Tipping Point. That’s what is coming for the PGA Tour. Slow play has been such a big concern that nearly not a single day passes by without a golfer, fan, or reporter addressing the issue. And yet, the PGA Tour remains highly dormant on the issue (mostly). In the face of dwindling viewership, which is the drastic situation that is unfolding, drastic measures need to be taken by Jay Monahan and Co, reducing the field size probably won’t be enough.

Most recently, Claire Rogers, who is the Director of Social Media of the renowned GOLF Magazine took to X to question the slow pace at which the PGA Tour is moving to decide on the slow pace on display on the golf course. “I have a general rule where I don’t tweet about pace of play(boring, not my area of expertise). But imagine if the Tour implemented a rule about Malbon sweatsuits on the course before one about the pace of the play.” A dig at slow play, and Jason Day’s day-4 look! Rogers wasn’t the only one to point out the issue, PGA Tour broadcasters are also now voicing their frustration.

Live broadcast indicates the need for change to Jay Monahan

On the sixth hole on the final day, Tom Kim took a long amount of time to line up his second shot. The shot ended up going out of bounds, forcing Kim to take a penalty stroke. One of the commentators stated, “He took an awful time to do that.” The other commentator also added that the out-of-bounds shot, “was not worth the wait,” indicating the amount of time Kim took to take the shot. The live broadcast is calling out slow play for the second time in a row.

At the Farmers Insurance Open last week, former LPGA Pro Dottie Pepper did not mince words while following the group of Harris English, Andrew Novak, and Aldrich Potgieter. “You know, Frank [Nobilo], I think we’re starting to need a new word to talk about this pace of play issue, and it’s respect,” Pepper said, addressing her broadcast teammate Frank Nobilo. “For your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it. It’s just gotta get better.”

And she is right. Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour did come up with a few solutions back in October 2024. For the 2025 season, the fine for “Excessive Shot Times” was $5,000 and for “Bad Times” it was $10,000 while introducing a new “Average Stroke Time”(AST) policy. Players could incur about $50,000 in fines for 10 AST infringements. But that has done nothing substantial to affect the pace of play. Why? Tiger Woods made clear that such penalties would not combat slow pace.

The golf community demands improvement

Woods stated that the prize money is so lucrative that the fines would be considered collateral for a greater cause. “I would take the five grand over the 800K,” he explained. “That’s one shot, and that’s the difference. That’s what people don’t realize is that one shot is so valuable out there.” Woods was more in favor of a stroke penalty, “If you get a warning, you get the [stroke] penalty. I think that would speed it up. Strokes [are] money.”

Charley Hull wanted the LPGA Tour to be more severe with the punishment. “I’m quite ruthless but [my idea would be] if you get three bad ­timings, every time it’s a two-shot penalty. If you have three of them you lose your Tour card instantly. I’m sure that would hurry a lot of people up and they won’t want to lose their Tour card.”  Nelly Korda agreed, saying, “Players just need to be penalized.”

Paige Spiranac, known for her vocal nature was also very candid regarding her thoughts on the pace of play. “No one is blind to the fact pro golf is currently struggling to capture audiences. They need to speed up pace of play, get fresh talent incorporated into the broadcasts, introduce the audience to the rookies, less commercials, and most importantly have the best players in the world on one tour,” she said.

Bob Estes, a former PGA Tour Pro, also called out the time taken by golfers during the Farmers Insurance Open. The issue is not just glaring, it is near saturation. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.