Time Is Of The Essence: Shot Clock Masters Preview And Primer

The European Tour's Austrian Open is the "shot clock Masters" and it could not come at a better time for golf, as players bog down for reasons both legit (backups due to reachable par-5s) and not so legit (they take forever and don't play ready golf). 

Here are the five things you must know about this event according to the European Tour.

Essentially you need to know this: 50 seconds to hit a shot, 40 if you are the second or third in a group to play. You have two timeouts to call in case you need extra time.  Otherwise, penalty strokes will be flying.

MorningRead.com's Adam Schupak talked to Keith Pelley about the origin of this idea and to some players who are for the Slow Play Masters, and some against it.

So, Pelley canvassed his players with a simple two-question survey. First question: Do you think slow play is a problem on the European Tour?

"If you answered ‘no,’ the survey was over," Pelley said. "But if you answered ‘yes,’ you got one more question."

Do you want the European Tour to act seriously on curbing this challenge?

Within two days, 70 percent of the membership had responded in favor of taking action.

"We need to try and modernize our game," Pelley said. "The millennials have an attention span of 12 seconds. The Gen Z have an attention span of eight seconds. We're living in a society that is completely different, and I think every game and every sport and every business is looking to modernize themselves, and if you don't, then you run the risk of falling behind."

Matt Adams and I discussed on this week's Alternate Shot: