Professional golf has been deeply affected by slow play. No wonder the viewership rates are going down. While the PGA Tour did come together and put down notes on the measures to avoid it from January 29, not many changes were seen. During the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, on the par-5 sixth hole, Tom Kim took over a minute to line up his second shot. By the time he finally swung, his shot flew out of bounds.

It all started with an incredible 301-yard drive down the left side of the fairway, setting him up perfectly to reach the green in two. But as Justin Rose had already hit his approach, the camera panned to Kim, still deep in his pre-shot routine long after Rose’s ball had come to rest, slowing things down considerably. Not just the PGA Tour, slow play has been a recurring issue on the LPGA Tour too. Charley Hull called for Tour card retraction, and other golfers like Nelly Korda, and Lexi Thompson agreed. That seemed too severe but now, LPGA has taken a step in the right direction. 

LPGA Tour has found a way to fight slow play

In November 2024, the former LPGA Commissioner mentioned tackling the slow play issue, “I think everybody is invested in this and have to be committed to making some change there. So, yeah, we totally recognize it. We hear it. We’re digging in and all we can do is try to find the best solutions moving forward. We like the passion of our players. They want this tour to be great. They want it to be better.” The  Tour has now fulfilled its promise. 

LPGA Tour established a new pace of play committee during the off-season to drive meaningful change. Monday Q Info took to their official X account and wrote, “THIS is how it is done. Bravo @LPGA for demanding that players get faster. Assuming they follow through with penalizing players, the pace of play will pick up.”

Facing growing pressure to tackle slow play, LPGA officials are stepping up their game. Starting soon, players who take just six seconds longer than the allotted time to hit a shot could face a stroke penalty. Yep, you read that right—six seconds. The message is clear: speed it up, or you’ll pay the price.

A memo sent to LPGA players lays out the new rules: If a player exceeds the 40-second time limit by just 6-15 seconds, they’ll be slapped with a one-shot penalty. But if they take 16 seconds or more past the clock, it’s a two-shot penalty. 2024 stats show that under these new guidelines, 23 players would’ve faced the one-shot penalty, and another 8 would’ve been hit with the two-shot penalty—far more than the 22 fines handed out previously.

Looks like slow play is about to get a lot more expensive! “We believe this is a meaningful step in addressing the challenge and will continue evaluating solutions as needed,” the memo said. “With that said, we intend to improve the pace of play, not impose penalties or fines.”

These changes have managed to garner the attention of the entire golf community. Most of it was for the PGA Tour to learn.

The golf world asks Jay Monahan to take lessons from the LPGA

The changes, of course, will not be effective overnight. They will be implemented from March 27 at the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass. Well, this is almost in the middle of the season, and the fans believe that the PGA Tour too can do the same. One of them advising the PGA Tour to take a lesson from the LPGA Tour, wrote, “Brilliant. Midseason, too. It can be done PGAT! No need to plan a rules change to come into effect two years down the road.” While another said, “Hey @PGATOUR let’s go.”

Taking to Tom Kim’s recent disappointing slow play, one of them even wrote, “@PGATOUR you know who they are”.  While another simply commented, “@PGATOUR HOPEFULLY DOES THE SAME!!”

While the LPGA Tour is receiving all the credits, let’s not forget that they are not the only ones trying to make golf fun again. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s efforts too shall be appreciated. Every TGL match is approximated to be only 2 hours long. To keep a check on the time, they have introduced the Shot Clock. But how does it function?

A 40-second countdown begins every time a pair lines up for the strike within the timeframe. Once it ticks up, they are penalized for the stroke. The players cannot carry over the saved time on the previous stroke for his next stroke. So basically, every stroke allotted is 40 seconds. This helps to maintain the pace of action. Now, the golf community believes that the Shot Clock is the only best solution to get rid of slow play. Taking to this, one of them wrote, “Until I see a shot clock right behind them I’m not impressed.”

While another fan wanted to know the driving force behind the decision made. He questioned, “What was the most important factor in them making these changes? Players, Social Media/Public Pressure, Sponsors, Broadcast Partners? Golf is a slow-paced sport and will the viewers on TV notice anything different during broadcasts besides finishing at the stated time?” Well, there is a high probability that the viewership rates might increase once slow play is reduced because no one wants to wait for a tournament to end after five long hours! 

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section below!