by tyler | May 17, 2023 | CNN, golf
Blonde mullet gleaming in the Indiana summer sun, one man strides purposefully down a pristine fairway, feverishly pumping his fists and waving his arms.
On all sides, deafening cheers somehow crank up another few decibels. Thousands of fans – crammed shoulder to shoulder – rise as one in response to the rallying call of their imminent champion.
His name is John Daly, and he is about to win the 1991 PGA Championship. Many in the crowd at Crooked Stick would not have known the 25-year-old’s name four days prior, and understandably so.
After all, Daly was never meant to be there.
With little more than 12 hours until tee off in Indiana, Daly was some 500 miles away at his home in Germantown, Tennessee.
Listed as ninth alternate for the major, the rookie had effectively needed a miracle to have made it in. Though a string of withdrawals had thrown surprise opportunities the way of those above him in the queue, the TV screen looked set to be the closest Daly would get to Crooked Stick that week.
Then the phone rang.
The caller was Nick Price, a well-known player on the PGA Tour with three wins under his belt. The Zimbabwean was ringing the rookie to tell him that his wife was about to have a baby and, as a result, he was pulling out from the tournament.
Daly threw his clubs in the car and drove through the night, pitching up in Carmel in the early hours of Thursday morning. Only then was it confirmed that he had a place in the field.
Even had he been on the original roster, few would have tipped him to contend, let alone win.
Eight months into his first season on the PGA Tour, four years after turning pro, Daly had missed the cut in both of his last two outings. A tied-third finish at the Chattanooga Classic in the event prior to those disappointments – his best performance to date on the Tour – signaled potential, but even that marked just his second top-10 display in 24 starts across 1991.
Then there was the field. Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, and Seve Ballesteros headlined a star-studded ensemble of major champions seeking to grow their already towering legacies.
Not enough of a challenge? Daly had never hit a ball at Crooked Hill, with any hopes of acclimatizing to the notoriously difficult course through practice rounds dashed by way of his last-minute call-up. Fortunately, Price offered his experienced caddie, Jeff “Squeaky” Medlin, to help guide the rookie.
But throw in 10 hours of driving and sleep deprivation, and making it to the weekend looked like becoming a major victory in itself.
But the name ‘John Daly’ was not an unknown to everyone tuning in that week.
Some 8,000 miles away in Cape Town, 11-year-old budding golfer Trevor Immelman had been following Daly across various appearances on his native South Africa’s Sunshine Tour.
The loss of Price – born in Durban – was a blow for golf fans in the country, but in Daly they found a familiar face to root for.
“South Africans had a good feel for how talented he was and how far he hit the ball,” Immelman, who would play his first PGA Championship alongside Daly in 2003, told CNN.
Daly’s raw power was similarly not news to fellow PGA Tour pro Bobby Clampett, who himself had taken a winding, coincidental path to Crooked Stick that week.
Clampett, who had finished third at the US Open in 1982, was set to watch the PGA Championship from home after failing to qualify for the major. Yet with construction being done on his house in August, that was not an option.
As luck would have it, his agent had been informed of an opening for a CBS broadcasting position at the tournament.
Clampett took the plunge and – under the watchful eye of legendary golf TV producer Frank Chirkinian – began the maiden leg of what would become a decades-long career at CBS.
His first assignment: follow the rookie with the blonde mullet blasting his way around Crooked Stick.
“He was already known as a bit of a legend because he hit it so far,” Clampett told CNN.
“John’s the ultimate feel player. He sometimes doesn’t make the wisest decisions of strategy on the golf course – he just goes with feeling, how he feels.”
After two rounds, Daly was feeling great. Two shots off the lead following the opening round, Daly shot 67 on Friday to soar into the weekend with a one-shot lead over Bruce Lietzke.
His devastating driving – or as Daly termed it, his “grip it and rip it” style – twinned with his underdog reputation and recognizable style made the 25-year-old Southerner an instant crowd-favorite.
“You see this guy that was playing golf like we had never seen before from a standpoint of playing so free and hitting it so far and really changing the dynamics of how this golf course was supposed to be played,” Immelman recalled.
“He was just buffering it way out there and changing the game right in front of our eyes.”
A third round 69 saw Daly leave Crooked Stick on Saturday evening with a three-stroke cushion over American duo Kenny Knox and Craig Stadler.
For most people, the beckoning of surely the biggest day of their career would call for some relaxation and an early night. Yet as was already clear, Daly was not most people.
