How to finally solve the slow game? Oh Nelly Korda, other professionals have opinions

NAPLES, Fla. – Angel Yin, one of professional golf’s bravest souls, says she felt like she was being put to sleep, although the sedative was certainly not her golf, nor the golf course she was playing.

It was the effort of a few other people, whose names she kept safely hidden, but it’s fair to say they made watching the blades of grass growing beneath her a more lively game.

“When I first went on tour, I could take a nap.” Yin said.

“It was terrible.”

Yes, the theme here is slow gameplay, the name of which pretty much tells you everything: The game is slow — and that can be frustrating. It came to light last weekend at the LPGA’s Annika Tour, where the goal was jammed, rounds stretched well past five hours, pros battled the darkness — and Charley Hull, a victim, not a perpetrator, it went viral with some of her thoughts on the matter.

“It was crazy,” she began. “I’m very ruthless, but I said, listen, if you get three bad moments, – every time it’s a two-stroke penalty – if you have three of them, you lose your tournament card instantly; go back to Q-School. I’m sure this would rush a lot of people and they won’t want to lose their tournament card.

“It would kill the slow game, but they would never do that.”

When asked if it was a problem, Hull continued.

“It’s ridiculous and I feel sorry for the fans how slow it is out there,” she said. “We were there for five hours and 40 minutes yesterday. We play a four-ball at home, on a tough golf course, and we’re round for three and a half, four hours.

“It’s pretty crazy.”

Of course, this is nothing new. You’ve read about this before. It has been raised in both the women’s and men’s tournaments. There are also fines and penalties for strokes, but here we are. At this point, you can call it simple SP and people would know what you were assuming. Then you ask yourself: how, again, isn’t this resolved?

Helluva question.

Ahead of this week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, some of the LPGA’s best and brightest dug deeper into Hull’s thoughts. They were asked if slow play is a problem, and how they would solve it if they thought it was.

Contrary to this theme, the responses came quickly.

Is slow play a problem?

“So I have my thoughts,” Yin said when asked. Like Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko and others. And clearly, Hull.

We will try to start positively. For Yin, there has been some progress, though perhaps this was a low bar to clear. After last week, the memory is also fresh, so expect the answers to sound more dramatic. Time has not healed the wound, so to speak.

Then again, as mentioned above, here we are again, and the players weren’t blind to it. Ruoning Yin said last week was “very rough”. Jeeno Thitikul said last week’s five-and-a-half-hour rounds were “a little too much.” Thompson argued that rounds should not last four and a half hours – and argued that the problem has actually worsened.

Repeat said if she was a fan she would be upset.

Notably, she’s also one of the fastest players on the tour – and it’s here that we can perhaps find some solutions.

“Jason has to slow me down sometimes,” the world No. 1 said of her caddy, Jason McDede. “I don’t know. As always my first instinct is simply the best instinct. You see it, you hit it.

“Today with Charley — Charley and I played together again today, three rounds in a row, the practice round. She was talking, and it’s like a 5 (iron) or a 6 (iron), like you have two options. Or it’s the wind from the your right or the wind is from your left, the wind blows, the wind blows. You can’t – it’s just that people try to complicate it.

“I always say your first instinct is your best instinct, I would say. Just be ready when it’s your turn.”

Then there is it’s.

One of the tour’s most thoughtful minds, she said the issue has its own layers.

“Nobody, I mean, even if you’re the biggest golf fan, nobody wants to be there as long as possible,” Ko said. “Sometimes like last week, it was a really tough golf course with fast greens and undulating greens.

“Even if you’re playing well, but you hit a shot out of position, it’s going to take you a lot longer than the guy who hits it to the middle of the green and two-putts it. And even two shots around a golf course like the Pelican wasn’t easy.

“Yes, it depends on the situation. The US Women’s Open tends to last longer because we have a bigger field. It’s really one of the toughest tournaments we play all year.

“So it’s case by case.”

For sure. But can this be resolved?

The last word here goes to Ewing. This week is her last. She is retired.

And next year at this time?

“I’m going to ride a golf cart rolling around in my retirement,” she said.

Then she continued.

“You know, it’s always been a topic of conversation since I’ve been on Tour. I think with some players it is a problem. You have your fast players and we all know who they are.

“I don’t have any answers, but it’s definitely difficult to play with at times and I’m sure it’s very difficult for the rules officials. Every year at the end of the year, they say, how are we going to make this better?

“You know, people are playing for a living, so I understand why people take their time. I think there’s a line we have to draw.”

How do you choose the slow game?

Let’s try. Let’s draw that line.

What do you say, Angel? The floor is yours.

Look at the space, Yin said.

“Because we go up to the freight box and it’s already late and it’s a morning time,” she said. “So how does this come down to a player? And that’s also going back to where I think we can improve as a tournament, a small matter. I can’t point too many fingers, but there are certain types of people who I think should be able to manage this better. I think the easiest way to point fingers without thinking too deeply into it is slow player play, but it takes a lot for the schedules to align, and if the schedules don’t align, then we’re just sitting in a hole. And I think that’s where it’s showing. At the US Open, we had a slow hole where there were like four groups stacked up there. But that’s also because the pin was in a really funny position (position). …

“Nelly got a 10i think So things like that. It has nothing to do with the player. I’m pretty sure Nelly is moving too fast. When you’re getting points and you’re doing this and that, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Jeeno?

Thitikul mentioned a clock in each hole.

Lexi?

Hull wasn’t entirely wrong, it turns out. “I think Charley is better than me at this,” Yin said.

“Yeah, her comment was a little aggressive,” Thompson said. “I don’t agree with him. It has to be done. Something needs to be done to speed up the game there, whether it’s fines or whatever. It has to be done because we have to play faster. The fans are not enjoying being out there for five and a half hours in the heat.”

Nelly?

Penalties, for sure. But she wanted to get back to her original thought, about the mindset.

“Standing on a layup for two to three minutes is ridiculous,” Korda said. “When a group in front of me is on the green and I’m on the fairway, I’m already preparing. I’m getting my numbers ready, talking about hitting, so when it’s my turn, I already have my game plan.

“Like I’m already – I’m hitting right behind the person who just hit in front of me. I think people just have to be – people overanalyze, one, and I think people just have to be ready sooner.

“People start their process a little too late and stay on it too long. Again, I think we need more people on the ground to monitor the pace of the game. I don’t think we have enough people to monitor it.”

Lydia?

In a word, a little understanding.

“I honestly think the biggest thing is just the situation,” Ko said. “If it took longer last week, I think there are two factors. The golf course was tough, and the second thing is that there were players trying to get their card or get to the CME.

“So, like all these types of situations, I think they play a factor. That doesn’t mean that, oh, yeah, then it has to last longer or it can’t last longer. I just think those are the variables you have to consider when we have longer rounds than maybe usual.

“I don’t know exactly how long it took, but I was fortunate enough to be able to serve on the LPGA board and be the player director for three years. Before this time, I thought things and said things. Why would they make such a decision? Having served on the board, I realize there is much more to it than meets the eye.

“I believe everyone is doing their best and as players we will always do better to keep up with the pace of the game. I don’t know if a strategy or a way will instantly make a round 30 minutes faster.”

So where do we stand now?

Are things resolved? Are they intractable? Maybe someone is listening.

There is at least one other answer, of course.

the day.

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