Ogilvy: "The things taking the fun out of golf"

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Geoff Ogilvy covers most of the things you'd expect someone of his character and wisdom to not care for in the modern game. Still, he offers his usual honesty and strong takes that makes this piece for Golf Australia worth your time.

On slow play, he describes something I once again saw multiple times at last week's Genesis Open, including from one player when his group was a par-5 behind the next group.

Penalty strokes would, of course, fix this...

If you do all the little things between shots quickly, you can almost take as long as you want over a shot and not fall behind.

On Tour, the most frustrating aspect of slow play is being ready to hit, then looking over to see the guy with the honour just about to start his pre-shot routine. In other words, he has been doing something else entirely at a time when he should have been working out his yardage and figuring what club he needs to use. It is just so thoughtless and selfish. And it drives me nuts.

I get that some players can have trouble taking the club away from the ball – Kevin Na, Sergio Garcia and Ben Crane spring to mind. And I have sympathy with such a problem. But still. It is relatively easy to get to that point quickly – even if you then struggle to start the backswing.

Na, We Don't Have A Problem: Retired Cricketer Mocks PGA Tour Slow Play

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H/T to Alex Myers for spotting the latest gem for the slow play files: a cricketer mocking last weekend's Genesis Open slow play and in particular, prime culprit Kevin Na. As we know, the PGA Tour embraces slow play and seems to think that as every other sport on the planet tries to speed up, apparently this kind of nonsense will fly.

Retired English cricketeer Kevin Pietersen is my kind of guy, he’s trying to save the rhinos and he’s openly mocking Kevin Na taking over a minute to hit a tap in putt last week at Riviera. Do I need to point out that it’s not a good look for golf when athletes in other sports are openly mocking golfers for taking too long? Or, in the case of the former cricketeer with 3.6 million followers, filming a follow up how-to video?

And his follow-up how-to for Na:

PGA Tour Going Against The (Sports) Grain On Pace Of Play

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The European Tour introduces a shot clock tournament this year in response to a growing sense the pro game takes too long. And while we have not seen the slow play "personal war" predicted by Chief Executive Keith Pelley when he took the job in 2015, the European Tour continues to suggest that it sees where the world is headed: toward shorter, tighter windows for sporting events.

Major League Baseball is working desperately to shorten games. Bold proposals will be floated at the upcoming owners meetings, even to the point of experimenting with radical plans for extra innings. This comes after the first wave of pace initiatives did not go far enough.

The NBA has already limited timeouts at the end of games and cut TV timeouts. The end of a game moves better.

The NFL attempted to address fan concerns about their long games but only made a half-hearted attempt at picking up the pace. At least they tried.

Even professional tennis is experimenting with a much faster product for the "NextGen".

The PGA Tour avoids enforcing its pace of play rules and, as we saw at Sunday's 6-hour Farmers Insurance Open that was tainted by J.B. Holmes, this is a tour rallying around a player who openly defied (paying) fans, his playing partners and common sense. He knew he could not be penalized so why rush?

We could blame the PGA Tour's slow-play apathy to now-retired Commissioner Tim Finchem's disdain for penalty strokes and his obsession with vanity optics (such as players taking off their caps to shake hands). Those concerns of the Commissioner's office about a player's brand taking hit made enforcement impossible for the tour's referees, who also face pressures in moving fields around from faster greens and distance-driven log-jams on half-par holes.

There was hope new Commissioner Jay Monahan would follow the progressive lead of colleagues like Adam Silver (NBA) or Rob Manfred (MLB) and realize that younger fans are far more interested in action sports that take less of their time. But forget the kids. Who can watch a sport that takes over five hours and featuring players who have no regard for anyone else but themselves? Imagine paying $55 to watch a guy not play ready golf and playing only when he absolutely feels ready.

By signaling this week he sympathized with the supposed plight of Holmes, Monahan confirmed he will not use the power of the Commissionership to speed up play. All Monahan had to do was suggest that with high winds and pressure, it was a tough spot but the fans were right to believe this was a less-than-ideal look for the sport, particularly at a time millions of non-golf fans had tuned in for the Grammy's.

Instead, Monahan made it hard to believe his tour is interested in gaining new fans or in addressing the concerns of longtime fans that some of today's players are just too slow to watch. The Holmes incident captured on camera what paying fans all-too-often see during a PGA Tour event: a player taking much longer than their allotted 40 seconds.

