On the PGA Tour, 5-hour rounds are nothing unusual. Majors are notoriously slow, but the tournament doesn't even have to be a major for record-setting slow times. At the 2004 PGA Tour BellSouth Classic, rounds verged on six hours.
Jay Haas played in several Champions Tour events in 2004, along with his PGA Tour tournaments, and noticed the difference. After a quick round in a Champions Tour event, Haas told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "I think we were wanting to get back to the gaming tables or something. I was a little surprised. We played 'lift, clean and place,' and that usually slows down things a little bit, but we were 4 1/2 hours, and that was walking, too."
That same AJC article included an interesting observation from Steve Flesch. The AJC wrote: "Flesch said he plays at a faster pace during friendly rounds at home. Green speed is a lot of the problem, he admitted, but there's nothing logical about playing 'in four hours with your buddies who can't break 80' and bogging down with 'three professionals who are supposed to shoot par or better.' "
The PGA Tour has pace-of-play rules in effect, which include penalties and fines. The problem is that the PGA's rules aren't as strict as the LPGA's, and the PGA Tour appears not to strictly enforce the rules that it has on the books. Even if they do strictly enforce, the penalties don't seem to have the desired effect.
The PGA Tour's pace of play rules allow 40 seconds per stroke for golfers, and its grace period on total time per hole is also longer than the LPGA's.
If a golfer violates the time limits, he receives a warning, but no penalty. Being "put on the clock" tends to make the golfers play a little faster, which begs the question of why they weren't playing faster to begin with.
A second time violation draws a 1-stroke penalty and a $5,000 fine; three violations in the same event, a 2-stroke penalty and a $10,000 fine; four bad times in the same event results in disqualification.
Any player put on the clock 10 times over the course of one PGA Tour season is fined $20,000.
So while the LPGA immediately penalizes its violators with both strokes and fines, the PGA Tour has looser rules and no penalty for the first violation. And instances of any PGA Tour player getting that second violation and the 1-stroke penalty are rare.
Slow play is definitely one area where the PGA Tour - and most recreational golfers - could learn something from the LPGA.
Tips for Fighting Slow Play
Check out our list of tips for fighting slow play to learn how you - or your buddies - can create a more efficient pace of play.
