Maybe the PGA Tour and for sure the LPGA (the time that Angel Yin took at the Chevron Championship was hard to watch) should go to a smaller window with their shot-clock parameters (“Don’t be so quick to blame Cantlay for slow play,” April 24 GGP).
Baseball is finally getting watchable again because of the pitch clock. Sports psychologists and the propeller heads (analytic geniuses – sarcasm intended) have been taken out of play. My sports psychology was printed on my glove in magic marker. “Study long, study wrong” worked for me. It causes an athlete to rely on his or her skill and intuition. It’s much more satisfying to have success doing it that way.
If I were wealthy enough, I would host a PGA Tour event with no lines on the ball, no AimPoint, no green books, and allow caddies to use their devices to give yardage to the pin and then step aside. Own your own performance, not artificial intelligence.
Thank you, technology, for recording and YouTube TV to navigate through the incessant and annoying “Playing Through,” which should be named “Brief Annoying Interruption.”
Jim Kaat
Sutherland Bluff, Georgia
(Kaat pitched for 25 seasons in Major League Baseball – with the Twins, White Sox, Phillies, Yankees and Cardinals – and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022.)
Thank you, Ron Green Jr., for your article concerning Patrick Cantlay being targeted as the cause of slow play (“Don’t be so quick to blame Cantlay for slow play,” April 24 GGP).
Cantlay aside, I think we need some leadership by example for the professionals to stand up and take responsibility for demonstrating and promoting faster round times on the PGA Tour. We all have experienced people at our local clubs trying to emulate the playing habits witnessed on tour. This is painful for those who have grown up on 3 hours and 30 minutes for a round.
I’d really like for Cantlay and other professionals to stand up and show some helpful and long-overdue commitment to promote faster round times. This might even convince the fans that there is still some integrity in our much-loved sport.
Ray Drury
Bath, England
I watched a video taken by a spectator at the RBC Heritage who captured Patrick Cantlay deciding what shot to play. He was not on the fairway and had a tree trunk in his way, about 10 feet from him. The video showed two other spectators videoing him, with time running on both phones. He finally drew the club back after 3 minutes and 20 seconds (“Don’t be so quick to blame Cantlay for slow play,” April 24 GGP).
I agree with Rory McIlroy: take the lines off the ball and ban putting any ink line on them.
Require competitors to go through their pre-shot routines (yardage, chatting with caddie, etc.) while the fellow competitors are going through their pre-shot routines. My foursome does that, and all of us hit within a minute.
And let’s talk about gimmes. Pros make 100 percent of 1-footers, don’t they?
Jon Haas
Orange Park, Florida
I am fed up with reading another article about slow play (“Don’t be so quick to blame Cantlay for slow play,” April 24 GGP).
Instead of writing about it, do something about it. The powers that be have the tools and sanctions to speed up the game.
Slow play has become an increasing pain in the golfing derrière for years. I watch juniors copying pros taking forever on tees and greens and thinking it’s the way to play.
I play in other countries. Five-hour rounds – and even longer – are commonplace and tedious. Infuriatingly, they now seem to be accepted as the norm.
Those who run the sport have much to answer for. England Golf, the PGA Tour, the R&A, club administrators and officials need a wakeup call. Right now, they are sleeping on the job.
Paul Dodd
Hale, England
Golf is taking way too long to play, especially tournament golf on TV (“Don’t be so quick to blame Cantlay for slow play,” April 24 GGP). Thank goodness for fast-forwarding on my DVR as I use it repeatedly when Patrick Cantlay or any other number of players are about to play. When you can click forward 60 seconds, from when the player approaches his ball and he still hasn’t hit the putt, he is too slow.
Everyone can tut-tut about what to do, but the PGA Tour has to take decisive action on slow play. It obviously can be done. Look at what Major League Baseball has done with a pitch clock. No one wanted it – certainly not players or coaches – but fans didn’t want to watch 3½-hour games with all the slow action. TV eventually dictated the pitch clock.
Every major sport has implemented some type of clock to speed up the game, primarily at TV broadcasters’ urging. Examples, NFL, NBA, now MLB, college football and basketball all have play clocks with penalties. The PGA Tour can, too. No one has an issue with 3 minutes looking for a lost ball or when a penalty is enforced (Rule 18.2). These guys who play slow also are creating (maybe even gaming) competitors to gain an advantage. Is that fair play?
Every time a major sports league enforces time clocks, voilà! – game times have been reduced by 30 minutes or so. It can be done, but will the PGA Tour have the guts?
Ron McCall
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Patrick Cantlay deserves a break about his pace of play. He’s clearly part of a greater problem (“Don’t be so quick to blame Cantlay for slow play,” April 24 GGP).
