As the COVID-19 lockdown continues, many golf courses remain one of the few recreational venues open. And while I remain thankful that I can continue to get outside, soak up some vitamin D and play the game I love, man has the course become crowded. I used to be able to go out after work at 5:30, and finish 18 by 7:30, sometimes earlier when alone and hitting the ball well. Now, I can only squeeze in 9 during that time and am happy to be paired with a group so I don’t feel as if I am waiting on every shot.
To be fair, I am not a victim of slow play. The pace of play is an acceptable 1:45 – 2:00 hours per 9 or four hours per 18. I was just spoiled at having the course to myself in the afternoons when golf was not the only outlet available. I do think the benefit of a private club is a satisfactory pace of play. Golf Is becoming the new escape for many. I expect many public courses who were overcrowded before, have slowed down even more. I had a co-worker tell me about trying to go to the driving range this past week at a local par 3 course and that it was utter chaos.
This got me thinking about the pace of play in general. Ironically this is the weekend that the PGA was supposed to play the RBC Heritage in Harbour Town and introduce a new pace of play policy. Essentially, the PGA will put “slow players” on a shot clock of a 60 second average for all shots.
PGA fans will remember that in 2019, the pace of play was a big topic. Watching Brooks Koepka tap his watch while playing with JB Holmes at the Open Championship was classic. JB Holmes and Bryson DeChambeau are the names that we constantly hear brought up when we talk slow play.
My question is this: Do we forgive slow play from the bigger stars?
In 2017 Jordan Spieth was named fourth on the slow player list in a Sports Illustrated anonymous poll of pros. Jason Day is criticized as being slow. But although we hear criticism, I don’t ever recall them being called out in the media the way Holmes and DeChambeau have been.
And what about those excessive shot times, shots that take minutes to play? The new PGA rules will give an Excessive Shot Time to anyone in the field who takes more than 120 seconds to play a single shot without a good reason. What is a “good reason”? We have seen Tiger walk up to the green, examine the contour, and walk back 100 yards to his ball to take his pitch shot. How long did it take fans to move the boulder for Tiger to play his shot back in the 1999 Phoenix open? I think of watching Bubba play that shot out of the Pine Straw at the Master’s, and most egregiously, Jordan Spieth taking over 20 minutes to take a drop and play from the driving range in the 2017 Open Championship. Do those delays qualify as “good reasons”? What effect do these delays have on their playing partners or the groups behind them? I could see this one long delay affecting competitors more than just a slow, drawn-out round.
We as amateurs on our golf courses would not be afforded these amounts of time, nor should we. We don’t have millions resting on the next shot. We would be robbed of seeing some magic our PGA heroes produce when swinging their wands, but should there be a cap on the time to take a shot no matter the reason?
Interested in hearing other’s perspectives. Are your courses more crowded during this lockdown? What are your thoughts on the new pace of play rules, and how they should apply in various circumstances?