Players Championship: Slow progress on PGA Tour-LIV deal & slow play dominate Sawgrass agenda
And, no matter how hard the golf media is trying to do, the commissioner has planned how to achieve this.
Monahan does not play the verbal “Bazball”; every non-answer is determined by the delicate nature of golf’s future.
In his upcoming place, it’s an acceptance–finally–the men’s professional golf has problems in slow races. It seems that the steps are being taken, and the biggest criminal will start naming and humiliating.
Monahan, who announced that he would implement the task force recommendations in an attempt to eliminate one of the sport’s biggest crises, said: “We are committed to addressing the speed of the game.”
“We will start releasing statistics related to game speed later this season.” From April 14, the test will begin on the feeder circuit of the PGA Tour to sentence the slowest golfer to the slowest.
Monahan also confirmed that range finders will be allowed to be used in the match between next month’s Masters and the U.S. PGA Championship in May to see if this improves.
“We are listening to our fans, we are responding and obviously this is where they want to see improvements,” the commissioner said.
“I think the real commitment of a full-scale player is to make sure we are doing everything we can to improve, and these three steps are just the beginning.”
It’s a clear shift for decades, and the group insists that slow games are not a problem. Competitor LIV Tour has imposed stroke penalties on slow driving, and now the PGA Tour is starting to respond.
“I think it’s a very positive development,” Monaghan insisted.
“I think it’s interesting, when you have six player directors sitting on our board, you have 16 players advisory board members, there’s a lot of shaking your heads and there’s a sense that this is the area we need to improve.”
Two-time main champion Collin Morikawa said publishing data shows which players are faster than other players, so it is a good idea to identify the slowest.
The 2021 Open champion said: “I don’t know why you don’t want it to be released.”
“You just have to start giving the actual penalties to men, whether it’s a stroke or a federal transaction amount (point deduction). What I’ve learned is that monetary fines are useless.”
Morikava added: “There is anything to hide, right? If you’re slow, you know you’re slow. I mean, if you don’t know, there’s a problem.
“For me, there is no problem letting it go. It just makes things better because that way, you either have a goal for yourself or have more pressure to hope you pick it up, or you’ll be punished. It’s simple.”
Doubles US PGA champion Justin Thomas agrees to reveal publicly which players who are slowest will have beneficial effects.
“No one wants to be called that,” said the Ryder Cup star.
“I was the first to admit that I was on the slow side of the player. It bothered me, but I’ve talked to many officials like I’m wondering why I’m going to be slow because obviously any slower player thinks they’re not slow.”
Fans will certainly welcome this long-awaited move to increase the pace of the game’s biggest tour.
But those who are waiting for some kind of resolution to reintegrate the game together are still playing the waiting game.
