Unlike their events, the criticism heading the way of the PGA Tour is not exactly slowing down right now, with many left frustrated after watching the Farmers Insurance Open at the weekend.
It has been a difficult start to the year for the PGA Tour. Neither Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy have played yet stateside this year, while Xander Schauffele recently joined the world number one on the sidelines with injury.
The viewing figures for The Sentry were poor, while The American Express attracted plenty of criticism after the final round took the best part of six hours to complete. Unfortunately, that event was not exactly an anomaly, with the Farmers Insurance Open proving to be similarly slow.
There was strong criticism of the Farmers from fans and broadcasters. And it seems safe to say that the PGA Tour has not been helped by TGL, with the indoor league including a shot clock which moves the game along a lot quicker.
Smylie Kaufman suggests the problem with introducing a shot clock on the PGA Tour
It is tempting therefore, to implore the PGA Tour to introduce a shot clock. However, there are clearly a lot more players playing at the same time during a PGA Tour event, so it would be a much larger undertaking.
And with that, Smylie Kaufman has told The Smylie Show that he does not believe that a shot clock system would work.
“How the heck do you enforce a shot clock? You’re going to have a volunteer walking with every group keeping score, and now this volunteer who maybe they started or stopped the clock at the wrong time, now we’re dealing with the most ridiculous set of rules ever,” he said.
“Players, they just need to start being penalised. Every shot matters at the end of the week, two strokes, players will start speeding up. They always do before they get onto the clock. But at some point, you’re going to have to start penalising guys.
“It’s just impossible, it really is. A shot clock, yes, it makes sense. But it’s hard to execute that.”
Why the PGA Tour is highly unlikely to change anything until 2026
The worry for many fans is that the PGA Tour have gone somewhat all in on addressing slow play with the changes which are coming in 2026.
The number of tour cards handed out each year is being reduced, while field sizes at so many of the events are also coming down. However, there is clearly a lot of scepticism concerning the notion that slow play is at the heart of the changes. Brandel Chamblee said it was a sad day for golf when the proposals were voted through.
In the short-term, the big problem is that it is hard to imagine the PGA Tour making a change which will help pace of play this year, if they are confident that the situation will improve in 2026.
With that, it appears that it may be a situation golf fans have to tolerate for a while longer.
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