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Tour shot clock?

Drumdog

Drumdog

Drummin' for golf
Albatross 2024 Club
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It may just be me, but it seems that the pros on tour are taking longer and longer for their shots. Going through their yardage books, discussing at length what club and where to hit the ball, tossing grass in the air, watching the trees for wind, heck the next thing I think we will see is a full bore weather station pulled out of their bag.
I believe this kind of behavior really bleeds over to the everyday golfer that watches them on TV and contributes to the slow play that no one likes. Just this weekend, I watched a guy pull out his course map, then use his laser range finder, then the grass toss, then back to the range finder, then chose the club. After he addressed the ball, he then had a change of heart on his club selection and went to grab a different one, but not before using the range finder again !

I think it's time for a shot clock on tour. What say you ?
 
Pretty sure they are always on the clock, there are pace of play penalties out there, just not enforced enough. I do agree it bleeds over in everyday golfer's play. Especially on the greens, lining up the ball even at 1 foot putt like they are out there to win a million dollars.
 
It's hard to have a Tour Shot Clock to a degree. You just sometimes have a situation where the player needs to ask a Rules Official a question, right? So, do you take a Time Out? Would that be an option?

I like the premise of the idea, but I just don't think it would be possible in reality.
 
I was watching the LPGA this weekend and some of the groups were getting warnings about this. There was a 45 minute wait at one of the later tees on Sunday.
 
Supposedly, there IS a shot clock. But they generally don't start timing until one or more groups fall off from the group in front. EVEN IF THAT GROUP IS SLOW, and the group in front of them, etc...

Last I remember is that Amateur got penalized for "slow play" (Master's maybe?). And he wasn't even all that bad. He was penalized because he wasn't a member the tour, wasn't making any money, and nobody cared. They definitely need to crack some heads and start taking names. Known slackers get paired with each other late on Thursday/Friday to not slow the normal guys down. When they start falling behind, you KNOW you have the culprits. Fine them with MONEY for first offense, MORE money for second offense, strokes AND money for the next, and so on. Three offenses- a ban from a couple of tournaments and PUBLICLY announce them. None of this shadowy unspecified clandestine system in place now.

Give a "name" player a stroke penalty or fine and let the folks who watch know about it. A few other big names getting clipped in the wallet or paycheck and 4.5 hour (or less) Sunday rounds will appear in a hurry.
 
Orange Hog said:
Nope. Terrible idea. Let the event officials manage things like they have not been doing.
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FIFY

Yes, I think a shot clock would be a good idea. Don't arbitrarily decide who needs to be put on the clock and who doesn't. It starts after you get to your ball, or after your playing partner hits. If you need a ruling obviously the clock would stop until you had received the ruling.
 
Bring it on, in the end I would like to see the officials on the PGA Tour, heck at my home course, put people on the clock, warn them, and then if they violate again, ACTUALLY PENALIZE THEM!!!
 
Yeah, I wish they would actually enforce this and penalize on this. And not just the nobody players, it needs to be applied across the board.
 
For the average golfer, I'd like to see courses put people on the clock, to reward them with cheaper rounds or discount on drinks at the turn. If you keep giving away 2 for 1 specials for people coming in under pace, I imagine all the lolly-gagging will see a notable decline.
 
There is a shot clock they have 45 seconds iirc correctly to hit their ball. The tour needs to enforce the rule if teny truly care about pace of play.
 
Plin said:
For the average golfer, I'd like to see courses put people on the clock, to reward them with cheaper rounds or discount on drinks at the turn. If you keep giving away 2 for 1 specials for people coming in under pace, I imagine all the lolly-gagging will see a notable decline.
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What if I'm off pace because I'm waiting on the group in front of me? I don't get a discount because they're slow?
 
Hmm. Well, one could got to the Draconian limit of saying "Your tee time is 10:30 a.m., if you are not back in to the scorers tent by 3:00 p.m., you will be penalized a stroke for every X minute you are behind." If everyone got the same limit, it would speed things up.
 
I think a shot clock is a good idea. One stroke every minute/30 seconds the landing zone is clear and they don't take a shot. That means as long as the group in front of you is *****ing around you can figure out your shot. But let them have range finders, or GPS units, no excuses then. You know your distance, you should know what the greens look like by Thursday get your club, hit the ****ing ball and move on. That way you're only penalizing the slow groups but they are getting penalized every time they take too long.

