Professional golf has made important steps in solving the speed of competition. However, these new rules will not immediately appear on PGA Tour.
During a press conference at TPC Sawgrass, Member of PGA Tour, Jay Monahan, mentioned many hot issues, from the intervention of President Donald Trump to negotiate with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) to the “Fan Forward” initiative to enhance the audience’s experience. But perhaps the most notable thing is the new policy related to the speed of competition, a controversial issue.
Slow playing is a controversial issue.
From the beginning of February, this issue has flared up after Charley Hoffman sent a memorandum to golfers, calling them to speed up the competition. Over the years, fans have been annoyed many times about the long rounds, and they believe that the only way to improve is to hit the pocket or transcript of the golfers “turtles”. Brooks Koepka once said: “Just start punishing the stick.” Some other ideas are also proposed, from the application of the stopwatch for each shot to the public list of golfers playing slowly so that they must be ashamed to change.
Jay Monahan confirmed: “We are committed to solving the speed of the game. Therefore, I am very happy to announce that the leading research team made some important recommendations. We will start announcing the statistics of the game speed from the end of this season. We will test a new game speed policy on Korry Tour and PGA Tour Americas. Starting from April 14, we will apply a stick for golfers to play slowly. ”
Jay Monahan pledged to solve the problem of playing slowly.
Previously, PGA Tour applied a four -step process: Warning, starting stopwatch, skipping a mistake, if continuing to play slowly, the new golfer was fined a stick. But according to Gary Young, senior vice president in charge of the law and competition, this process will change. The new law will eliminate the “ignore” step, meaning golfers will receive a faster penalty.
Playing slowly not only affects the experience of the audience but also directly affects the psychology and psychology of golfers. Korn Ferry Tour will be the first test. The first tournament influenced by the new regulation will be Lecom Sancoast Classic at Lakewood National Golf Club, Florida.
