The PGA Tour is well into their 2025 season as the tour has now approached their west coast swing until the late winter when they move to Florida on the east coast. Through the tournaments in Hawaii, and now California, there has been one main storyline which has dominated all others this year.

Slow play.

The Tour players moving at a snail’s pace isn’t anything new, but with the current societal pace increasing, the pace of play has become a larger issue by the passing week. Throw in the fact the TGL has an imposed 40 second shot clock, something all tour players in the league have said they’d love to see implemented on the real tour, and you have yourself a growing issue.

The PGA Tour has at least acknowledged the issue, and has proposed several initiatives they are hoping improves the pace of play.

Among the proposed initiatives are:

• Testing the use of distance-measuring devices, which would allow players and caddies to use rangefinders during a tournament in order to acquire shot distances quicker. Officials didn’t disclose which events will feature the use of such devices, but PGA Tour senior vice president of rules and competitions Gary Young said they are hoping to get a sample of different kinds of events and field sizes.
• Publicizing pace-of-play data for players using “average stroke time,” which is the average amount of time it takes a player to take a stroke using Shotlink data.
• Disclosing fines and penalties for players who violate slow-play rules in order to satiate fan feedback for more transparency, as well as players who have called for more slow-play accountability.
• Using the PGA Tour’s new video review center to make calls on rulings quicker and more efficiently.

The question now is whether any of these proposed initiatives will actually help. When it comes to checking distances, the use of distance-measuring devices certainly would help, but more so when a player hits a wayward shot and the caddy can get a yardage faster. Ultimately, the most time spent is within 50 yards when sometimes players will walk from 50 yards up to the green to see the slope, pin placement, etc. before walking back to hit their shot. A rangefinder isn’t going to help speed up that part of the pace of play.

Making pace-of-play information and data and potential fines public would shine a light on the biggest culprits, but it remains unclear if it would change anything which would be deemed a positive step. Lastly, using video to help make rulings quicker would absolutely be a wise decision to not make players, and therefore pairings, wait for rules officials to get to them on a course for something they could potentially handle via communication device from a video review center.

Some fans want a shot clock, and that makes sense, but the PGA Tour suggests they have something like a shot clock already in place.

According to PGA Tour senior vice president of rules and competitions Gary Young, although the tour does not have a public version of a shot clock like the new TGL does, it does have an internal shot clock (the aforementioned “average stroke time” unit) that has facilitated meetings with players and brought about awareness of slow play and an increased effort to speed up play.

“This is about changing player behavior,” PGA Tour chief marketing and communications officer Andy Weitz said. “We really want to send a message to fans that we’re evolving.”

Any steps in the right direction in terms of pace of play would go a long way in helping the overall product. In last week’s Farmer’s Insurance Open, the final round of Harris English’s win took well over 5 hours to complete. That just isn’t going to be sustainable if the tour wants to reach a new audience.

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