Charley Hull’s ruthless solution for Turtles? Take away their tour card
Each week, we ask our panel of writers, PGA members and golf industry experts to weigh in with their views on the hot topics of the day.
During her third-round press conference at The ANNIKA, after spending five hours and 38 minutes on the golf course, Charley Hull exploded with frustration about slow play on the LPGA Tour. She suggested assessing two stroke penalties to the slow pokes every time they receive a bad time and taking away their Tour cards for three bad time calls. What do you think of Hull’s solution?
Jim Deeks, Fairways Magazine (@jimdeeks): I agree that something should be done, although slow play doesn’t affect spectators or TV viewers. Assessing penalty strokes is probably the best deterrent, although it’s not a perfect science in determining who’s the slow poke in a group of two or three. And how do you assess/warn the slow poke in an early group on a Thursday or Friday morning, when the only people on the hole are the players, caddies, scorekeeper, and maybe, standard-bearer? Would each group need to have a shot-clock operator walking along, with the power to assess penalties? That’d be pretty controversial.
Michael Schurman, Master Professional / Hall of Fame Member, PGA of Canada: Occasionally (on Tour) there are innocent bystanders who through no fault of their own get drawn with slow pokes. They need to be protected otherwise anything done to reduce time played is good. I like Hull’s solution. Recently, I designed a program that was to be sold to Course Owners to eliminate slow play. It died when the question was raised by one of the team who asked, “What do you do when a belligerent jerk is approached on the course with instructions on playing quicker”? BTW The problem isn’t slow play. The problem is not knowing how to contribute to reducing the time. People have never been educated.
TJ Rule, Golf Away Tours (@GolfAWayTJ): Yes! Let’s do it. The slow play epidemic has gone on too long. The problem is the routines all young competitive players are introduced to, they grow up learning to play the game slowly. Her ideas may be a bit extreme, but I like where she’s going. I know it doesn’t impact the tv viewers but slow play sets so many bad precedents for the game, and I wish they would address it. They did it in baseball and it worked, it’s not hard to enforce!
Hal Quinn, Freelance Writer, Vancouver: In my capacity as a starter/ marshal (sorry, players assistant) at a local course, in mid-season I remind players teeing off around noon that it gets dark at 9 pm. Some laugh. Those who don’t, I worry about. But, as we all know, there are a lot of “players” new to the game. (Stupid COVID!) They’ve spent outrageous amounts of money (after tax? sheltered? Off-shore? possibly earned?) on clubs and bags and clothes and then there’s the inflated the green and cart fees. So, they arrive at the first tee having spent an awful lot but not a penny (in any currency) on lessons. They also arrive with no golf knowledge or etiquette. OK, they are going to light up the pace of play computer at the pro shop with numbers like: 1:58 hours behind time. It’s a massive problem, but when pay-as-you-play so-called golfers have paid so much for the experience, they are not going to rush it, no matter what a marshal says about skipping a hole. Marginal players speed up immediately, drunk millennials make it a life-changing scene, drunk tournament players — fuhgeddaboudit. Hull has the right approach at the pro level. Either on the course or watching on TV, the most aggravating aspect of pro golf is players and caddies waiting the 3-4 minutes of the away player’s complex configurations before starting theirs. Annika mentioned “Ready Golf.” That has to be enforced at the pro level with Hull-like intent. Then, maybe, just maybe, it will trickle down to the daily fee players. That could be generational. For the pros, it has to start tomorrow.
Peter Mumford, Fairways Magazine (@FairwaysMag): Every professional golfer knows who the slowpokes are, although they never think it’s them. Hit them hard for several months with two-stroke penalties and maybe suspend a few for a tournament or two. Every missed cut, low finish or missed tournament can have exponential ramifications for the playoffs, a Ryder Cup berth or even a career. They’ll speed up real fast.
As you may recall, Paul Azinger had some less than positive words for NBC / Golf Channel after not being renewed last December as lead analyst on PGA Tour events. What’s your reaction to Azinger returning to the same network to take over for Lanny Wadkins on the Champions Tour broadcasts?
