"Will speeding up bring scores down for Spieth?"

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That's the question Jason Sobel's story poses after Jordan Spieth explain why he's trying to speed up. While he's earned a reputation as a slow poke, I would counter that television makes him look slow because he's been spending a lot of time over the ball. Whereas someone who is much slower like Zach Johnson, spends ages making a decision and when television comes to him, we rarely see that.

Anyway, Spieth has heard the criticism from fans and his instructor, Sobel says.

After the second round, Spieth didn't use playing quicker as an excuse. In fact, he credits the process for helping his game.

"The quicker part actually helps me, because then I just get up there and fire away," he explained Friday. "The more I can do that, actually I think the better off [I am with a] kind of gun-slinging mentality, just to go up and hit the way I always have played."

European Tour: Slow Play "Monitoring" Worked

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In the aftermath of Jordan Spieth's monitoring for slow play, I'm still trying to understand how the policy works for a full field event without an official for each group.

But leaving that aside, The Guardian's Ewan Murray reports the European Tour's numbers of successful "monitorings" at Abu Dhabi's HSBC.

In round one, 18 groups were monitored. By rounds two, three and four, that figure had been slashed to eight, four and six, respectively. The message, it seemed, hit home. When Daniel Brooks was issued with a warning on Friday after taking excessive time over a tee shot, he embarked on a run that saw him take 20 seconds or fewer – in one occasion just nine – before hitting.

But as Murray points out, the entire affair seemed silly on a course with slick greens and some of the most obnoxious hack-out rough we've seen in some time.

There are other ways in which golf’s ruling bodies could quicken tournament play. Abu Dhabi is an example of a course with ridiculous rough just a short hop from fairways, which is necessary to keep scoring down because, simply, equipment allows the ball to travel far too far. If that scourge was properly looked at, there would be a knock-on effect and courses could be set up differently.

USGA Pace Of Play Study Moving Slowly But Surely

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My GolfDigest.com report from the USGA Pace of Play Symposium also appears in Golf World. The takeaway: the USGA hasn't dialed in its numbers and presented a definitive white paper in nearly two years. How dare they?

Nope, it's darned exciting, is what it is!

Instead of another golf organization trying to "grow" the game or help operators maximize profits, the effort to study pace of play is morphing into other sustainability efforts with the hopes of a stronger end effort. So while the focus isn't crystal clear yet, the initial data, research and input from some great minds could ultimately make these efforts the best thing the USGA has ever done. Throw in the joint effort with the University of Minnesota to create a golf course lab and we may actually see some progress in the war on short-sighted course management.

Anyway, my overview, with more to come on this year's testing of the flagstick measuring device unveiled last week.

Jordan Spieth Is Introduced To The "Monitoring" Penalty

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I didn't even have a chance to study the European Tour's new slow play policy before the great John Paramor was not only implementing "monitoring", but going after the World No. 1.

Rex Hoggard on Morning Drive explained what happened during round one of the HSBC in Abu Dhabi. And the crew discussed it as well, deciding this is a positive step for golf.

In looking at the policy, the price for a "monitoring" penalty is pretty steep for your average European Tour player. For Spieth? The lost €2,600 probably isn't going to be noticed by Spieth after buying his second home in a year and receiving a nice appearance fee this week.

From John Huggan's report, Spieth took it in stride but also suggested there may be a bit of a loophole in the policy.

“I understand that, if we are being timed and I take too long I get a bad time. I understand the rule,” Spieth continued. “But it doesn’t make sense when we had caught up and were going off the clock. It had no effect on the round. It’s a bit of a grey area. John Paramor was very respectful though. My thing was not to fight it there and go about finishing my round. But I will be asking. I just don’t want to be worrying about it in future rounds.”

From the European Tour's website:

“Monitoring” by referees will take place as soon as a group has been seen to be out of position. All Players will be notified that they are to be “Monitored” but the “Monitoring” will not be part of a player’s record.

• However, any player exceeding the time permitted for a stroke (40 seconds with additional 10 seconds if first to play) while being “Monitored” will be assessed a “Monitoring Penalty”.