Rather than winding down, that evening the rookie was winding up to fire a field goal for the Indianapolis Colts during a pre-season game at the Hoosier Dome. Sat up in the stands was long-time CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz.
“I was just there for one purpose, to see this kick, and John Daly came out and kicked the football and got away uninjured,” Nantz said on “The Press Box” podcast in May 2022.
“He was a straight-on kicker by the way. Not a side-winder. Knocked it through and we headed to Sunday to cover one of the great Cinderella stories sports has ever known.”
A talented high-school kicker who dreamed of the NFL, Daly impressed so much that he was invited back to kick again the following week, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
First though, Daly had a major to win, a prospect that had the blessing of many of his peers. Various messages of support were left on the rookie’s locker ahead of the final round, with one from Jack Nicklaus – “Go get em’” – since framed in Daly’s house.
Five holes from the end at the par-four 14th, Clampett – as he had all weekend – had a front row seat. It was an encapsulation of the entire week: where most golfers were reaching the green in three strokes, Daly – riding a five-shot lead – had almost made it there in one.
“We’re walking down the fairway together, he’s very loose, and he turns to me and goes, ‘Bobby, what do I do now?’” Clampett remembered.
“And I said, ‘John, just play for the crowd and enjoy every shot.’ And that’s what he did. That’s when he started wooping his hand, egging the crowd on, and that just endeared him more to them because now he’s engaging them and they’re engaging him – the energy was fantastic.”
Daly repeated the act at the last hole before tapping home to seal the Wanamaker Trophy and his first PGA Tour title, carding 12-under to finish three shots ahead of Lietzke.
The victory rewarded him with a $230,000 winner’s check, though Daly quietly donated $30,000 of the prize money to the family of Tom Weaver, who had been killed by lightning during the first round of the tournament. The family used the money to create a college fund for Weaver’s two daughters, according to ESPN in 2021.
The win rocketed Daly to sporting stardom, and jumpstarted a distinguished – albeit occasionally erratic – career trajectory that has continued into 2023.
Daly would add a second major title in dramatic fashion at The Open Championship four years later, beating Costantino Rocca in a four-hole playoff, but for many his maiden major remains his defining triumph and one of golf’s greatest stories.
The fairytale even continued into the next edition of the tournament. Almost a year to the day from watching his replacement lift the title, Price powered to a three-shot PGA Championship victory of his own in Missouri to seal the first of his three major crowns.
For Clampett, only one ranks above Daly’s triumph in terms of unexpectedness, when Ben Curtis defied belief and his world No. 396 ranking to lift The Open Championship in 2003.
Daly will not be at Oak Hill to compete in his 30th PGA Championship this week, after it was announced on Monday that he had withdrawn through injury. His late replacement is Germany’s Stephan Jaeger.
Yet to win on the PGA Tour, there will be little expectation on the world No. 117 to change that fact on his PGA Championship debut on Thursday.
Then again, it has happened before.
by tyler | May 17, 2023 | CNN, golf
Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course has undergone substantial transformations since the last time it hosted the PGA Championship 20 years ago.
So too has one of the players that competed there.
As Trevor Immelman returns to leafy Rochester, NY, for the 105th edition of the tournament on Thursday, he does so not as a wide-eyed 23-year-old chasing his first major, but as a seasoned broadcaster heading up TV coverage.
Promoted to lead golf analyst for CBS in January following Nick Faldo’s retirement, the South African is less than half a year into his new role in the hot seat.
With PGA Tour events coming thick and fast, the 2008 Masters champion has had to learn quickly. Fortunately, his biggest lesson learned was pretty much muscle memory already.
“Be ready,” Immelman told CNN Sport.
“When I was playing, I was the type of guy that loved to practice, loved to prepare for any scenario. I treat it the same way with broadcasting, so I do a lot of research, a lot of homework. I like to get out to venues and be in amongst the players and the caddies and the coaches and try and pick up as many little nuggets as I can and then be ready.
“Because, with live sport, you never quite know what’s going to happen. We could come on the air and Rory McIlroy makes a hole in one or some other player makes a triple bogey and you’ve got to be able to react really quickly. So I find the more preparation I can do, the better I’m going to be able to react when something happens.”
That mantra was tested at the RBC Heritage in April when Jon Rahm, a week on from claiming a green jacket of his own at The Masters, joined Immelman to offer some impromptu live analysis on the final round.
