive Director Stephen Hamblin, that was six minutes faster than last year and much of the improvement could be attributed to the system of first player holing out heading to the next tee.

At the AJGA level, the tournament committee designates six holes for timing checkpoints, where volunteers are stationed to record both the threesomes’ gap time relative to the group ahead and to the overall time par for the course. In recent years, this system has been duplicated at the college level.

The AJGA said its quickest tournament was the Kansas Junior at Buffalo Dunes, where the average pace of play was 3 hours, 50 minutes. The fastest round of the year was 3 hours, 23 minutes, while the low round of the year played in less than four hours was Wes Artac’s 10-under 62 at the Genesis Shootout.

The interview:

LGU Sets Old Course Time Par At 4:30

Considering it took almost six hours the last time they played the Ricoh Women's Open at St. Andrews, this from Susan Simpson of the Ladies Golf Union seems optimistic.

Nick Rodger reports:

"This week is the only week we deal with the professionals and we've obviously got to deal with two other organising bodies too. But we have full support from the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour for our slow-play policies. The rules officials out there are under instruction to come down hard on any slow play. We've set four hours and 30 minutes and we think that's achievable."

"While we're young" Was All Rodney

Gary Mihoces talks to Rodney Dangerfield's bride, Joan, who thinks Rodney would be doing cartwheels over the new USGA ad campaign using his ad-libbed "while we're young line," even if they aren't doing anything about slow play in their men's and women's Open championships. Okay I threw in that last part.

As she prepares to laungh a new website, www.rodney.com, she puts into context what Caddyshack meant to Rodney's career:

She says Dangerfield "forfeited a high-paying Vegas gig to do Caddyshack — and for peanuts," she said. "He actually lost money making the movie. But it did open doors for him and helped him kind of live the movie star life, which you know was fun for him."

Caddyshack was her husband's "biggest break in film." It helped launch him into starring roles in films such as Easy Money and Back to School.

She said she contacted Jon Peters, executive producer of Caddyshack, to confirm Rodney had come up with the "while we're young" line.

"He assured me that Rodney did," she said. "And it sounds like a line Rodney would come up with anyway because of his comments just in general life ... born out of impatience and frustration.''

There was also this about Tiger:

"Rodney was aware that Tiger Woods had mentioned that Caddyshack was his favorite movie," she said. "... He was especially proud of that because, again, he always wondered, 'Does the golf crowd really look down on the movie?' "

Alex Myers talked to Paula Creamer about how her "while we're young" spot came about and she acknowledged that while there's a long way to go, the timing of the launch might not have helped matters.

"I think it's coming around," said Creamer, who has a 10-year-old cousin that came to see her play, but isn't interested in picking up the game because 'it takes too long.' "That whole service announcement might not have had the best timing, but now that the two hardest venues are out of the way. Who knows?"

PGA Tour Slugs Break 4 Hours Thanks To Looming Monday Finish!

Because of the decision not to tee off early in threesomes off split tees--a controversial call which John Strege explains may not have been to Greenbrier resort boss Jim Justice's liking--the Greenbrier Classic faced a fight to finish before Sunday night darkness.

While the rush may have benefitted tournament winner Jonas Blixt, third round leader Johnson Wagner wasn't quite so amused, reports Jason Sobel.

“It was dark, it was really dark,” said the 54-hole leader, who shot a 73 to finish in a four-way tie for second place. “We should have played threesomes early this morning. Not that, that would have made any difference with my round, but the last few holes I felt like we were just trying to finish.

Even better was this buried lede:

The final twosome played in three hours and 38 minutes.

That's right, they can break four hours in twosomes with marshals to find balls if it means not coming back the next day. But most weeks now that is not the case, which is why I know you'll be shocked to learn that the PGA Tour did not make Golf Channel's list of golf "entities" doing something about pace of play.

The final round highlights courtesy of PGA Tour Entertainment:

Video: AJGA Recently Set An Under Four Hours Time Par

Great stuff on Morning Drive today exposing the AJGA's pace of play work as part of Golf Channel's push this month. Namely, the AJGA getting to explain their check point and time par system that is working. It's a sharp contrast to the USGA's glossy campaign that is not backed up by the implementation of a time par system at the U.S. Open.

The most interesting thing I learned from AJGA executive director Stephen Hamblin and player representive Nicole Morales is their abandonment of the honor system and the 17-minutes a round saved by asking players to walk ahead to the next tee when they've holed out first. They also recently set a time par of 3:58 at an event and rounds averaged under that.

I also was intrigued by Hamblin's mention of this as a "safety issue" by keeping everyone out of midday hot weather an hour less a day. Considering the length of the days at the recent U.S. Open at Merion, that's not a bad point!