Pace of play is a problem ... do something

It's past due for golf to aggressively address slow play; Genesis made right move after disaster

Posture of Andrew Novak and Harris English illustrate all the drama of 5½-hour slog (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

Harris English won for the fifth time on the PGA Tour, enduring cold, windy conditions at Torrey Pines to capture the Farmers Insurance Open and earn a spot in the Masters.

But the big story of the weekend was pace of play.

Or, the lack of any pace. The glacial pace that is plaguing the game.

As if men’s professional golf didn’t have enough issues right now, that’s two weeks in a row in which the final group at a PGA Tour event required roughly 5 ½ hours to play 18 holes.

This, of course, is not all about the final group.

It’s a system-wide problem that leads to such a lengthy time, and it is garnering plenty of discussion.

It got so bad during Saturday’s final round at Torrey Pines that when CBS-TV analyst Frank Nobilo noted that the last group was coming up on nearly three hours to play the first nine holes at Torrey Pines, on-course reporter Dottie Pepper seized the opening.

“You know, Frank, I think we’re starting to need a new word to talk about this pace of play issue, and it’s respect,” Pepper said. “For your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it. It’s just gotta get better.”

No doubt.

Respect for the game, fellow competitors, broadcast partners and fans. That’s one way to look at it.

But it’s also fair to point out that this is not just an issue on the PGA Tour. Slow play pervades the game all the way down to the amateur ranks, where junior golfers emulate the guys on TV and listen to coaches who espouse a lengthy routine and then get mad when a rules official tells them to speed it up.

A shot clock — like the pitch clock in baseball — sounds like a good idea, but is not practical. Not on a weekly basis. The PGA Tour would be wise to experiment with it, however. Use it in a fall event or Korn Ferry Tour event. Do it more than once a year. Make it something to build as a model for the rest of the game.

There’s also the idea that the rules officials could actually enforce existing rules or cut through some of the nonsense of fines and simply warn a group when it is out of position and start with one-stroke penalties for any violation after that.

While that might be harsh, it would serve as a huge deterrent. Not only would you not want to be timed, you’d never want to be in the position to be timed.

Of course, what makes this difficult to enforce is a number of factors. Which groups get this sort of treatment? There are not rules officials on every hole. What about playing conditions? At Torrey Pines, it was just 61 degrees on Saturday, with gusting winds. Torrey is a difficult course to begin with and there are obviously going to be some tough situations that take more time to navigate.

That is where common sense and the human element of rules officiating comes in.

Still, Pepper was on to something with the respect issue.

How hard is it to be ready to play when it’s your turn? Can you not get a yardage and go through all the discussions with the caddie while the other players are hitting? Can you not start assessing the line of a putt while others are putting? In other words, can a player just speed things up by getting to his ball quicker and doing his due diligence while others are doing theirs?

It is amazing to think how much baseball has improved with the pitch clock. And nobody seems worse for it.

So perhaps it’s time for golf’s powers-that-be make clear their intentions and start offering up some serious repercussions for the game’s habitual dawdlers. The issue is a blight and continues to drag everyone down with it.

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Much Pacific Palisades, where Riviera resides, was destroyed by wildfires (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

Torrey Pines revisited … in three weeks

The PGA Tour and the TGR Foundation made official on Friday what had been known for several days — that the Genesis Invitational scheduled for Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, is moving two hours down the road to Torrey Pines.

The reason is the horrific wildfires which have causes considerable damage in the Los Angeles area, closing the Riviera course for a time and making difficult the idea of staging a golf tournament under such conditions in a community devastated by the disaster.

It was the reasonable and honorable thing to do.

But it’s far from easy to move a PGA Tour event on short notice, and the fact that there is any blowback for returning to a tour venue that just staged another event is mystifying.

The logistics issues with staging a tournament are massive. Most events on the PGA Tour are owned by local organizing groups or charities which spend the bulk of the year planning the event. Considerable funds are spent on infrastructure.

Trying to put it all together in a matter of weeks is beyond difficult, and thus staging the tournament at a location that is already set up for such an event makes complete sense. Going to a place that has nothing in place makes no sense at all.

Keep in mind that it is in the tour’s best interest to play. It gets considerable funds from the TV networks and the title sponsor and canceling the event would mean paying all that back.

For Tiger Woods’ foundation, playing is an opportunity to recapture the funds it has spent this year in the name of staging the tournament — which is specifically geared toward benefitting the foundation, not costing it money.

And then there is the ability to create awareness for the fire victims and raise money on their behalf. You can bet that will be a theme throughout Genesis week and during the broadcast.

Perhaps least significant, but still important, the Genesis weekend (Feb. 13-16) is the first weekend without football since August. It’s a prime opportunity to showcase golfers, especially in a signature event with a top field. Woods himself might even play on a course where he’s won eight times including a U.S. Open.

Golf Digest’s Tod Leonard — a long-time San Diegan — did an excellent job breaking down the challenges that lay ahead. Not that anyone should need this point-by-point explanation to understand the decision that was made.

A horrific event still unfolding necessitated such a move. Just think of it in those terms and you can avoid making a fool of yourself.