• Any player having a “Monitoring Penalty” will be “Timed” from the next tee unless the group has regained its position.

• If a “Monitored” group loses further time, the group or those players within the group who are deemed to be the cause of the delay will be timed.

• If a “Monitored” group fails to gain time, the official will decide whether to continue “Monitoring” or alternatively, commence timing. All players will be so informed.

A “Monitoring Penalty” will have the same status as a “Bad Time” except it will not count towards any golfing penalty.  A player having either two “Monitoring Penalties” or “Bad Times” or a combination, will be fined €2,600 (or the sterling equivalent of £2,000) rising by €2,600 (or the sterling equivalent of £2,000) for each successive “Monitoring Penalty” or “Bad Time”.

Additionally, any player who is seen to have taken twice the Time Permitted for a stroke (80 seconds or 100 seconds if first to play), will be assessed a “Monitoring Penalty” whether the player’s group was in position or not.

Got all of that?

I'm all for speeding things up, but on day one of your most watched event in some time, might be a bit overkill. Especially when the course is setup with absurd rough that does nothing to speed up play.

Reactions To R&A, European Tour Slow Play Agenda

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That's John Huggan's take on news of the R&A making pace of play a focus. As much as distance leaps are to blame, Huggan notes the absurdity of green speed not getting more attention. Then again, Saturday play at The Open was lost to green speed, so that's a tricky subject too.

Huggan writes for GolfDigest.com:

Unbelievably, only once during the two-day conference in the Home of Golf was there any mention of excessive green speeds as an aspect of the game that adds, according to a Danish Golf Union study, “ten minutes to every round for every foot over nine on the Stimpmeter.” And never was the absurd distances leading players hit the modern ball -- and in turn the ever longer walks from greens to distant back tees -- cited as an obviously detrimental factor in pace of play.

Lorne Rubenstein has written and read about slow play for a long time, so he welcomed news of the R&A's focus, but also wondered how much we want to rush through a round.

Slow play has not exactly been something that the golfing authorities worldwide have been quick to tackle, really tackle, or solve. This isn’t because they’ve not studied the problem enough. The subject comes up frequently, and has for many years. The USGA held a pace of play symposium a year ago, when the results of 17 research projects were presented.

But give the R&A marks for getting various people and organizations together to discuss the matter, and, in the process, enjoy some fine claret. As the PGA master pro Denis Pugh tweeted from the conference, “Most enjoyable evening at R&A. Food, wine, and company first class.” Pugh is an advocate of faster play, and his experience informs him that golfers are more successful when, as Gene Sarazen once wrote, they “miss ‘em quick.”

If so many golfers, and not only those in St. Andrews this week, believe slow play is a scourge, well, why don’t they play faster? Are they as bothered by slow play as much as we suppose? Or, is this a case of leading the witness, as in posing multiple-choice responses to a question: “What is hurting golf most? (a) cost (b) slow play, (c) difficulty, and so on.

I think the bigger picture story here, as discussed today on Morning Drive, is the R&A's willingness to let people in the trenches tell their story and to suggest it's time to get more aggressive with slow-pokes.

But as I wrote in Golf World, this is also setting up a battle between Team Europe (R&A/European Tour) and Team USA (PGA Tour/USGA), where Europe is signaling a willingness to crack down and even embarrass some slow pokes. Of course, that is a notion offensive to PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who has discouraged the administration of rules in place to deal with slow play. Reason #459 he needs to retire.

Here is Slumbers talking about the conference on Morning Drive with Gary Williams. It's one of the first chances to hear from the R&A's new head man. He comes off very well.

GB&I Captain: Rangefinders Having Detrimental Effect On Players

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Martin Dempster empties his very full notebook from the R&A's pace of play conference with more interesting notes. He added this from the discussion about playing ready golf and the use of rangefinders to speed things up:

“We are always fearful of eroding player skill. We never want to diminish that because it is at the heart of the game,” added Rickman. “But we will look at what the rules can do to contribute to speeding the game up for ordinary golfers.”