It was a daunting gig for a man who had just completed yet another 72 holes of golf, yet the Spaniard received rave reviews for his insight, not that Immelman was surprised.
“He’s extremely smart and thoughtful, and it’s massively impressive to me that English is his second language,” Immelman said.
“He speaks so fluently and really gets his point across in a very clear, smart way. But I can’t say that I’m really worried about him taking my job because he’s going to be a great player for a while.”
Rahm will arguably be the main attraction at Oak Hill this week, no small feat in a field shimmering with superstars.
The world No. 1 is already chasing a fifth victory of the year but will have to dethrone reigning champion Justin Thomas to become only the fourth golfer – and the first since Jack Nicklaus in 1975 – to win both the Masters and the PGA Championship in the same season.
A host of other major winners will set out to deny Rahm that place in history. Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and Matt Fitzpatrick, to name a few, carry strong form and the combined pedigree of seven major titles into Oak Hill.
It’s the type of line-up that leaves Immelman doubting a surprise win reminiscent of the one he had a front row seat for in 2003, when world No. 169 Shaun Micheel powered to what would ultimately be the sole PGA Tour win of his career.
Instead, Immelman expects a name already around golf’s summit to emerge victorious. However, not the name currently on top of it.
“I think Scottie Scheffler’s going to win, I really do,” Immelman said.
“He’s just been playing some beautiful golf and has already won multiple times this season. The only thing that has really held him back has been his putting.
“Rahm has had a spectacular season, there’s no doubt about it. But if Scheffler’s putter gets hot, I think he’s going to be tough to beat.”
Victory for Scheffler would seal a second career major for the world No. 2 after triumph at The Masters in 2022, taking him to the halfway point in the pursuit of golf’s holy grail: the career grand slam.
Those three words will trail Jordan Spieth like a shadow this week, with the 29-year-old a PGA Championship victory away from becoming just the sixth golfer to win all four majors in the modern era.
Spieth will compete despite fears he would miss the major due to a wrist injury that ruled him out of last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson Classic and will be hoping to fare better than McIlroy did in his attempt to complete the feat at The Masters.
A grueling opening two rounds saw McIlroy miss the cut at Augusta National, pausing endless chatter around the elusive slam for another year. For Immelman, it will be impossible for Spieth to tune out that noise.
“We lived it with McIlroy [at The Masters] … I don’t think there’s a way to block it out,” Immelman said.
“It’s just going to be coming at him from all different directions. I think he’s equipped to handle that – he’s been a great player, getting a lot of attention for a long time. Three-time major champion, he’s seen everything there is to see in the game of golf.
“I’m a little more concerned with his health coming in … particularly with as thick as what this rough is apparently out there at Oak Hill.”
Tiger Woods is one of only six players to have completed the slam, but will not tee up on Thursday following surgery on his ankle last month.
The 15-time major winner underwent the procedure shortly after his third-round withdrawal from The Masters, having played through pain to make the cut. Major championships have made up the bulk of the 47-year-old’s competitive appearances since he suffered severe leg injuries in a 2021 car crash.
His absence at the PGA Championship will mark the second major he has missed since he returned to the sport. Immelman is as familiar as any with the sporadic nature of Woods’ appearances in recent years, but even so, each miss marks a fresh loss for himself and the wider game.
“It’s been a tough slog for him,” Immelman said.
“Seeing him make the cut [at The Masters] was a monumental effort with the conditions combined with the body issues. Then understanding the surgery that he had to have shortly after that just shows how incredible it was for him just to make the cut there.
“He’s still the biggest name in golf: everybody knows it. Everybody in our business knows it, all the players know it. And so, absolutely, it’s unfortunate that he won’t be there.”
Yet the show must go on, and Immelman is expecting a new-look Oak Hill – renovated by architect Andrew Green – to produce plenty of fireworks across the week.
“Nobody’s quite sure how it’s going to play and nobody’s quite sure how the weather’s going to be,” he said.
“That sort of uncertainty breeds a lot of excitement leading up to when that first ball gets in the air on Thursday.”
by tyler | May 15, 2023 | CNN, golf
Australian golfer Jason Day claimed his first PGA Tour victory for more than five years at the AT&T Byron Nelson in Texas, paying tribute to his late mother after the win.
A former world No. 1, Day has endured a challenging period in his career since he was last in the winner’s circle. Amid his struggle for form, he has battled a back injury and bouts of vertigo, even to the point where he considered walking away from golf.
