Rory McIlroy and the PGA Tour have slow play solutions – but they continue to avoid the obvious fix

Rory McIlroy says smaller fields will solve the PGA Tour's slow play issue

As the topic of slow play rears its ugly head again, Rory McIlroy believes there’s the simple fix. The PGA Tour, though, want to go another way. Both are wrong.

The American Express overran its scheduled broadcast slot by 45 minutes, while the Farmers Insurance Open saw stars clocking close to six-hour rounds. The slow play row is well and truly blazing in a PGA Tour season that’s only four tournaments old.

It was ignited by CBS analyst Dottie Pepper, who wasted no time in calling it out at Torrey Pines as an issue of “respect”.

It’s got us once again wondering if there’s a fix.

Rory McIlroy would rather it was out of the players’ control.

“Jeez, I have no idea,” the Northern Irishman replied when asked what he would do about slow play.

But those of you who have been watching McIlroy for as long as we have, you’ll know he wasn’t leaving it there.

“This isn’t a new problem. This has been around forever, but slow play was also around when people seemingly loved golf. 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.”

Then, after thinking out loud about player’s hitting it further and shorter days at this time of year, he ventured into a train of thought that’s got him into some bother before.

“I could say smaller fields,” he said. “Smaller fields would help pace of play. But that takes away playing opportunities from people, and that’s going to piss some people off.”

The ultimate question, though, is does it really matter?

“I don’t know. 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?”

PGA Tour reveal latest bid to tackle slow play

While the PGA Tour’s efforts have so far been to reduce fines for what the rules call “Excessive Shot Times”, the powers that be do believe they have an answer.

Distance-measuring devices.

This is not a new idea, of course. It was tested on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour a few years back, while the Champions Tour also allows them. They are also permitted in all PGA of America events, including both the men’s and women’s majors sanctioned by the body.

But Gary Young, the PGA Tour’s senior vice-president of rules and competition, said feedback from both players and fans suggested that allowing the use of rangefinders would help the pace of play issue.

“Why not?” Young said. “We’re hearing it from our fans. They use it day in and day out, why would we hold a resource back from the players that potentially could help them, especially for off-line shots, getting a quick reference point?”

Andy Weitz, the Tour’s chief marketing and communications officer, explained a little more: “We want to better understand how being out of position, how the ability to better understand the distance can not only increase the pace of play potentially but also send a signal to our fans that we are evolving and use of these modern devices could be a fit for the PGA Tour on a permanent basis in the future.”

It has yet been decided which tournaments will be used in the trial period, but Young is keen for it to be the biggest events.

“I think where we will see the biggest benefit to them are in some of our smaller fields when we are in pairs,” he said. “So we’d like to have a sample possibly of some of our Signature Events at the same time during a period when we’ll have some opposite events and a different format, maybe, like a team event, a Zurich. Just so we get a good sample of it.

“Where we really see this paying the biggest benefits will be on approach shots, so, we’ll be able to do a look back and do a comparison just to see if we are actually gaining time.”

Is the PGA Tour avoiding the obvious?

It feels like a lot of people are getting paid a lot of money to come up with a fix that’s staring them right in the face.

Newsflash: Slow play is caused by slow players. So penalise them.

Penalty shots could – and should – cost players millions. It could mean the difference between winning and finishing fifth. That in turn could have a knock-on effect on world rankings, on major and Signature Event eligibility, and even on Ryder Cup qualification.

Hit them where it hurts and the problem goes away. Don’t hold your breath, though. The last time the PGA Tour dished out a slow play penalty was in 2017. Before that? 1995. Thirty years ago. Don’t be surprised if it’s another 30 years before we see another. Or at all.

So why won’t the PGA Tour act?

Simple. Player power.

But upsetting your stars is not a wise move, particularly in these tense times and how easy it would be for a player to get on the phone to their manager and see how many zeroes LIV Golf could pump into their bank account for an easier life.

Or maybe we’re all just searching for something that, as McIlroy says, won’t actually make much of a difference?