“An Epidemic”, as Rory McIlroy puts it, slow play, took centerstage at the Farmers Insurance Open when Dottie Pepper called out the lack of pace in the play during the live broadcast. In conversation with her broadcast partner Frank Nobilo, Pepper made it clear that, “ I think we’re starting to need a new word to talk about this pace of play issue, and it’s respect. For your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it. It’s just gotta get better.”

Nobilo seemingly took a cue from this and addressed the slow play of Tom Kim at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when the golfer waited for a long time before taking a shot that went out of bounds. That shot, according to Frank Nobilo and millions of viewers, “was not worth the wait.”

Then came the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The fan-favorite event was halted on February 7, 2025, at around 6:13 p.m. due to darkness, which hampered visibility and, hence, the game. This was followed by a huge outcry by fans who demanded that slow play was the reason for this delay, as the pace forced the game backward, allowing for darkness to disrupt the game.

And now, the same demons have risen again. This time at the PLAYERS Championship. A signature event worth $25M. The play for round 1 was suspended by the organizers due to darkness at around 7:54 p.m. This meant that players like Max McGreevy and Ryan Gerard were not able to finish their first-day quota. The first round will now resume Friday at 8:50 a.m. The second round will begin as scheduled at 7:40 a.m.McGreevy, in particular, will be bothered as he was in a strong T4 position with a 5 under score despite having two more holes to play. Darkness and slow play seem to be going hand in hand a lot more than any fan would like. But it appears that Tour might be working on resolving the issue.

At the annual Jay Monahan press conference before the PLAYERS Championship, Monahan talked about the league’s stance on slow play and what they have in place to address it. “We’ve committed to addressing the speed of play. We will begin publishing speed-of-play-related statistics later this season,” Monahan stated.

He also stated that the PGA Tour will try to use rangefinders from next month onward in a bid to improve the time lost on trying to calculate the distance to the green. “We’re listening to our fans and we’re responding, and clearly this is something where they would like to see improvement,” the commissioner added further.

Well, as of now, players are not alone in feeling aggrieved, as even the fans feel that the PGA Tour should have done something way earlier to resolve this issue of slow play.

Fans call out PGA Tour’s lack of slow play addressal

One fan was quick to call out the hypocrisy embedded in the tweet shared by the official PGA Tour Communications channel. While darkness did play a factor, it was the slow play of the 144 players on the field that ultimately led the game past the scheduled time. The fans also demanded quick changes from Jay Monahan, stating, “No, it wasn’t. The suspension was due to slow play. Shot clock now.” TGL has made shot clock a popular solution now for slow play.

To add further context, the last group of Max McGreecy, Ryan Gerard, and Frankie Capan III was supposed to tee off from the first hole at 2:46 p.m. That means that the whole ordeal took five hours. It could be a lagging group ahead, but the slow play issue persists on an organizational level nonetheless. “Nearly five hours since the last tee time and couldn’t do it,” another netizen stated.

The PGA Tour is not the only golfing entity that faces this issue. LIV Golf uses stern stroke penalties to enforce the speed at which the game goes. Most recently, the LPGA also took drastic measures to address the issue of the pace of play.

The LPGA Tour established a new pace of play committee during the off-season to drive meaningful change. The committee came up with a few ideas, which formed the crux of the new rule change. A memo sent to LPGA players put forth the new rules to prevent delays: If a player exceeds the 40-second time limit by just 6-15 seconds, they’ll be given a one-stroke penalty. But if they take more than 15 seconds, it’s a two-stroke penalty.

The question is, why hasn’t the PGA Tour done anything on a similar line so far? That’s what one fan is calling out on social media. “At what point do we consider trying to change ‘anything’ to prevent rounds getting suspended every week?”

And if changes or strict sanctions are not imposed today, it can be safe to say that similar such incidents are bound to happen at the PLAYERS yet again.“Same post tomorrow,” one fan stated cheekily. The ramifications could seep into other upcoming events as well, with events like the Valspar Championship and the Texas Children’s Houston Open coming up.“Every week guys. Why are we not solving for this issue?” asked another curious fan.

Andy Weitz, the Chief Marketing Officer of the PGA Tour, had recently stated on a podcast that the PGA Tour is solving all of fans’s concerns, but it requires time to implement the changes. The annual press conference’s focus being slow play is an indication of how much the Tour wants to prioritise the issue and address it. But till it starts reflecting on the field, the solution remains in limbo. What do you think?