His victory on Sunday was all the more poignant as it fell on Mother’s Day; to honor the occasion, Day chose to have the birth name of his mother, who died from cancer last year, on the back of his caddy’s bib.
“I was in tears for a little bit there, to think about what my mom went through from 2017 on to her passing last year,” the 35-year-old told reporters after the victory.
“It was very emotional to go through and to experience what she was going through, then I had injuries on top of all of that going on in my life. To be honest, I was very close to calling it quits. I never told my wife that, but I was okay with it, just because it was a very stressful part of my life.”
On Sunday, Day carded a bogey-free, nine-under par in his final round to finish on 23-under, one shot ahead of South Korea’s Kim Si-woo and American Austin Eckroat. It was his 13th victory on the PGA Tour, earning him $1.71 million.
“It feels strange to be sitting here, I don’t know how else to explain it,” said Day.
“To go through what I went through and then to be able to be a winner again and be in the winner’s circle is very pleasing, and I know that there’s been a lot of very hard work behind the scenes that a lot of people haven’t seen.”
Starting the tournament with a seven-under 64, Day shot 69 and 66 in the next two rounds before climbing up the leaderboard with a strong showing on Sunday at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney.
That included three straight birdies on the front nine and a brilliant chip from the edge of the green on the 12th to move into the lead, which he shared briefly with world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler, Kim, Eckroat, and Taiwan’s C.T. Pan all kept the pressure on Day as rain started to fall in the closing stages, but a birdie at the 18th, where his wife and four kids were watching on, proved enough to wrap up his second AT&T Byron Nelson victory.
“For some reason, I just thought that I was going to win the tournament,” said Day, who claimed his first Tour win in the same event 13 years ago. “It’s easy to say that now because I won it, but for some reason, I just had this sort of calmness about it.”
Day admitted that his thought process for the last couple of years had been to fulfill the minimum requirements of his contract on Tour, such was the extent of the challenges he was facing on and off the golf course.
“It’s not a healthy way of playing golf in general, not a healthy way of just living in general,” he said.
But the Australian has now returned to the top 20 of the world rankings once more, recapturing some of the form that saw him claim his first and only major triumph at the PGA Championship in 2015.
And with the second major of the year getting underway on Thursday at this year’s edition of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, New York, the victory seems timely.
“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done with the swing, to the point where I want to take it,” Day said.
“I know that the game is good enough to win, but it would be nice to be able to build a game to have it be more of a dominant game to be able to win multiple times a year, not just once.”
by tyler | May 8, 2023 | CNN, golf
Golf fans are accustomed to hearing a curling putt described as ‘snaking.’ What they are less familiar with, though, is the sight of a snake dangling off the end of a club.
During the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow on Saturday, Rickie Fowler was on hand to provide a safe demonstration.
Fowler was on the par-five seventh hole of his third round at the PGA Tour event in Charlotte, when his tee shot went careening right towards the waters along the side of the fairway.
While searching for his ball, the American spotted a snake settled amongst some rocks. North Carolina is home to a range of snake species, many of which inhabit the waters of the Tar Heel state. Comments on the PGA’s Twitter post wavered on what species of snake Fowler handled, but it is thought to be a northern watersnake, a nonvenomous species native to North America.
Angling his wedge, Fowler gently hooked the snake to lift it out from between a gap in the rocks before it slithered away. The fact that the 34-year-old is a long-time partner with Puma-Cobra made it a fitting collaboration.
He eventually took a penalty drop but managed to save par, carding a three-under 68 before repeating the score on Sunday to finish tied for 14th at eight-under overall, 11 shots behind champion Wyndham Clark.
It lifts him three places to world No. 50 ahead of the PGA Championship later at Oak Hill this month, where he will again chase a first career major after three runner-up finishes.
Fowler will be hoping to avoid the fate that befell Richard Brand at last year’s event. The English golfer’s second round was derailed when a squirrel raced onto the green to stop his ball and roll it around before scampering away.
To rub salt into the wounds, Bland was not allowed to move his ball or replay his shot under US Golf Association rulings.
Snakes and squirrels have continued golf’s ever growing story of animal run-ins, with dogs, deer, and alligators all penning chapters in recent years.
by tyler | May 8, 2023 | CNN, golf
Walking up the final fairway at Quail Hollow on Sunday, victory all but assured, Wyndham Clark made a conscious effort to soak up all the sights and sounds around him. Moments later, the American tapped home to clinch the Wells Fargo Championship and his first ever PGA Tour title.