Deeks: I personally thought Azinger was a great analyst, not afraid to call people out for bad shots or address other sensitive issues. I haven’t heard whether he’s been approached for Champions Tour broadcasts, but as I suggested here last week, anyone would be an improvement over Lanny, in my view. I’d be surprised if Azinger would accept the job, frankly.
Schurman: Given the disrespectful manner used by US politicians when discussing or debating with others and then coming together to feed from the same trough it is the new way to communicate. Azinger was very good before (B+) and with the amount of money available for PGA TOUR events, Champions TOUR events etc. players are playing longer and then retiring. An announcer has to have playing credibility, quality voice, general life skills, enjoy the travel and be prepared to work hard doing adequate research. All of this makes for a difficult search.
Rule: I was surprised, to say the least. He didn’t have the best reputation to begin with, and then the feud with NBC, so it’s strange, but I guess there’s nobody else out there. It’s like being demoted to the minors anyway, calling the play on the Champions Tour. Not sure how many people will be watching enough for it to matter whether it’s Azinger or anyone else.
Quinn: When NBC pulled the plug on Zinger’s mic it was a great day for golf, TV golf fans, accuracy, thoughtfulness, mute buttons, and the English language its own self. That he’s willing to sit in a studio in Florida staring at a monitor pontificating on Senior’s golf seems about right. The merciful thing is that he’ll be waxing inarticulate on broadcasts no one is watching.
Mumford: There seems to be a scarcity of qualified announcers available and the idea of broadcasting from a studio in Florida, rather than onsite, might shorten the bench even further. Azinger wasn’t the best and not the worst either. He can be annoyingly American at times, but at least he has experience and a desire to stay connected to the game. Ten years from now, major winners won’t hardly get out of bed for broadcaster money.
Rory McIlroy won his sixth Race to Dubai title on Sunday for his fourth win of the year. Commenting that it was a pretty good season, he also admitted that his loss at the U.S. Open still stung a bit. Is McIlroy acknowledging what most professionals think and fans too, that despite all the new money and high-profile events, it’s still the majors that matter most?
Deeks: I didn’t leap to that conclusion when I read his comments, but regardless, I do believe he feels that way and I would agree. In discussing whether Team Euro players should/would be paid for playing in the Ryder Cup, Rory also mentioned that the Ryder Cup and the Olympics are the two other, non-major events that all players revere and want to play in. I agree with that, too, and am delighted to see Olympic golf having made great strides after only three modern-day competitions.
Schurman: The 100th place on the PGA Tour won $1.2M. After matching off-course revenue and expenses of $100,000. family expenses $100,000. and taxes of $500,000 and a PGA tour pension life isn’t bad. However, there are only 125 Tour cards, and most players only play 20 to 25 events. When you consider some players win more than once a year, there are a lot of players who don’t win. For them winning anything is important particularly when you consider they only win 5 or 6 times in their career. The top players win more often and more money, but they only make up the top 25 spots or so. Winning is winning for most PGA players. But there are elite players to whom money isn’t everything mostly because they have checked that off their bucket list. In their eyes, the majors are the most meaningful. Fans think the majors are the most meaningful as does the media. The reason is ‘romance’. Winning a major comes with history, tradition, status, recognition and respect. It also has a monetary component all of which is enchanting, elusive and romantic!
Rule: Yep, that’s all that matters for someone who’s won mostly everything else. Especially since he’s getting to the point in his career where opportunities may not come as often in the majors. He’s got to win one in 2025, doesn’t he?
Quinn: It has and always will be about the Majors, no matter what Drumpf and the Saudis may be up to. Rory knows it and getting past his wavering on and off the course this year, he gets it. His comments about the Yanks wanting huge fees to play in the Ryder Cup underlined his links to the game itself. The other events are for keeping the card, the pension, and stories for the grandkids. The Majors are for the chosen few, and qualifying for them should not include a LIV defection forgiveness clause.
Mumford: The more any PGA Tour Commissioner tries to compete with the majors – and they’ve all tried it – the greater esteem is bestowed on those four events. Very few fans can recall who won World Golf Championships (Tiger is a safe guess) and in five or ten years, no-one will remember who won any of the Signature Events either. Yet avid fans can tell you who won majors going back fifty years and more. The majors are like waterfront property. They’re not making anymore of it and every year it gets more valuable.