He reckoned the “jury is out” on whether or not distance measuring devices have helped in that respect. Nigel Edwards, a two-time winning Walker Cup captain, agreed, claiming he felt they were having a detrimental effect on the development of young players. “They have decreased the course management skills of elite amateurs,” said the Welshman, another of the speakers. “They just zap the distance and fire at the flag. I’d rather see them not used as players are not managing their golf balls around a course.”

R&A Chief Slumbers: Publish The Names Of Slow-Pokes!

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Knowing how hard the tours work to protect the names of slow play offenders, it was refreshing to see new R&A Chief Martin Slumbers suggest outing the slowest during the R&A's two day "Time for Golf" summit. Granted, the idea is not very original, but to hear it coming from one of the leaders of the five families makes the suggestion most eye-opening.

From the last graph of Martin Dempster's Scotsman account from St. Andrews:

While delegates heard that the European Tour posts a list at every tournament of players who have either been timed or fined, it is not normal practice for that to be made public. “I think there is a fear to publish,” said Slumbers in reference to slow play culprits across the game. “But I think it would be better for dialogue to publish some names and numbers in both the club and professional game.”

The story also includes some other highlights of the session, with a Spieth slow play story from the 2015 Open and Stephen Gallacher wishing the European Tour would use time par stations ala the LET.

Reading Dempster's early account of the R&A's two day "Time for Golf" summit, the two greatest culprits to longer rounds did not seem to have be on the radars of those chosen to speak. Nor even discussed in any depth given my trust in Dempster's reporting skills and awareness of the issues facing the sport.

Then again, talking excessive green speeds or lengthening of courses to offset huge distance gains in St Andrews when the R&A is host, could get the speaker relegated to a lifetime sentence of Castle Course golf.

Anyway, it seems most of the attention was focused on those terrible architects who build too many bunkers, not greens Stimping at 12 or courses with long walks to new back tees. From Dempster's Scotsman report:

One of the game’s up-and-coming course designers, South African Paul Jansen entitled his talk as “Hollywood golf” due to so many new layouts being “excessive, all about appearance and lacking in content”. He highlighted how pace of play was affected by club golfers often “ping ponging from one bunker to another” and insisted: “Less is more.” Picking up on that, his fellow course architect, Martin Ebert, revealed that he’d been commissioned to take out 40 bunkers at Royal Lytham at the same time as four new ones were being added at the Open Championship venue. “The course is proving too difficult for the members and also the maintenance cost with revetting is enormous,” he said. “We think this will help the everyday players, but also maintain the challenge for the best players.”

Bubba Wins! Now He Must Avoid Parking Lot Fights

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ESPN.com has posted a fun survey of 103 PGA Tour pros, including 21 major winners from 20 different countries, not including Florida.

The result that's getting all of the attention, deservedly so, involves the defending Masters champ Bubba Watson. Let's just say he trounces Patrick Reed and cagey vets Robert Allenby and Rory Sabbatini in the most-likely-to-get-beat-up-without-anyone-coming-to-his-rescue division.

ESPN.com surveyed 103 tour pros, 21 of which were major champions, and gathered their thoughts on myriad topics. The players came from 20 different countries and their answers are below.

Other polls of note: top bucket list course (Cypress Point edges Pine Valley, no doubt because one is almost fully restored and one isn't...you know how discerning these pros are.)

And big congrats to Kevin Na for winning player-they'd-most-like-to-see-penalized division.

You've earned it big guy!

Bears Club Fine For MJ; Exclusive Video Of Meeting With Jack

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Tim Rosaforte reported in his Golf World video diary that Michael Jordan texted him to clear the air regarding his plans to build what the Jupiter market so desperately needs: an ultra-exclusive golf club.

MJ confirms he's interviewing architects, with Tom Doak as the leading candidate to design the course, Rosaforte reports. The NBA legend mostly wanted to deny that pace of play at Jack Nicklaus' Bears Club is driving him away.

However, my sources suggest Jordan was called into Mr. Nicklaus' office at Bears Club and the two had a healthy discussion about the claims in golf.com's original report, even sharing a Fresca to break the ice. Here's the exclusively obtained footage: