Justin Thomas isn’t sure the TGL rule change will translate to the PGA Tour

TGL has been polarized over the first three weeks. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s golf simulator league has potential and has attracted early attention, but the startup will you have to answer some big questions during year 1 for it to have lasting power.

However, there is one part of the TGL experience that has a near-unanimous approval rating through three games. (Except for Billy Horschel’s rendition of “The Dirty Bird.”)

TGL Shot clock 40 seconds has made primetime golf an easily digestible, fast-paced product that fits into a two-hour broadcast window (for the most part).

This is important because as professional golf tries to adapt to capture a new and younger audience, pace of play on the PGA Tour continues to be a major problem.

On Sunday at The American Express, the bottom three took five hours and 39 minutes to play 18 holes. By comparison, it only took the NFL an hour longer to run back-to-back playoff games.

Pace of play has been a problem that the PGA Tour has been unable to fix for several years. The PGA Tour’s Fan Forward initiative aims to create more fan engagement. After surveying thousands of fans, the Fan Forward initiative will focus on stream improvements, player content, on-site experience, some rule changes and pace of play.

As the Tour looks for answers to its pace of play problem, some sort of shot clock would seem to be an easy answer. Baseball players adjust to the pitch clock. Professional golfers should be able to do the same.

But Justin Thomas, who played his first TGL match on Tuesday night, isn’t sure he’ll translate and make the difference people are predicting.

“It is difficult. Look, this is my 10th year on tour. I have been in PAC for many years. We’ve been talking about pace of play for 10 years,” Thomas said after his Atlanta Drive defeated New York Golf Club 4-0.

“You have to make such drastic changes for it to be visible. Almost too many conversations end the same way; it’s like, what are we trying to achieve here? Will the laps be 12 minutes faster? Will it be 20 minutes faster? It’s hard to really make a big enough difference where people are like, wow, that’s great. Rounds are only three hours now or three and a half hours instead of five. You know what I mean? It’s really hard to make such a big difference.”

Thomas, who was elected in PGA Tour Players Advisory Council for the second season in a row, believes the two things fans want are in direct conflict with each other.

“They like harder golf courses. They like to watch us play in difficult places. But they want us to play faster so those two don’t go together,” Thomas said. “You have to pick and choose your battles.

“I’m sure we all have hope, but at the end of the day, what are we trying to achieve?”

After TGL’s opening night, Rickie Fowler and Matt Fitzpatrick praised the shot clock and said they would like to see a version of it on the PGA Tour.

Thomas isn’t sure it will work, but he at least sounds open to the idea. This is an important step for a player-run organization whose changes will not be implemented unless the membership supports them.

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