With many of the superstars of the PGA Tour gearing up for their first appearance of the season at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, much of the focus in the opening weeks of the year has been on the pace of play at events.
It is hard to imagine that the PGA Tour will have gained many casual fans over the first month of the year. Many of their biggest names have barely featured so far in 2025.
The American Express came in for criticism after the final round took the best part of six hours, and it was a similar story at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Unsurprisingly, the calls for slow play to be addressed have seemingly got even louder.
There have been suggestions that the PGA Tour should name and shame the slowest players, while there have also been calls for a shot clock to be implemented. And it seems that the tour is now ready to act.
Why the PGA Tour are really looking to make changes to pace of play
Having begun a fan survey last year, the PGA Tour is considering allowing rangefinders in events, while they may indeed consider posting average stroke times from tournaments.
But perhaps those hoping to see the round times come right down are set for disappointment. Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner claimed that the thinking behind the changes is down to how entertaining the events are.
“I think the fan survey certainly pointed them in the right direction. They have data to suggest that this is what fans of the PGA Tour want, as opposed to just relying on an opinion or player fervour. Whatever the case may be, now they can point to a data point and say, it all comes down to the broadcast. They want to improve the flow of the broadcast,” he said.
“I think that’s an important distinction to make. Major League Baseball trimmed off 30 minutes, Adam Silver wants to keep within a two hour window with the NBA. The PGA Tour’s not necessarily looking to take a five and a half hour round and all of a sudden trim it down to four and a half hours. That’s not a realistic expectation. That’s not really what they’re interested in.
“What they’re interested in is the fan experience, both on site, not having so many slowdowns, as well as the viewer experience on TV, where you’re not sitting there watching players mark and re-mark two footers and showing short putts. The cadence, the flow needs to be more energetic and fast-moving, as opposed to what we saw at The American Express.”
Why fans should not expect Rory McIlroy to have his best stuff on the PGA Tour in 2025
Elsewhere, Rory McIlroy is going to make his first appearance on the PGA Tour this season at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The view of the Northern Irishman’s 2024 has very much divided opinion, with McIlroy winning four times while also failing to get across the line at the US Open.
McIlroy has spoken of having three goals for the remainder of his career. He wants to win the Masters and complete the career grand slam, win an Olympic medal, and win a Ryder Cup on away soil for the second time.
And with that, Lavner expressed some concern that we may now see a McIlroy who is less motivated when it comes to most PGA Tour events.
“I like to hear him verbalise that, I like to view what he accomplishes from this point forward, aged 35, through the prism of these are what his three goals are,” he said.
“And I wonder if it’s going to be difficult for Rory at this stage of his career, I think it’s 17th season on the PGA Tour, to get up for regular events on the PGA Tour when it’s so clear at this stage of his career, with all he’s accomplished, there’s really only a couple of things that could make him either the most accomplished European player of all-time, one of the best players of his generation, certainly as it relates to the career grand slam, one for the record books.”
You would imagine that winning the Masters may be easiest for McIlroy to achieve – which is almost alarming to say. Obviously, he will get one chance every four years to play in the Olympics and an away Ryder Cup.
He was part of the European side who won at Medinah, which will soften the blow if they cannot do it again in McIlroy’s career. However, he can only win a maximum of five points at a Ryder Cup, so he is also having to really rely on his teammates.
When it comes to concerns, perhaps McIlroy will struggle to care about PGA Tour events to the same degree.
But what it may do is help him move on quickly if he fails to get across the line in a PGA Tour event. And that may be particularly beneficial. McIlroy is not held back by his talent, but surely by the scar tissue which has come from missed opportunities over the years.
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