“You only can win your first tournament once,” Clark reflected, but this was a victory played out in his imagination countless times.
“It’s surreal, I’ve dreamt about this since I was probably six years old,” Clark told reporters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Since I’ve been on the PGA Tour, you fantasize about it all the time, and I’ve done it multiple times this year where I catch myself daydreaming about winning.
“To do it at this golf course against this competition is better than I could ever have imagined.”
The manner of victory was the stuff of dreams too, as Clark carded 19-under to seal a four-shot victory over compatriot Xander Schauffele, ranked 75 places above him at world No. 5. It marked the second-lowest score in relation to par in the event’s history, second only to Rory McIlroy’s 21-under in 2015, according to the PGA Tour.
McIlroy, making his first start since missing the cut at The Masters, finished 31st in a star-studded field featuring six of the world’s top 10.
A final round three-under 68 sealed the 29-year-old Clark’s fourth consecutive round in the 60’s, a composed closer after a scintillating 63 on Saturday had given him a two-shot lead over Schauffele heading into the closing round.
Having turned pro in 2017, Clark was five years and 133 PGA Tour starts without a win. After finishing sixth at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic in March, the American began to think that he might never taste victory.
“I know that sounds crazy because I’ve only been out here five years, but I had a lot of chances to where I was within two or three shots either going into the back nine or starting on a Sunday and I always seem to fall short, and not only that, but seem like I fell back in positions,” Clark admitted.
“There was multiple texts and calls and times when I was so frustrated with people in my camp where I didn’t think I would ever win and I was like, ‘Let’s just stop talking about it,’ because I didn’t want to think about it. I said maybe that’s just not in the cards for me.
“So being in the position this time, I was like, ‘Well, we know what not to do.’”
Those lessons were tested immediately Sunday, as Clark opened with a bogey and remained at one-over approaching the eighth tee. However, a subsequent birdie, followed by four more across the first six holes of the back nine, saw him cruise home.
When he rolled home his closing bogey, Clark looked overcome with emotion. After embracing his caddie and Schauffele, he looked to be holding back tears as he saluted the crowd gathered at the 18th.
Victory secured Clark the $3.6 million winner’s prize – dwarfing his previous-best payday of $485,000 – and stamped his ticket to the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in July. It also saw his world ranking soar 49 places to No. 31.
It fulfilled a dream that almost never got off the ground. When a 19-year-old Clark was establishing himself as a talented player at Oklahoma State University, his mother died of breast cancer.
Clark lost his “rock” and seriously considered walking away from the sport entirely.
“I was playing terribly,” Clark recalled. “There’s many times when I stormed off the golf course in qualifying or in tournaments and just drove as fast as I could, I didn’t know where I was going.
“The pressure of golf and then not having my mom there and someone that I could call was really tough for me. Then professionally, I’ve had multiple moments like that where you just, you miss multiple cuts in a row or you feel like your game is good and you’re not getting much out of it and you just contemplate doing it [walking away].
“Max Homa has a great quote: ‘Every golfer’s one shot away from thinking they can win the Masters or one shot away from quitting golf.’ It really is a great quote because that’s the truth. I’m glad I stuck it out and am here now.”
by tyler | May 4, 2023 | CNN, golf
There’s a lot you can do in just under three minutes.
You can listen to “Speed of Life” by David Bowie, you can re-live Usain Bolt’s 100m world record run 18 times, and, if you are an exceptionally talented Premier League footballer, you can even squeeze in a hat-trick.
Alternatively, you can watch a golfer hit a single ball.
That was the situation one fan found himself in at the RBC Heritage last month, as he fired up the stopwatch on his iPhone to time Patrick Cantlay lining up a shot during the final round of the PGA Tour event.
When the American eventually swung, the clock was ticking past two minutes and 50 seconds.
In Cantlay’s defense, the video wasn’t without caveats. It was an awkward looking lie, the ball lodged in the rough behind a tree, and – with the timer at 90 seconds when first shown – it is impossible to know exactly how long the world No. 4 spent over his shot.
The problem for Cantlay, however, is that it was not an isolated incident – nor the most disgruntled reaction.
Footage of the golfer spending close to a minute standing over a four-foot putt that same day quickly found its way to the satirical side of the sport’s Twitter community, which spliced the pictures with the closing scenes of the golf comedy classic “Happy Gilmore.”
