It's seen as one of the biggest problems with modern professional golf, and often cited as the main reason for dwindling viewing figures - but what can be done about slow play?
Golf is not a fast sport, it's a long day, the conclusion to a big golfing tournament is all about the slow build-up of tension and players needing to keep concentration for long periods, so it's not all thrills and spills.
That's the beauty of it, and many fans don't want to lose that, but you can't ignore the fact that taking over five hours for rounds, and some individuals take forever over single shots is not great viewing.
Star players sitting and waiting on tee boxes is not what we want to see. Watching others take an age to pull the trigger on simple shots and all the marking, re-marking and different putting methods really is maddening at times and slows things up on the greens.
These things are turning viewers away from this great sport, and the time has come to try and fix the problem.
So let's see if there are any solutions that can speed things up a bit in modern professional golf. We've already seen the LPGA Tour introduce new slow play measures and the PGA Tour are set to trial rangefinders. Here, the Golf Monthly team have come up with some must-haves, quick fixes and even some more outside the box solutions to slow play on tour...
A shot clock
Yes, a golf course is a big place, but there's a lot of technology and crucially a lot of money around at a PGA Tour event and it would not be too difficult to have an official with each group keeping an eye on shot times.
Just having one there will give some players a jolt and may prevent some of the more agonizing waits for players to hit. We even had the broadcast team at Pebble Beach criticize Tom Kim for taking too long on a shot - which he then hit into the ocean!
The clock can be stopped for official rulings and you could always implement either a timeout or mitigation if there's a particularly tricky shot from the rough, or way off line etc. But in general this is really a quick fix.
Set limits for round times
There's a difference between taking ages on one shot and just generally being slow and taking over five hours for the round - perhaps the way to attack it is via the overall round times.
And timing how long a group has taken to play 18 holes is easier than introducing a shot clock.
So how about a limit is set at four-and-a-half hours or less if it's a limited field or a shorter course, and every player has to get around under that time? If not, they get hit with some form of punishment like these below.
.@Dottie_pepper PREACH 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/BebcTDyHP7January 25, 2025
Penalty shots
PGA Tour pro Byeong Hun An claimed that handing out penalty shots to players is the way to "definitely" help with slow play on the PGA Tour.
And he may have a point as just fines have been no deterrent, so maybe now if a player is close to losing a shot to the field then they will speed things up a bit.
Again you could use some common sense for more difficult shots but getting a real time consequence will put a completely different slant on things.
Yellow & Red cards = tournament disqualification
OK, so we're getting a bit draconian perhaps here, but what about a warning system where if you have a shot clock violation you get a yellow card - then if you get another during that same tournament you get a red, and you're out!
It could be two yellows equals a red like some sports or a three strikes and you're out policy, but the main point is it's a warning system with dire consequences.
Ejected, disqualified, whatever you want to call it, take too long over shots and you get kicked out of the tournament. Harsh? Very. Would it stop slow play? Absolutely.
Charley Hull even added that she thought Tour cards should be taken away from slow play offenders.
Plus, if we're talking about a viewing experience then that jeopardy of watching players on yellow cards up against the shot clock would certainly bring in some added excitement. Especially if they were in contention...
Tournament bans for bad round times
A possible issue with the shot clock is all shots are different and some may take time to figure out, but continually clocking bad times for rounds should be punished.
If you come in over the alloted time for that event then the whole group gets a penalty stroke, or a yellow card, only this time two yellow cards leads to a tournament ban for the repeat offenders.
It's easy enough to start a clock or watch ticking from the opening tee shot and keep an eye on it during the round, so there shouldn't really be an issue and punishments would be deserved.
Limited practice swings
We know all players have their routines and there's a lot of pressure out there, but cutting down the pre-shot formalities may just save us some precious minutes.
So how about limiting the practice swings? Maybe one, maybe two, but not unlimited - let's keep it brief and get on with the golf.
Limit ball marking on the green
Once you've found the putting surface go and mark your ball, but once it's placed back on the green then that's it, no more picking it up, tossing it to the caddie to clean, carefully arranging the dimples and alignment marks to line it up perfectly for your two footer.
Yes, there's issues with line, but what's clear is there's oodles of time being wasted in that period when three players all knock it close, all then re-mark and go through the full routine again for holing regulation tiddlers.
Maybe no marking within three feet?
Just putt out
Maybe to combat the standstill we can get on the greens, what about the furthest away from the hole takes their putt, then sees it home and holes out before the next player takes their turn?
There's no re-marking here either, just tap it in and let's move on.
Bad times leaderboard - name & shame
Nobody likes to be associated with slow play, so maybe if there was a leaderboard that listed the total time taken by every player to play their shots was published after the round.
If we continuously saw the same names at the top then we'd know who the culprits are.
Of course, if everyone is playing in the same sort of time then it's still a worthwhile exercise as then we'd know there must be other issues around the course delays in between holes causing problems.
Player ballot
Right, stay with us for this one as it's a bit out there, but what about the players help to police this themselves?
So players in the field for an event all anonymously nominate who they think is the slowest player, and the three with the most votes are grouped together for the first two rounds.
They're then sent out first with a clear run in front of them and given a target time to get home in otherwise they get one of our penalties suggested earlier, so a penalty stroke, yellow card etc.
OK, so that's quite a tough one on those players selected, but plenty of people would tune in to watch that even just for curiosity.
