Over the past two years, slow play at Augusta National has become a hot topic. The issue will undoubtedly emerge when the 2025 Masters Tournament gets underway.
Thursday and Friday, when the entire field takes to the course, is typically when traffic jams occur. The par-five second followed by the drivable par-four third often causes delays to happen straight away.
Padraig Harrington has called for longer intervals between groups to prevent the immediate log jam during the final two rounds.
In 2024, Tyrrell Hatton was scathing of the pace of play, and the year before, Brooks Koepka was critical of those in front of him and eventual winner Jon Rahm.
What Rory McIlroy said was ‘horrific’ on day two of the 2024 Masters
Rory McIlroy also spoke about the issue during his press conference after the second round.
“Yeah, just a really tough day,” McIlroy said.
“Scoring was very difficult. Yeah, just one of those days that couldn’t—I mean, most of the field couldn’t really get anything going. It was just a matter of trying to hang in there as best you could.
“It felt long, yeah. My golf swing felt horrific for the last six or seven holes, just from hitting around. Especially that 11th hole, 11. It felt like it took an hour to play that hole. Yeah, it was stop-and-start. It was hard to get into a rhythm with the conditions and, obviously, how slow the play was as well.”
Rory McIlroy’s 2025 comments on slow play
Interestingly, McIlroy’s recent remarks about slow play seemed to brush over the issues he’d faced during the 2024 Masters.
“Usually, if you’re in one of those final groups at Augusta on Friday afternoon, it’s probably the slowest round of the year. No one complains about the pace of play at Augusta,” McIlroy said.
With slow play under the microscope in 2025, many will hope the upcoming Masters Tournament sees players actively looking to speed things up whenever possible.
The PGA Tour is set to test the use of rangefinders in order to speed things up. What’s more, naming and shaming the slowest players on Tour is a possibility.
Those who are objectively taking too long should speed things up if they’re called out by their peers and the Tour’s officials.
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