There's one thing that will "definitely" help slow play according to PGA Tour pro Byeong Hun An - and that's giving players penalty strokes.
The PGA Tour are taking the slow play issue very seriously this year after it was a main takeaway from a big fan survey recently completed.
Certain fields have already been made smaller in an effort to speed things up, but it's still a problem as CBS' Dottie Pepper explained when complaining about the pace at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Players can currently get fined for slow play, but An says the main way to cut it out is to impose penalty shots on offenders.
"Giving penalty strokes will DEFINITELY help slow play," An wrote on X, before answering some questions about other slow play issues.
The PGA Tour is set to trial using rangefinders in tournaments in the hope that having yardages quickly available will take some time out of the rounds.
An's not so sure though, and thinks rangefinders may favor the more wayward hitters who would struggle to get an accurate yardage otherwise.
"It hurts for those who hits fairways. And helps the guy who hits wayyyy off," An wrote in response to the use of rangefinders.
"We will use rangefinders and still check numbers, yardage books, etc."
Giving penalty strokes will DEFINITELY help slow play.January 29, 2025
Instead of rangefinders, An says that a "shot clock will be a lot better" in helping to speed up play - even though he acknowledges that implimenting it on a golf course with so many players won't be easy.
When to start the shot clock would be a big issue, and with so many players moving around such a huge expanse of land on a golf course, it seems at first glance to be a logistical nightmare.
More likely is the PGA Tour's notion of using ShotLink data already available on the average time it takes each player to hit a shot as a base for slow play penalties, or at least warnings.
Fines have not worked, but An is among many who believe that as soon as shots are being taken away on the course then play will soon speed up.
It hurts for those who hits fairways. And helps the guy who hits wayyyy off.We will use rangefinders and still check numbers, yardage books, etc 🤷♂️January 29, 2025
McIlroy
Rory McIlroy has been pretty vocal on the subject of slow play, but even he saw the difficulties in trying to find solutions to a problem he says is not a new one.
"This isn’t a new problem, this has been around forever, but slow play was also around when people seemingly loved golf," McIlroy said at Pebble Beach. "I don’t know what the answer is.
"There’s a lot of different answers, but not every answer is going to make everyone happy. I could say smaller fields. Smaller fields would help pace of play, but that takes away playing opportunities from people and that’s going to p*** some people off.
"The other thing is when we play in this time of the year, the tee times have to be a little bit tighter together so that they can get everyone through with daylight and everything. If you could be able to space the tee times out a little bit more, that would hopefully make things flow a little bit better.
"I think as well nowadays most people go for par 5s in two, so you’ve got to wait on that. You’ve got longer par 3s. There’s a lot of different things that go into it.
"You can maybe improve it by 15 or 20 minutes, but that’s still a five and a half hour round into a five hour and 15 round so is that really improving it enough to make a huge change? I don’t know."
