The PGA Tour is probably thinking that 2026 cannot come soon enough after yet another event at the start of the season came in for criticism, with the Farmers Insurance Open managing to leave a sour taste in the mouth.
It has certainly been an underwhelming start to 2025 for the PGA Tour. Some of that has been out of their hands – and very much in Scottie Scheffler‘s – but the tour has not helped itself.
The American Express came in for heavy criticism after the final group took the best part of six hours to complete their round on Sunday. And frustration was prevalent during the final round at the Farmers Insurance Open this week.
The last group on Saturday took three hours to reach the turn at Torrey Pines. And with that, it seems absolutely imperative that the PGA Tour – as well as all of the other tours – does act sooner rather than later.
PGA Tour urged to name and shame after the Farmers Insurance Open
The PGA Tour may argue that the changes coming in 2026 will help address slow play. However, the changes have been widely criticised. And there does not appear to be much confidence that reducing field sizes will change a great deal when it comes to how long it takes to complete 18 holes.
Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard noted that the PGA Tour does compile a list of the fastest and slowest players. And with that, Ryan Lavner believes that releasing the list each week is going to be the only way to get players to change their ways.
“They have a list of the top five and the bottom five on the PGA Tour, and that list is constantly updated every single week. So if they wanted to be pro-active, if they wanted to do something outside the box, they certainly could. I just don’t think there’s enough fortitude there,” Hoggard said.
“I want to see public shaming. It’s like the greatest deterrent ever, publicly shaming these players,” Lavner replied.
“That is a guaranteed way to speed them up, is to publicly humiliate them as a slow player and have the reaction seep out until they change their behaviour, and until the pace of play increases on the PGA Tour.”
The worry about what the PGA Tour decide to do next
The worry will be that the PGA Tour decides to do nothing for the time-being because they genuinely believe that the problem is going to be addressed next year.
But if the slow players remain on the tour in 2026, they are surely likely to take even longer because they know that there will be fewer players out on the course.
It would clearly upset a lot of golfers if the PGA Tour did decide to name and shame. But as long as the average times per shot are posted, there is the potential for the problem to be properly addressed.
If the slowest PGA Tour player ends up being quicker than the current average, then the large majority of fans should definitely give them a lot more grace. There just simply needs to be signs of genuine progress.
The problem is there is little reason to have any faith in the PGA Tour at this point.
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