The titular character calculated and sunk his winning championship putt – one that bounced off the windshield of a car and careened leisurely around the debris of a collapsed tower – before Cantlay holed his effort, a tweet from parody account Tour Golf showed.
A week prior during the deciding round of The Masters, Cantlay had been playing ahead of the leading group, Brooks Koepka and soon-to-be champion Jon Rahm.
Koepka, whose frustrations with slow play lit the touchpaper of a fiery feud with rival Bryson DeChambeau in 2019, made no secret of his grievances.
“The group in front of us were brutally slow,” Koepka told reporters.
“Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”
Yet Koepka’s comments paled in comparison to those made by one of Cantlay’s playing partners during that decisive round at the RBC Heritage, Matt Fitzpatrick. The Englishman went on to lift the title, seeing off Jordan Spieth in a playoff, but did not leave Hilton Head fully satisfied.
For Fitzpatrick, regarded as one of the fastest players on the tour, a three-ball round should never take longer than four and a half hours. To get near that is a “disgrace,” to go well past it is “truly appalling.”
“The problem is this conversation has gone on for years and years and years, and no one has ever done anything, so I feel it’s almost a waste of time talking about it,” Fitzpatrick told Sky Sports.
“I have strong opinions, but no one’s going to do anything about it. It’s like hitting your head against a brick wall. No one ever gets penalized.
“I think it’s a real issue, way more needs to be done. The thing is I really like referees over here, they are great people, but I did not see a single ref all day. There were a few shots we were waiting and I don’t understand where they are all hiding. It does become frustrating when you are waiting so long.”
Further complaints came from beyond the confines of the PGA Tour.
Responding to the video of the fan timing Cantlay on Twitter, former LPGA pro Anya Alvarez labeled it “atrocious.”
“What is the point of having a pace of play rule if you’re going to allow this? I was penalized on LPGA for slow play … and it forced me to speed up,” Alvarez said.
And even the game’s greatest are weighing in, with Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sörenstam both admitting that the PGA Tour have a problem on their hands.
“It’s got to be equitable, but they need to make an example and stay with it,” Nicklaus told Golfweek ahead of the PGA Tour of Champions’ Greats of Golf event on Saturday.
“It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour.”
Sörenstam added: “Nobody enjoys it and it’s not fair, we’re running out of time. Time is a precious commodity, so I think start at the very beginning and teach them to hit when you’re ready and go.
“The more we think, the more complicated it gets, so just hit and go.”
For Golf Digest analysts Joel Beall, Alex Myers and Luke Kerr-Dineen, there was a general consensus for Fitzpatrick’s outburst: blunt, but true.
As well as having a negative “ripple effect” on groups behind the slow player – akin to the chain reaction of braking causing traffic jams on a highway – it could also lead to the Tour losing valuable eyes.
“Pace of play is an issue and has been for years,” Beall told CNN Sport.
“What’s changed is that sports leagues are recognizing their consumers don’t have an infinite amount of time to devote to their fandoms and are adjusting accordingly. That golf hasn’t has amplified the existing problem.”
However, Cantlay seems unfazed. After dropping in a sensational hole-in-one during the second round of the RBC Heritage, the American tweeted video of his effort with the caption: “Playing faster!”
Quizzed on Fitzpatrick’s criticisms ahead of the following week’s Zurich Classic, Cantlay said his tenure on the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council (PAC) had shown him that round times had been relatively similar across the last decade.
“So trying to speed it up, I’d be curious to know how they’d want to do that,” Cantlay told reporters.
“I played the last two tournaments, and my group hasn’t been warned at all … I don’t know how you would want the groups that I’ve been in to play faster when our groups are in position and can’t go faster because the group in front of us is right in front of us.
“I’m definitely slower than average, have been my whole career. I definitely take my time … I haven’t had anybody come up to me or talk to me, but I’d be perfectly happy to talk to them about it.”
Cantlay was speaking alongside fellow American Xander Schauffele, who defended his compatriot.
“All the things that have happened as of late have all been within the guidelines of the Tour and what’s supposed to happen,” Schauffele said.
“No one’s been penalized for slow play or anything of that nature, so we’re all operating within the framework of what the Tour gives us. If enough people complain or if enough Tour pros complain, that’s something the Tour needs to address to either make it faster or change the time par.
