Unfortunately, slow play has become a persistent issue on the PGA Tour, and the problem was thrust back into the headlines at The American Express.
Much of the talk after the event should have centred around Sepp Straka’s third and most important PGA Tour victory. Instead, the Austrian’s win was overshadowed by a painful pace of play at the Pete Dye Stadium Course.
The final group took three hours to complete 11 holes and were stranded on one particular hole for over 30 minutes whilst waiting for the green to clear. Some believe a shot clock will solve slow play. However, there are concerns that implementing a limit on each player would be difficult to execute.
On the DP World Tour, slow play doesn’t appear to be as much of an issue. Rarely will rounds on the Wentworth-based circuit break the four-and-a-half-hour mark.
Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka believes the European authorities are far more attuned to the issue than their US-based counterparts.
Brooks Koepka’s view on slow play
Koepka is known as one of the fastest players in the professional game, and if his pace is slow, he suffers.
Yet, after playing in a painfully slow final round at the 2019 Open Championship, Koepka acknowledged that the DP World Tour were actively trying to stamp out the issue.
“I’m ready to go most of the time. That’s what I don’t understand when it’s your turn to hit, your glove is not on, then you start thinking about it, that’s where the problem lies. It’s not that he takes that long. He doesn’t do anything until his turn. That’s the frustrating part. But he’s not the only one that does it out here,” Koepka told the media.
“Yeah, the European Tour does an unbelievable job with the pace of play, posting it in the locker rooms. The PGA doesn’t do that. Like I said, it wasn’t that bad today; it really wasn’t.”
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When was the DP World Tour’s last slow-play penalty?
A slow-play penalty has already been imposed during the 2025 DP World Tour season. Rookie Jacob Skov Olesen was penalised ten holes into his professional career at the BMW Australian PGA Championship.
Skov Olesen took one-and-a-half minutes to hit his approach shot to the 10th hole at Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane. DP World Tour guidelines stipulate that players are only allowed in the region of 40 seconds once it’s their turn to go.
The Dane’s punishment came after new slow-play legislation was passed in 2020. The stricter laws now impose an immediate one-shot penalty on golfers who have two ‘bad times’ in a tournament.
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