With all the data available there's no question of how far tiger can hit a 3 iron. If the group in front of him is 300 yards away he can hit. End of story. Don't hit? Have a free stroke added to your scorecard. Let someone lose $200,000 because they took too long and ended up 3rd instead of 1st. No more slow play.


Sent from the magic know everything box in my pocket
 
RayG said:
Last I remember is that Amateur got penalized for "slow play" (Master's maybe?). And he wasn't even all that bad. He was penalized because he wasn't a member the tour, wasn't making any money, and nobody cared.
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Not true at all. He was penalized because he was slow.
 
Wake said:
Yes he was, but we never see them penalize the many slow players on tour.
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It doesn't happen often because once players are warned they're on the clock, they know they have to speed up and do.

That's not to say there aren't improvements which can be made, but the assertion (not made by you) that the tour looks the other way because a player is famous simply isn't true. The officials have sheets telling them when each group is supposed to be finished with each hole. I had a group on Monday that was 3 holes behind the group ahead. However, they were still 10 minutes ahead of their allotted time, so no penalty, no warning.

I'm not sure if the PGA Tour penalizes for open holes regardless of pace against expected time, but if not, perhaps they should.
 
wadesworld said:
It doesn't happen often because once players are warned they're on the clock, they know they have to speed up and do.

That's not to say there aren't improvements which can be made, but the assertion (not made by you) that the tour looks the other way because a player is famous simply isn't true. The officials have sheets telling them when each group is supposed to be finished with each hole. I had a group on Monday that was 3 holes behind the group ahead. However, they were still 10 minutes ahead of their allotted time, so no penalty, no warning.

I'm not sure if the PGA Tour penalizes for open holes regardless of pace against expected time, but if not, perhaps they should.
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If these players that are playing 5 hour rounds and are a hole behind are hitting their marks, the pga needs to look into their expectations.
 
Greg Kulbick said:
What if I'm off pace because I'm waiting on the group in front of me? I don't get a discount because they're slow?
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If it's being tracked, the individuals would be tracked for the amount of time per hole they play not the total round. Potentially if the plan works, there should be no wait between holes anyhow.
 
Plin said:
If it's being tracked, the individuals would be tracked for the amount of time per hole they play not the total round. Potentially if the plan works, there should be no wait between holes anyhow.
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Agree with this 100%. If the plan works, you would be hitting onto the green as the prior group is walking off it. That being said, playing it forward would need to be enforced as well, for example I would not be able to play my 180y tee game from the blues. ;)
 
Plin said:
For the average golfer, I'd like to see courses put people on the clock, to reward them with cheaper rounds or discount on drinks at the turn. If you keep giving away 2 for 1 specials for people coming in under pace, I imagine all the lolly-gagging will see a notable decline.
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Really like this idea. Free drink or food at the turn if you get there by a certain time. Free drink or food at the end if you complete in a reasonable time. Would make people more aware of their pace of play.
 
misike said:
Really like this idea. Free drink or food at the turn if you get there by a certain time. Free drink or food at the end if you complete in a reasonable time. Would make people more aware of their pace of play.
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A course should willfully give away revenue as a reward for something that golfers should do anyways? I'm not sure I love that idea.
 
Well if the USGA actually enforced what was in the books it would be fine. As for our home courses,,,,if the Rangers did more than just hunt for lost balls and threaten to hold slow groups at a tee and allow three groups through to play through I think we would all be a lot happier. A large sign in the pro shop warning of slow play and being held at a tee as a penalty would really speed up play.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
 
sudseh said:
Agree with this 100%. If the plan works, you would be hitting onto the green as the prior group is walking off it. That being said, playing it forward would need to be enforced as well, for example I would not be able to play my 180y tee game from the blues. ;)
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The last time I was out a very old and feeble golfer was playing from the Blues. If he hit it 150 yards it was smoked. Nobody wants to be 'that' guy who tells an old timer to move up a set of tees or two,, but it was brutal!!!
 
blugold said:
A course should willfully give away revenue as a reward for something that golfers should do anyways? I'm not sure I love that idea.
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Guess that would be up to the course, of course :)

The course may not care about slow play at all. They'd have to do a cost benefit analysis, hard to factor in the unknowns of if it would increase or decrease or no effect at all of revenues.

But for me as a customer, I would appreciate it.
 
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