AimPoint use has become ridiculous and should be banned. You can plumb bob much more quickly, but it’s become a lost art. I haven’t seen anything in a golf magazine about it since the 1960s. Of course, the most critical aspect is teaching golfers how to determine which eye is dominant.
It seems to me that it was Jack Nicklaus who taught generations of golfers (amateurs and pros alike) to go through tedious pre-shot routines, especially on the tee. Nothing is worse than playing with a high-handicap golfer who goes through the Nicklaus rituals – often multiple times per shot. I don’t think mic-ing Jordan Spieth will help amateurs. They’ll try to emulate his level of overanalysis and take longer over their shots.
Jon Sager
Duxbury, Massachusetts
I read with interest Ron Green’s opinion on slow play and defense of Patrick Cantlay (“Don’t be so quick to blame Cantlay for slow play,” April 24 GGP). It was excellent.
Cantlay is a bit slow, but as Green pointed out, so long as he is in position, he cannot be faulted. The problem involves the players who overly involve their caddies in their pre-shot decision-making. These players seem to be unable to make a decision without their caddies’ reassurance.
There is nothing short of a shot clock that can resolve slow play, although there already is a shot clock once a group is out of position, referred to as a rules official.
The PGA Tour is the ultimate culprit. It refuses to take a positive action to speed up play, and its resulting inaction is passed down to college players and us weekend hacks.
Joe Roberts
Dothan, Alabama
I am a golfer of some 65 years, and I fully endorse the comments of Jack Toth (“It’s Your Honor,” April 20 GGP).
If these top golfers are so good, then they should not require their caddies’ help. In any case, if the caddies are so good then they should be playing, not having a nap on the greens.
Ban them from any intervention on the green altogether. The fairways are a different thing.
Richard Pearce
Abergele, Wales
I enjoyed Jim Nugent’s column about the AJGA pace-of-play system (“Kids show how to set the pace,” April 24 GGP).
I have been a rules official at all levels of amateur play for more than 20 years, and we can always tell who the AJGA players are, so kudos to their system. There is nothing more tedious for the rules team than spending our time monitoring pace versus making rulings.
Recently, I refereed my third ACC Women’s Golf Championship, a group of very talented players. Even at that level, there are still signs of AJGA influence. We officials remark on it every time. Our pace this year for the stroke-play rounds was roughly 4:40, right on time par.
Keep up the good training, AJGA. We referees thank you.
Laurie Velett
Pinehurst, North Carolina
I agree with Jim Nugent that it is highly important to instill golfers with a positive attitude about pace of play from an early age (“Kids show how to set the pace,” April 24 GGP). It’s unfortunate that those who go on to college and higher levels of competitive golf are allowed to forget those lessons that were the norm as they began their golfing lives.
I belong to a seniors’ golf group of 110 members in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We pride ourselves on playing our rounds in an average of 4 hours and 10 minutes. And most of us walk, including our oldest member, who is 94. Everyone’s pace of play is managed by clocking out at the end of each round, and our club captain follows up with those who are chronically late in finishing. We use many of the techniques in your AJGA.
When the rules of golf were amended to allow putting with the flag in, we embraced it, and 99 percent of our members putt this way. It saves a lot of time.
Gregg Hook
North Vancouver, British Columbia
I applaud the AJGA for its slow-play policy (“Kids show how to set the pace,” April 24 GGP). However, 4 hours and 23 minutes for a threesome is still too slow.
Tom Cawley
Palm City, Florida
I applaud Jim Nugent for telling folks about the pace of play at the AJGA (“Kids show how to set the pace,” April 24 GGP).
I’ve acted as a senior rules official at multiple events each year since 2015. I’ve been telling people about how well it works at AJGA events for years. I enjoy working with the interns and young men and women tournament directors learning to lead others and manage a golf tournament.
It’s a fantastic organization.
Mickey Zarra
Homewood, Alabama
4:23 for a threesome might be a good example for the PGA Tour, but not for anyone else (“Kids show how to set the pace,” April 24 GGP).
Recreational 18-hole rounds should be completed in less than 4 hours.
John Harding
Marlton, New Jersey
PGA Tour golf is painful to watch (“Kids show how to set the pace,” April 24 GGP).
Gabriel Alterman
London, England
Four hours 23 minutes for a threesome is nothing to brag about (“Kids show how to set the pace,” April 24 GGP).
A foursome should complete the 18-hole round in less than four hours. Until four hours is the benchmark, you do not have a “pace of play.”
James “Jackson” Barrett
Skillman, New Jersey
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