The PGA Tour has come up with a new system to crack down on slow play, which has been an endlessly discussed issue on tour over the last few years. On Tuesday, the PGA Tour announced its new pace-of-play policy, which will go into effect in April at the RBC Heritage, the week after The Masters.
Under the new policy, the PGA Tour will use ShotLink data to identify habitually slow players, and those players will be put on what the tour is calling the “observation list,” which will be kept private. Players will find out each week if they’ve made it onto the list.
Players on the list will be expected to keep their average shot time below 60 seconds. If a player earns two “excessive shot time violations” in a single tournament, they will be assessed one penalty stroke. If the same player has a third excessive time, they will be given another penalty stroke, and so on. Excessive shot time violations can be committed by any player in the field, even if they aren’t on the observation list.
Via PGATour.com:
Anyone in the field who takes more than 120 seconds to play a single shot, absent a good reason for doing so, will be given an Excessive Shot Time.
Additionally, fines and penalties for slow play have been enhanced significantly. Officials will now assess a one-stroke penalty for the second bad time in a tournament, not a round, and for every bad time thereafter in the same tournament. The fines for the second bad time in a season and for 10 cumulative timings in a season have also been raised to $50,000.
The fine for a second bad time in a season currently is $5,000.
Rules officials will implement the policy in part by using an app to monitor player times.
Under the previous policy, golfers were given a penalty if they committed two shot time violations in a single round. By extending the span to the entire tournament, a player who racks up one violation will be forced to play at a reasonable pace for the rest of the weekend.
According to the PGA Tour, the vast majority of players aren’t in danger of landing on the list, with only 10 percent of players averaging above 45 seconds per shot. If anything, the new policy may be too lenient – but it’s a good start. If we can avoid Bryson DeChambeau marathon shots in 2020, golf will be better off.
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