Meanwhile, the European Tour is forging ahead with pace-related initiatives on multiple fronts designed to draw in new fans and intrigue those bored with the sport. While some of the measures are extreme and a middle ground with the PGA Tour position is the ideal, at least the European Tour is building off of the prevailing view after golf's 2016 return to the Olympic Games: the professional sport is woefully ill-equipped to compete in the global sports marketplace at its current pace, scale and preferred format. The pro game will fade into irrelevance if it does not adapt in a world that loves sport more than ever, just in smaller doses.

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Justin Thomas, Commissioner Jay Monahan Have J.B. Holmes' Slow-Playing Back

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It's hardly a shocker that someone who speeds up a shot in hopes of taking advantage of a backstopping ball on the green has no problem with J.B. Holmes pitching a tent, even when at the expense of his playing partner and the PGA Tour product.

But that's Justin Thomas' view of last Sunday's debacle.

Brentley Romine, writing for Golfweek from the Waste Management Open, includes this from the current PGA Champion and Player Of The Year:

“I have J.B.’s back all day on that situation,” Thomas said Wednesday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. “It bothered me and I hate it for him. I went up to him (Tuesday) and told him … it was a great tournament for him, but I have a hard time saying I wouldn’t do anything differently than he did.

Again, nothing bad times and a penalty stroke now and then wouldn't fix. Or a "spirit of the rules" class.

Sadly, Commissioner Jay Monahan missed an opportunity to address speed of play, essentially confirming he will continue the do-nothing approach of his predecessor Tim Finchem.

From The Forecaddie's report from TPC Scottsdale where Monahan played the Wednesday pro-am and made excuses for Holmes taking over 4 minutes to play a shot:

“As it relates to J.B. … He was in the heat of the moment. It’s really hard to win out here. You’re trying to think through how you can get on the green in two with that amount of wind. I think he thought it would subside quickly, and it subsided and picked back up, and I think he said what he needed to say.”

There you go boys, take all the time you need until you get the wind you like.

Chubby On The Rebound: European Tour Challenge Tournament With Par Putting Banned!

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John Huggan of Golf World talks to beleaguered 10-percenter Chubby Chandler as the ink dries on his divorce from longtime pal Lee Westwood and other players (Willett, Fox) who left the ISM stable.

While Chandler likens the Westwood split to a divorce--with confidentiality agreements in place to ensure we never know why--Chandler is moving forward and one of his passion projects involves a European Challenge Tour event where par putting is not tolerated.

By way of example, next year’s European Challenge Tour is expected to feature an event that Chandler has a hand in in which par will be every player’s “friend.” In a bid to finally win the seemingly never-ending battle with slow play, every competitor will be banned from putting for par. As soon as a birdie has not been achieved, it will be ball-in-pocket and on to the next hole.

“It won’t just be that par doesn’t count. The players will be banned from putting out once they haven’t made a birdie,” Chandler says. “That way they will all be round in three hours. We will have two points for a birdie, five for an eagle and eight for an albatross. That’s been done before. But no putting for par, which counts as zero. So you can’t knock it out of a bunker to four-feet and putt for par. Not allowed. And that’s where things will speed up.”

Players will also get double points if they hole-out from off the green, and all points will double on the last three holes. “Everybody is in with a chance right to the end,” Chandler says. “That might all turn out wrong. But it could also be really exciting. We’ll see. We’re not changing the game that much. We’re just making it quicker and getting rid of the dull bits. No one really gives a bleep about eight-footers for par.”

 And yet, that's semingly all we ever see. So bring it on!

Player Reactions Suggest Shot Clock Golf Might Get Ugly

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I was fascinated reading the different takes to next year's Shot Clock Masters on the European Tour if nothing else because they were so far apart in assessing pace.

Josh Berhow at Golf.com included this quote from Dustin Johnson, asked if more tournaments should have a shot clock.

"Yeah, absolutely," he said on Wednesday, prior to the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, when asked if he would like to see a shot clock on the PGA Tour. "I think it would be very interesting. You'd see a lot of guys getting penalties on our Tour. Yeah, that would be quite fun, actually. I'd have plenty of time but there's a lot of guys that wouldn't. They would be getting a penalty on every hole."

And then there is Henrik Stenson, who plays at a very nice clip when he's on, but can be shockingly slow when he is game is off. Ready golf is not his thing when he's struggling, so if he plays in the Shot Clock Masters he might be in for a rude awakening. A penalty-a-hole awakening:

"I think you can tell that on any golf course around the world on a Saturday morning game, if you have players that are ready to play and hitting and when it's their turn, it can be very quick," Stenson said. "But if you have a foursome where the other three are standing around waiting, while one player is doing his hole preparation and execution, then it's going to be a very slow game. It's certainly enough time, as long as you are preparing while the others are hitting and getting ready."

