‘3 Hours & 23 Minutes to Play 12 Holes’: Harris English in Hot Water as Unsavory Details Surface About His PGA Tour Win

“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. That would kill the slow play, but they would never do that”: Charley Hull‘s idea to curb the slow play issue is quite straightforward. Her peer Nelly Korda finds her solution “funny” but their annoyance with the issue is same.

“I personally think it’s a pretty big issue. It’s not good for the fans that come out and watch us. If it was me personally, I would be very, very annoyed watching for five hours, over five hours, 5 hours and 40 minutes, close to 6. I just think it really drags the game down” Korda said while clearly declaring, “players need to be penalized.” This much irritating slow play is. The issue once again popped up lately, first at The American Express Open (January 16 to January 19), and now, in the Farmers Insurance Open. 

The American Express Open winner, Sepp Straka, took nearly 5 hours and 39 minutes to finish the course along with his group. He finished close to 40 minutes beyond the scheduled TV Window. On the other hand, Farmers Insurance Open winner Harris English and his group took a whopping 5 hours and 29 minutes to complete the final round. The slow play worked for the pro. He ended up winning his first PGA Tour event in 1308 days. But the pace of play has sparked frustration not only among the fans but the broadcasters as well.

CBS reporter Dottie Pepper was visibly upset as she was following the group of Harris English, Andrew Novak, and Aldrich Potgieter. When the players reached the 10th hole after more than three hours, the former LPGA Pro addressed the broadcast in direct and unforgiving words. “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, conversing with teammate Frank Nobilo. “For your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it. It’s just gotta get better.“

Nobilo was quick to agree to it and both are right to call it out. The players were averaging 20 minutes per hole during the majority of the day and it looked highly possible that a few groups would not finish before dark. Thankfully, the groups picked up the pace to finish 15 minutes before the end of the TV window. Slow play was a huge point of discussion in the DropZone podcast too.

The hosts gave an idea: “For the enforcement, you need to build up an army of volunteers which is ironic because the PGA tour employs an army of volunteers but they need to push them or pivot them to work harder and to look in a certain direction.”  To curb the issue, the Tour has proposed some changes, mainly a reduction in field sizes from 2026. But Nelly Korda had a more basic idea for it.

“Rules officials need to watch from the first group. Once they get 2 minutes behind, 1 minute behind, it just slows everything down. To be standing over a putt for two to three minutes, that’s ridiculous,” Korda had said in November last year. According to her, when a group is on the green, then the one in the fairway should already be getting the numbers ready and talking about the shot. So by the time, the turn comes, one should have their game plan ready. So where is the problem?

“People Overanalyze, one, and I think, people just need to be ready faster People start their process a little too late and they stand over it too long. But then again, I think we need more people on the ground to monitor pace of play. I don’t think we have enough people to monitor it,” Korda said. Such arguments from the top-echelon players and Dottie Pepper’s words certainly raised some questions and concerns from fans.

Harris English called out for his pace of play by fans

 “Shotuout @dottie_pepper calling out pace of play. It took Harris English’s group nearly three hours to finish the first nine holes. It’s beyond horrendous right now. Figure it out @PGATOUR.” A fan tweeted understandably bothered by the slow pace exhibited by the eventual winner and his group. The plea is something that all golfing fans have and the PGA Tour and Jay Monahan will need to do something to address the same.

The PGA Tour is dealing with a serious issue of reduction in viewership. Saturday and Sunday viewership in 2024 were down 17% and 19% compared to 2023 and that number is likely to reduce even further in 2025. The slow pace of play is one of the main reasons for it and the fans are very vocal about it. “Three hours after Harris English teed off, he made the turn. Pace of play continues to be a nightmare,” an X user had tweeted.

No Laying Up, a renowned podcast had some choice words to say while watching the unfolding of Round 4 at the Torrey Pines Golf Course “This round is gonna be one of the great slogs of our times.” A fan was quick to jump on the issue showcasing his incredulity at the situation.“@NoLayingUP Am I crazy or did Harris English just take 3 hours and 23 minutes to play 12 holes?” Averaging 20 minutes per hole, it sure comes near to 240 minutes. More or less, yeah, English took around that much time. 

Another fan was a mix of jokes as well as outright anger. He wanted to suspend the eventual winner and devoid him of his $1.67m prize money, a clear indication of the frustration that has seeped into the fans due to the slow pace of play. He requested to “Please suspend Harris English immediately for this display today. A fish could walk faster on land and this standing talking to caddy stuff forever before hitting needs to be stopped.” The requests from the fans are pretty evident. Jay Monahan needs to step in and address the issue of slow play, Else, the dwindling numbers will keep on dwindling. What do you think could be a good idea to increase the pace of play across the tournaments?