Did the PGA Tour magically solve its slow crisis?

Jim Nantz apologized when he greeted Rory McIlroy on the 18th green at the end of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

“Thank you for your wait,” Nanz said. “We have 20 minutes to fill.”

“No problem,” McIlroy fought back with a smile. “So we don’t have a slow problem?”

Nantz refers to CBS’s broadcast window, which is built in some swinging rooms slower than the top stars of this tour fell. Although this means extra call time – Quick, guys, who else can we interview? – This is the beginning of a welcome turnaround. After several weeks of debate surrounding the slow crisis of the tour, it was an all-round benefit that the tours of the last three weeks were retweeted from the topic.

After all, that Zhouchu was on the pebbles and everyone could talk about it. The tour was the last round of back-to-back slower races on American Express and Farmers Insurance’s low-war rankings, and slower races were an easy goal. Dottie Pepper was praised when she called on players on CBS broadcasts to “respect” more. This is what everyone thinks. On AT&T, every player who will step on the microphone will be forced to solve the problem, from McIlroy to the world’s number one Scottie Scheffler and everyone else. The same week, several executives on the PGA Tour met with participating media to resolve the slow crisis.

Some solutions were provided at the time:

– The tour intends to create more “virtual rulings” or at least bring officials to the scene faster using video comments on Tour HQ in Florida.

– This trip will test range finders (distance measuring devices, called ems) sometime this year to see if they help speed up.

– The tour is considering naming and humiliation; they have data on the rhythm of each professional’s game and can disclose it so that we know who the snail is, and can accordingly put our collective sulfuric acid into our collective sulfuric acid.

– There is no mention of the shooting clock this tour, but with the arrival of the TGL and its 40-second countdown, it’s an attractive solution that gains a lot of traction on social media – also from several top experts There is attraction.

But this trip back Torrey Pines reminds people that there are other factors. And that faster game yes Possible.

Tori two rounds

On the farmer insurance open plan the week before the pebbles, the last round lasts for the first nine and five and a half hours of three hours. What to solve That?

“Jez, I don’t know,” McIlroy said in a long reaction a few days later. He outlined the challenge: wind speed. Green speed. Bumpy green. one third. Large field. Tight serving time. 3 poles long. It can reach 5 strokes. “You might be able to improve it in 15 or 20 minutes, but it’s still five and a half hours and five and a half hours of 15 rounds, so is that really enough to improve it to make a huge change?” He asked. “I have no idea.”

But people, what’s the difference between three weeks. The tour ended on Sunday the tour ended the Genesis Invitational of Torrey Pines, a golf course for sluggish farmers. The course is still tough. The roughness is still very long. But the final group? It took them just over four hours to enter. Likewise, CBS has time to kill before the broadcast window ends. Given that his pre-gun routine was about the same time as Google searches, Ludvig Aberg was the right winner. Everyone seemed to be happy. So what’s the difference?

There are a few. The first biggest difference is (for farmers) three split T-shirts (for farmers) compared to the first (Genesis) trichromosome. The second big difference is that the Genesis weekend is smaller (cuts are the top 50 and tie), which provides additional flexibility. The third big difference is the scoring criteria, which is cruel for farmers (74.75 final score average scores), and relatively benign to Genesis (70.14). Even if you adjust a better field at Genesis, the effect is the same: fewer golf balls.

Here are a few lessons. Several of these have been addressed by the tour, and these changes will take effect next year to limit the size of the field, thus giving the group more room to operate. But I think the biggest gain is this: When you think of slow game, you might imagine a golfer standing behind his ball for unnecessary duration, or standing at the address, standing at the address It swayed again. We must dissuade this kind of nonsense. As a viewer, it is destructive and may not actually help the player. But these guys yes It can also be done when they can do four hours of rounds.

Slow gaming is a multi-pronged problem. This will continue to be a challenge for professional golf. But this is not impossible to solve. Or I want to believe it.

“>