With slow play in golf very much one of the biggest talking points in the sport right now, it’s always interesting to see what the very best have said on the issue, and that includes Tiger Woods.
Slow play has dominated headlines in the past week after Charley Hull called for some drastic punishments for players out on the LPGA Tour.
“It was crazy. I’m quite ruthless, but I said, listen, if you get three bad timings, every time it’s a tee 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,” Hull said last week.
Furthermore, Nelly Korda also took a dig at the ANNIKA as she was forced to finish late which, in the main, was a result of slower play in front of her.
On the men’s side of things, slow play has been an issue going years back but right now in 2024, it seems nothing is getting done to stamp it out.
Of course, one man who might get a say in how it’s sorted is Tiger Woods, and he’s been clear in his views on the situation in the past.
What Tiger Woods has said about slow play in golf Charley Hull calls for big changes
As we all know, Tiger is one of the biggest voices and names in the sport and he is going to be key to any deal being done between the LIV and PGA Tours.
But when it comes to on-course matters like the pace of play, Woods might also be able to have some sort of influence. Especially, it seems, as he is very much on the side of Hull and Korda in their assessments.
Speaking back in 2012, Woods called for players to lose shots almost instantly if they slow the game down.
“If get a warning, you get the [stroke] penalty,” he said. “I think that would speed it up. Just straight out, if you get a bad time, yeah,” he said.
Strokes [are] money,” Woods clarified as he suggested monetary penalties have little effect.
Woods also suggested in 2019 that the opening group has a lot to answer for in slow play.
“We’ve been fighting [slow play] for, God, ever since I grew up watching the game,” Woods said.
“We can only go as fast as the group in front of us goes. It’s important that the first group goes out and sets the pace, because as you know, the times get slower as you go on, and if the first group goes out slow or has rulings, hits the ball bad, it just logjams everyone behind them.”
Rory McIlroy backs stroke penalties for slow play
Another big name who has had his say on slow play in the past is Rory McIlroy.
And just like Woods and Hull, McIlroy believes taking shots off the player is the way to go about it.
We are not children that need to be told five or six times what to do. ‘OK, you’re on the clock. OK, I know if I play slowly here, I’m going to get penalized.’ I think that’s the way forward,” McIlroy said.
“I think the guys that are slow are the guys that get too many chances before they are penalized. So it should be a warning and then a shot. It should be you’re put on the clock and that is your warning, and then if you get a bad time while on the clock, it’s a shot. That will stamp it out right away.”
Quite whether the PGA Tour will act, is another thing. But over the 2025 season, you can bet your bottom dollar that this subject rears its head once again.
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