Conflict Brews as Justin Thomas & Wyndham Clark Clash Over PGA Tour’s Biggest Headache

Slow play has been a prevailing issue on the PGA Tour. This has left both the players and the audience frustrated. However, there might be a solution to it. TGL’s shot clock refrains the players from taking more than 40 seconds, which are allocated to the players to hit their shots. On the Tour, players take more time than that, and there’s no penalty. The shot clock makes the team exceeding the time get a one-shot penalty. The PGA Tour could use this, and work out the problem of slow play.

However, not everyone is on board with the idea. Justin Thomas is one of them. When he was asked about the need for a shot clock after the first TGL match, he said, “You have to make such drastic changes for it to be noticeable. Pretty much a lot of the conversations end the same way; it’s like, what are we trying to accomplish here? Are rounds going to be 12 minutes faster? Are they going to be 20 minutes faster? It’s hard to realistically make a big enough difference where people are like, ‘Wow, this is 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 that big of a change.” But a lot of them are in disagreement with him.

Wyndham Clark addresses the changes needed on the PGA Tour

Wyndham Clark was asked about the changes the PGA Tour can make at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am post-round presser on Wednesday. To that, he listed a few things. To begin with, the TV ratings must be addressed. And to do that, he believes that the broadcasting format needs to change.

“I think if I’m being honest, I think the way people view golf on TV I think needs to be adjusted. I think every sport, including baseball, is a great example, has adjusted with the times and I feel like golf has stayed in its same lane for a long time. So I think it would be awesome if they showed more golf shots, if maybe they showed awesome recaps and put ’em on YouTube after like Good Good does. If they maybe had in-game interviews, maybe if we were mic’d up and you could hear the caddie interactions,” he said.

He also addressed the prolonged issue of slow play and stated the importance of having a shot clock. Having the shot clock will reduce a lot of that. He went on to add how in TGL 40 seconds is a lot of time. There have been multiple times when Wyndham Clark would get his club and look at the monitor on TGL, and figure out how far he needs to hit it. He takes his time, sets up the screen the way he wants to, and still has a lot of time left. He then gets to his ball and still has 20 seconds left.

“That’s a lot of time to hit a golf shot. It’s amazing how 40 seconds is a long time. I wouldn’t be opposed to a shot clock, I’m a fast player. I would love if the Tour did forward-thinking instead of some reactive thinking and said, you know what, let’s try to be the best we can in the next 10, 20 years, and let’s do something unique and new and try to bring that fan engagement back to professional golf,” added the defending champion. Well, he is not the only one in favor of the shot clock.

Rickie Fowler admires the shot clock

When Rickie Fowler was asked if there’s a TGL rule that could work in traditional golf, he didn’t hesitate. he said. Fowler, along with the other players, had no trouble adjusting to the 40-second shot clock, which raises an intriguing question—why not bring it to the PGA Tour? If it’s working so well in the TGL, why wouldn’t it work in Tour events?

The debut match of the TGL was a real eye-opener, especially in terms of the pace of play. The shot clock seemed to make a noticeable difference, and players were impressed by how quickly things moved. Shane Lowry admitted he was surprised by the pace, saying, “I couldn’t believe how quickly everything happened.” Matt Fitzpatrick echoed that sentiment, sharing, “It was much faster than I thought… I just wish that was real golf as well.”

Even players like Max Homa, and Nick Taylor are on board with the decision. What do you think about the shot clock being introduced in the PGA Tour? Let us know in the comments section below!