Did PGA Tour magically solve its slow crisis?

While Jim Nantz greeted Rory Mcilroy on the 18th Green for the trophy ceremony at the end of AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am, he offered an apology.

“Thanks for the reception,” Nantz said. “We had 20 minutes to fill.”

“No problem,” Mcilroy objected with a smile. “So we don’t have a slow problem?”

Nantz was referring to the CBS transmission window, which had built in a Wiggle room for a slower pace of play than those that the best stars had thrown. And while that meant extra time to fill – Soon, guys, who else can we interview? – It was the beginning of a welcome change. After a few weeks of debate about the slow tour of the tournament, it has been a good thing around the chat on the last three weeks has returned from the topic.

At the beginning of that week in Pebble, after all, everything could speak. The tournament was coming out of the last slow rounds with low leaders with low leaders in American Express and Farmers Insurance, and the slow game was an easy (and deserved) target. When Pepper Called for more “respect” from players in CBS transmission, it was rounded; That had been something in everyone’s mind. In AT&T, every player who went to the microphone was printed for solution, from Mcilroy to World No.1 Scottie Scheffler and everyone else. In the same week PGA Tour As if some managers met with participation in the media To address, in part, the slow game crisis.

Some solutions offered at the time:

-Turneu aims to make more “virtual rulings” or at least get officials on stage quickly using video review video in Florida.

-Tour Tour will test rangefinders (distance measuring equipment, they call them ’em) at one point this year and see if they help speed up things.

-Turneu is considering naming and avoiding; They have data on the rhythm of the game of each pros and can only make it public so we know who the snails are really and can aim for our collective vitriol accordingly.

-Turneu did not mention anything about an hour shot, but with the arrival of TGL and its 40-second calculation was an attractive solution that gained a lot of withdrawal on social media-and from some of the mainAlso.

But the return of the Torrey Pines tour was a reminder that there are other factors involved. And that fastest game IS possible.

Two rounds in Torrey

At Farmers Insurance Open a week before Pebble, the last round was marked by a duration of the three-hour round before nine and five and a half hours for groups in quarrel. For what is the solution THAT?

“Jeez, I have no ideas,” Mcilroy said as part of a response A few days later. He described the challenges: Wind speed. Green speeds. Bumpy greens. Trio. Great fields. Tight tee times. Par-3s long. Par-5s accessible. “You can probably improve it by 15 or 20 minutes, but this is still a five and a half round in a five-hour round and 15, so it is really improving enough to make a big difference? “ he asked. “I don’t know.”

But people, what change makes three weeks. On Sunday, the tournament ended the Gensis Invitational in Torrey Pines, the same golf course that had been waiting for slow farmers. The course was still quite difficult. It was still very long. But the last groups? They were caught in just over four hours. Again, CBS had time to kill before the end of the broadcast window. Ludwig Aberg was a suitable winner, given that his pre-shop routine is looking for a Google search at the same time. Everyone looked happy. So what was the difference?

There were some. The first big difference was the trio away from the separate tees (for farmers) versus the first twosomes off (for Genesis). The second big difference was a smaller weekend field for the origin (the cut was in the top 50 places and connections), which provided additional flexibility. The third major difference was the marking conditions, which were brutal for farmers (74.75 the average of the final round result) versus relatively benign for Genesis (70.14). Even if you fit for a slightly better field at Genesis, the effect was the same: less golf shots.

There are some lessons to get used to here. The tournament is already addressing some of them with changes that will take effect next year by limiting the size of the field to give groups more space to operate. But I think the biggest getting is this: when you think of a slow game, you probably photograph a golf player behind his ball for unnecessary duration, or standing to address one path after another. In every way, the tournament should discourage that kind of folly; Distinguished as a viewer and certainly does not help the player anyway. But the same boys ARE More than capable of playing four-hour rounds when they are able to do so.

Slow-play is a multi-party issue. It will continue to be a challenge for professional golf. But it is hardly impossible to solve. Or so I want to believe.

“>>