This Will Actually Be A European Tour Event Title: The Shot Clock Masters

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We knew next June's Austrian Open was going to take slow play seriously with shot clocks and penalties and referrees. But this? The Shot Clock Masters...near Vienna. Psychoanalysis free of charge.

Alistair Tait fleshes out some of the details for Golfweek.com but does not reveal what the winner's jacket might look like. A track suit jacket perhaps?

Every player will be timed on every shot in Austria. The other big difference from GolfSixes is that the event will use the Tour’s official timing policy. Each player in the 120-man field will have 50 seconds for the first player in a group, with 40 seconds for subsequent players. A one-shot penalty will be handed out to players going over the time limit, and a red card will appear beside their name on the leaderboard.

European Tour To Unveil Shot Clock At '18 Austrian Open

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Alasdair Reid reports for The Times that a shot clock will be part of next June's Austrian Open, replete with group referees, 40 second limits and one-shot penalties.

Reid says European Tour tournament committee member David Howell supports the idea but is concerned that we won't see great recovery shots if this became a regular practice. However, Howell says the committee signed off because the event in question can have its field size reduced.

“We’ve discussed it and agreed it should take place,” Howell said. “Among the committee, we think it’s worthwhile trialling that week in those specific circumstances. The field is not the strongest so it can be shortened without doing anyone too much harm. That allows the opportunity to get around quickly, so that’s why it is that week.”

Romo Hit With Slow Play Penalty En Route To Western Cut Miss

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Former Cowboys QB and scratch golfer Tony Romo struggled in his Western Amateur debut, but the future CBS football analyst did struggle to keep pace, writes the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein.

Romo beat only two of the 155 players who completed 36 holes, and he was assessed a one-stroke penalty Wednesday for slow play.

"He was very gracious about it," Western Golf Association tournament chief Vince Pellegrino said. "His group fell behind and missed two checkpoints. The others in the group did not receive a penalty. They made an effort to close the gap. Tony readily accepted it."

The WGA invited Romo to draw more eyes to the event and highlight the outstanding play of amateurs such as Florida State's John Pak, who shot a competitive course-record 63 on Wednesday, and Illinois' Nick Hardy.

PGA Tour Doing "Comprehensive" Slow Play Review

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Bob Harig kicks off Players week with an extensive ESPN.com profile of new Commissioner Jay Monahan.

Much of what Monahan says mirrors comments he made on ShackHouse (message discipline students take notice!), but one area we did not cover on the show stood out in Harig's piece. Monahan, to date, has brushed aside most pace of play talk. But this sounds like he's taking a harder look at the matter.

"As it relates to slow play, a lot has happened behind the scenes in the last 12 to 18 months. We've developed a Shotlink dashboard for our rules officials where you can at any point in time see where a player is relative to time-par, see where a player is relative to their own historical averages. And we disclose all that information to the players, and so the players are well aware. (Players are only given information about themselves, not other players.) They have access now.

"And we're in the midst of a comprehensive review on pace of play. It's not something that we just say it's our policy and that's how it's always going to be. We recognize that with technology, we can be far more intelligent about what's happening. Now what do you do with it? I would venture to say at this point we are taking a good hard look at it.''

PGA Tour's Slow Play Policy Needs Work (First)

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As the European Tour unveils a shot clock this weekend at GolfSixes, AP's Doug Ferguson considers the PGA Tour's first slow play penalty in nearly 22 years and says the policy is the problem.

Talking to players who did cite the right causes (fast greens, Brian Harman) or reasons no action has occurred sooner (tournaments somehow finishing on time, Pat Perez), it still comes down to policy.

Here's what is not in the book - when players are put on the clock, that's not their first interaction with a rules official. They first are asked to pick up the pace, a courtesy to allow for outside circumstances (such as a lost ball). Secondly, while timing is not an exact science, players are not given a bad time if they go a few seconds over the limit. A bad time generally is a really bad time.

Either way, it's a bad policy.

''If a slow player gets behind and they're asked to pick it up, the first question they ask is, 'Am I on the clock?' Because if they're not on the clock, they're not going to change,'' Haas said. ''If they are on the clock, they change. I don't like that. Because then all they do is run down the fairway.''

