One of the biggest success stories to emerge from TGL has been the shot clock, which has most definitely proved that many of the best players on the PGA Tour are absolutely fine to play their shot in a limited amount of time.
The shot clock has certainly helped TGL – ensuring that matches do not significantly overrun. However, there are probably some figures on the PGA Tour who feel that they have little to thank the shot clock for.
Of course, slow play remains an issue on tour. Fans criticised The American Express and the Farmers Insurance Open after painfully slow final rounds. Meanwhile, Aaron Rai has come in for criticism after taking two minutes over a putt at the Mexico Open at the weekend.
While there are moments where a shot clock would take away from the action, it does appear that many in the game feel that the tour has to do so much more to cut down on slow play. Very few penalties are actually handed out, which clearly leaves some players feeling entitled to take all the time in the world over their shots.
What a PGA Tour rules official said about using a shot clock
But it seems that fans should not expect a shot clock to be used anytime soon on the PGA Tour. Speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport noted what he was told at the Genesis Invitational about the chances of the idea being implemented.
“I did a little ride-along with a PGA Tour rules official at Torrey Pines, I asked him this question, and basically they said logistically, it’s too difficult. You’d need someone who’s really attuned to the situation – when do you start the shot clock, you don’t start it when they’re looking for the ball, you don’t start it when they’re talking, when do you start the clock, it would be a difficulty there. And then, their whole thing is like as long as they’re playing in four hours or whatever it is, if they’re not out of position – I will say there were a couple of clips where Aaron Rai took two minutes to hit a putt, and I don’t understand how that’s not a violation. They’re saying it’s a logistical hurdle,” he said.
PGA Tour criticised for shying away from making necessary changes
One person who was definitely not happy with the explanation was golf writer Alan Shipnuck. Speaking to Rapaport, Shipnuck insisted that the PGA Tour is doing all it can to avoid actually tackling the problem when it has the resources to deal with it properly.
“Total b——t. These are things you have to solve if you want your sport to flourish. So you do a couple of weeks of training and you have an official with every group, why is that hard? Get some of that SSG money and train people. It can’t be that hard. There’s just no institutional will to deal with this,” he said.
“I went back and looked, there was a 1970s golf magazine cover story: ‘Lee Trevino takes on slow play’. This is not a new issue. The tour just doesn’t care, they could not make that any clearer. They don’t care. If they cared, this would have been solved a long time ago. They have tons of rules on the books they’re just afraid to enforce. They’re completely intimidated by the players and they are afraid to enforce the rules that already exist.”
The PGA Tour will say that reducing field sizes in 2026 will help slow play. Most of the tournaments will feature fewer players, while the number of cards being handed out will also be reduced.
However, many of the players appear to be sceptical that the decisions have been taken with tackling slow play in mind. Lucas Glover criticised the changes, claiming that reducing competition goes against what every other elite sport is doing right now.
And clearly, Glover is far from the only one who believes that the tour is getting it all wrong.
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