“We’re not playing like the local muni [municipal course] that the average Joe compares our time par to – we’re playing for a couple million. If you’re going to spend an extra minute to make sure you put yourself in the right spot, we’re going to do it.”
Ironically, the PGA Tour’s Tournament Regulations handbook spends a lot of time on pace of play guidelines.
An entire chapter dedicated to the issue begins by citing the R&A and USGA’s Rules of Golf guidance that “a round of golf is meant to be played at a prompt pace.” That pace is set at 40 seconds to play a stroke, with an extra 10 seconds afforded under various circumstances, such as the first player to play a shot on a par-3 hole or on the green respectively.
“The player should usually be able to play more quickly than that and is encouraged to do so,” the guidelines state, with golfers that exceed 40 seconds – AKA “bad time” – “informed as soon as practicable” by a tournament official.
While the first “bad time” offense goes unpunished, one- and two-stroke penalties are awarded for second and third violations respectively. A fourth offense during a round warrants disqualification. A second “bad time” equals a fine of $50,000, with a $20,000 fine for each subsequent offense.
Players that average more than 45 seconds a stroke over a 10-tournament rolling period are notified that they have been put on The Observation List, putting them under direct scrutiny from the Rules Committee. Observed golfers must play each stroke in under 60 seconds.
Should a player spend more than two minutes on a shot without a valid excuse, they are hit with an Excessive Shot Time. While the first offense goes unpunished, subsequent breaks put the golfer on The Observation List and are penalized by a monetary fine, starting at $10,000.
Both The Observation List and Excessive Shot Time were introduced by the PGA Tour in April 2020 to help speed up the pace of the game.
“You talk to players, read articles, hear from fans and what gets people, what gnaws at them, are these individual habits that people have,” then-PGA Tour chief of operations Tyler Dennis told Sky Sports.
“It’s seen as bad etiquette. It’s seen as a distraction, and we’re targeting those individual moments to help their fellow competitors and assist our media partners with presentation.
“We want to keep the focus where it should be: on world-class shot-making.”
So how do you solve a problem like slow play?
One idea, floated by PGA Tour golfer Michael Kim, is to name and shame via a monthly report of the slowest players.
This was a strategy tested by 2010 Ryder Cup winner Edoardo Molinari in 2019, as the Italian – having voiced his frustration with the pace of play on the European Tour – fulfilled his promise of sharing a spreadsheet documenting the slowest golfers on the Tour via Twitter.
Arguably the most commonly suggested solution, however, is the adoption of a shot clock, akin to those used in both the NBA and Major League Baseball (even if the latter’s recent introduction has led to considerable confusion among players).
The European Tour trialed the move at The Shot Clock Masters in 2018, dishing out red cards and one-shot penalties for violations, with players afforded two “time-outs” during each round.
However, Kerr-Dineen believes a golfing shot clock would be “too messy” to enforce. Instead, he says the PGA Tour should take inspiration from the American Junior Golf Association, where the introduction of “time par” checkpoints every three holes has helped speed up the youngsters’ game.
“Each group has to reach the next checkpoint in a specified amount of time. A slow group gets two warnings, then players get a one-stroke penalty for each bad time after that,” Kerr-Dineen explained.
“It’s a simple to understand, proven system – and it works.”
Golf Digest’s Beall sees some value in shot clocks and public calling outs, but squares responsibility with those that decide where to position the hole.
“Those in charge of setting up the course on a weekly basis continue to put pin locations in tough spots on greens that are faster than they’ve ever been,” Beall said.
“Put the pins in less severe spots and slow the greens down just a touch could go a ways in alleviating the issue.”
And for Myers, the answer has been staring the PGA Tour in the face all this time: simply enforce the existing rules.
It has been 28 years since the last slow play penalty was issued to an individual at a PGA Tour regular event, when Glen Daly received a one-stroke penalty at the 1995 Honda Classic.
“We hear all the time about so-and-so being put on the clock. What’s the point of doing that if you’re not going to take the next step?” Myers asked.
“Start adding strokes to players’ scores and you’ll quickly see those guys taking time off their pre-shot routines.”
Such a change would be music to the ears of Koepka, who in 2019 was so frustrated that he offered himself up to play the role of martyr.
“I’ve tried to get put on the clock, but it doesn’t seem to work because nobody will penalize anybody. Even if I take over 40 seconds, penalize me,” Koepka said.
“I’ll be the guinea pig, it doesn’t matter. It needs to happen.”