Kerr Apologizes For Slow Play; LPGA Still Mum On The Insanity Of Playing The Same (Lame) Hole Six Times

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Credit Cristie Kerr for taking to Twitter to (sort of) apologize for her deliberate tactics in Sunday's Volunteers of America Shootout. But the silence from the LPGA Tour, which damaged its product in the name of bringing golfers back to corporate tents over and over again, and noted here in Randall Mell's GolfChannel.com rant. The move did a disservice to Las Colinas Country Club and the tournament. Given that this is not the first time a playoff has done this merry-go-round, the tour deserves the hits being leveled.

The Kerr Tweets:

 

 

LPGA Nightmare: Playoff Tests The 18th Hole Six Times, Cristie Kerr Slow Plays

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The LPGA had a chance to share the spotlight with a rain-delayed Zurich Classic on Golf Channel, and while the network (in my biased view) did a solid job managing a real traffic jam, they could not overcome the LPGA product failings.

Namely that the tour, even after criticism following past deja-vu-all-over-again fiascos, insisted on conducting a sudden death playoff on only one hole. That would be Las Colinas's less-than-perfect 18th hole.

This meant eventual winner Haru Nomura and slow-poke Cristie Kerr played the 18th hole six excruciating times.

And then there was Kerr, who played at a painfully slow clip and was eventually called out by lead analyst Judy Rankin for trying to slow play her opponent. Twitter appreciated Rankin's tough call.

 Rooting for Cristie Kerr to lose now. Glad Judy Rankin finally called her out for the ridiculous slow play. Rather see PGA finish only here.

To be clear, none of this taints Nomura's win in the Volunteers of America Shootout. In fact, the world No. 18 ability to channel Kerr's gamesmanship and the lousy playoff hole makes it that much more impressive.

Will Gray at GolfChannel.com on how this does, however, taint the LPGA:

The LPGA should have learned from that particularly monotonous ending, but apparently they did not. So let Sunday’s anticlimactic conclusion outside Dallas serve as final reinforcement that any playoff rotation that calls for the same hole over and over needs to be thrown away and promptly re-written.

The LPGA should have learned from that particularly monotonous ending, but apparently they did not. So let Sunday’s anticlimactic conclusion outside Dallas serve as final reinforcement that any playoff rotation that calls for the same hole over and over needs to be thrown away and promptly re-written.

Not To Be Outdone, Euro Tour Hands Lee A Slow Play Penalty

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The PGA Tour's first slow play penalty since the Clinton Administration's first term awoke the world's pace policeman emeritus, John Paramor.

The same European Tour rules official who penalized a 14-year-old playing in the Masters, did not even wait 48 hours to be outdone. This time, Paramor added a stroke to Soomin Lee's card following his third bad Volvo China Open time.

From Alistair Tait's Golfweek story:

Lee had already been handed two bad times before European Tour chief referee John Paramor informed Lee he’d picked up a third bad time on the 14th. The 23-year-old’s bogey on the par 4 turned into a double bogey, and contributed to his 1-over 73 to move him to joint seventh

Paramor delivers the news here...I love seeing Lee start running immediately. See, penalties work!

The First PGA Tour Slow Play Penalty Since 1995 Is...Something!

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Okay so it wasn't proud slow poke Ben Crane or one of the other known non-ready golf turtles. And no, it wasn't exactly the kind of self-indulgent pacing that you'd love to see rewarded with a penalty.

We have to start somewhere!

Golfweek's Jeff Babineau with the details of Brian Campbell and Miguel Angel Cabrallo--yes they are confirmed PGA Tour golfers--teaming up in Thursday's foursomes to take Glen Day off the hook.

Campbell and Carballo, originally alternates in this event who got in as a team when Kevin Chappell (already in the field) captured the Valero Texas Open on Sunday, were paired with two local club professionals from the Gulf States PGA Section, section champion Kyle Ramey and his partner, Phil Schmitt, who played at LSU. The group fell out of position on the 10th hole, and an official notified both teams they were on the clock.

Carballo (warning) and Campbell (penalty) each failed to play shots within the 40 seconds allowed under the pace-of-play policy, and were informed on 14 that they’d be penalized a stroke. Ramey and Schmitt had one bad time, and received a warning.

“Team event, we’re playing with section pros, who were struggling a bit, hate to say it, but it kind of put us behind the clock,” Campbell said. “When you keep hitting bad shots, it’s hard to catch up time.”

Blaming the section pros...Jay, I have Pete on line one!

So this wasn't quite the example-setting moment we'd all hoped for to make PGA Tour golf a better in-person. Or to actually send a message to those who have thumbed their nose at the pace policy. I'll still take it though!