The big story in pro golf this month is the emergence of TGL, a simulator league that has received positive reviews and encouraging reviews after the first two games.
One of the reasons why the response is so positive? Fast pace.
TGL has the ability to move at breakneck speed as we watch PGA Tour players complete holes in a matter of four or five minutes. While the broadcast is two hours long, golf itself only needs roughly half of that television window.
Aside from the obvious fact that it’s a hybrid golf simulator (short-game shots take place on an actual putting green), the most critical factor for the fast pace of play is a 40-second shot clock.
Players must choose a strategy, climb to the top and strike before the signal goes off. If they don’t, it’s a penalty.
So far in TGL, players have been lightning fast to the point where the clock rarely goes below 15 seconds.
This is a complete 180 from typical Tour golf. Yes, that golf is played on a real course that requires walking and a lot more effort from a golfing perspective – but the average tee shot on Tour takes about four hours and 45 minutes to complete 18 holes.
The pace is icy, which doesn’t help a lackluster TV product. Hell, even seeing it in person doesn’t help. The pace is so poor that the tournament had to reduce the size of the field, in part because the boys couldn’t finish before sunset and cuts were being made on Saturday mornings instead of Friday evenings.
This begs the question of whether TGL has found something with its shot clock usage.
Should the Tour implement a similar strategy to get players moving faster?
The case for watches shot in pro golf
Technically, there is already a “rule” about how much time golfers have to play a shot.
“It is recommended that the player make the putt no more than 40 seconds after he is (or should be) able to play without interference or distraction,” according to rule 5.6b in the USGA Rules of Golf.
Based on that recommendation, golfers can be “put on the clock” if their putt falls behind the pace.
However, this rarely happens. And players almost never get a penalty for bad timing.
The last time a Tour player received a slow-play penalty was John Catlin in 2021. Before that, it was at the Zurich Classic, a team event, in 2017. Glen Day was given a penalty in 1995. We’re talking once a decade or so. You have to look hard to find a rules official brave enough to take a penalty.
There have been penalties – but Tour players aren’t too concerned given how shaving a stroke off their score can easily offset that penalty. And the pace of play has not improved without the very real fear that the numbers on their scorecards will be affected.
The guys are playing for so much money that a slap on the wrist won’t help.
“Honestly, I’d start petting guys,” Brooks Koepka said in 2023. “If you’re going to last this long, you’ve got to pet.”
It’s the only way to speed things up.
While some argue that the changes in pace of play will only cut a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes per round — and that change wouldn’t be worth any of the hassle involved — the tournament is also desperate to win back viewers as TV ratings have plummeted.
Imagine the intrigue when the players walk down the stretch of a big tournament and a shot clock is ticking. Imagine it’s windy and a big decision has to be made with 10 seconds left on the clock.
Imagine that every player has to play every shot within 40 seconds of when it’s their turn.
Considering some guys take more than two minutes to hit a shot, the change in atmosphere would be dramatic.
Every other sport has some time limit. Part of game skill is being able to make decisions and execute within that time.
If centre-backs had two minutes to understand the defence, football would change radically. If only it were easier to figure out what coverage a defense is playing. Procedural penalties such as delay of game will never occur. It would negatively change the chemistry of how the game works.
Watch baseball. Since the introduction of the pitch clock, the number of 3 1/2 hour games has gone from 391 to 2021 to seven in 2024. Games are down an average of 27 minutes. Playoff baseball last year saw a five percent increase in television ratings, and viewership for the season as a whole was up 11 percent.
Tennis is also among the games to become faster by implementing a shot clock.
People like fast! Golf getting faster would be more interesting to watch … and less of a time commitment for viewers.
Purists will cringe, but professional golf needs to become more entertaining to attract viewers. It’s a huge shock – but it’s also just enforcing a rule that already exists.
Golfers will adapt and I doubt anyone would suffer much from it.
The case against shot clocks in golf
You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?
Philosophically, shot hours make a lot of sense.
Practically, there are several issues that make shooting hours impossible.
First, we run into the same problem we had signing the scorecard dilemma. Every player must play under the same rules—whether it’s the first group on Thursday at the Barracuda Championship or the final pair on Sunday at the Masters.
Would there be a regular official with each group for each tournament?
Currently, a normal Tour event has anywhere from nine to 12 officials. It should have ORDER more officials in place to operate a shot clock system.
Any “official scorer” role where a volunteer or someone else beats each player would not be feasible. There can’t be random, unpaid people deciding when to start the clock – and only about half of all golf shots are televised during most events, so replays would be unreliable.
Another issue: Other sports have visible clocks that players can see, which is kind of important. So how would a golfer view a shooting watch?
You would need a rules official riding with every single group to time every single player—and the clock would have to be visible for every shot.
It’s possible if the Tour actually did it, but it would be a huge investment and cultural change. The tour isn’t exactly known for being innovative.
There are other problems such as how time would be kept when there is a decision. Would the players get time off or extensions?
Beyond infrastructure issues—which could theoretically be addressed by training and paying more officials—perhaps the best argument against shot clocks is that pro golf tournaments can simply … enforce the rules?
The tournament could identify slow groups, as it already does, and be stricter with the assessment of penalties. This fear alone would speed up the game.
However, the fun element of an hour shot is that fans get to see it. There would be drama if a golfer teed off on time. You don’t get that with a rules official holding a stop.
The European Tour trialled a “Shot Clock Masters” event in 2018, where rules officials rode in carts with large screens showing time remaining. Each player was given two timeouts per round. The pace of the game dropped around 30 minutes and the scores were actually lower than usual. Only four penalties were awarded throughout the tournament as the players were on their best behavior.
Unfortunately, the sponsor for that event was not re-signed and the European Tour never revisited the concept. The man behind it was then-CEO Keith Pelley – known for radical ideas – who is now out of the golf industry.
No one has had the desire or desire to try it since – until TGL came along.
We can dare to dream
Sport fits. If golf continues down a path where fewer and fewer fans are paying attention, it may be time for drastic measures.
Maybe some will laugh at the prospect of a shot clock in a game like golf – but it’s not as pointless as you might think.
As far as I’m concerned, everything is on the table to make the game of golf more enjoyable as a television product. Golf broadcasts have the luxury of going player-to-player when rounds are slow, but viewers are still affected by the pace from an overall time investment standpoint.
Even shaving 30 minutes after a round would be very beneficial to the product. And the drama about players trying to beat a shot clock would be fun in itself.
What do you think? Would a shooting watch help professional golf? Let me know below in the comments.
Main photo caption: The European Tour tested shooting hours during a tournament in 2018. (GETTY IMAGES/Matthew Lewis)
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