The 72 Club

Thanks to reader Al for passing along Alistair Tait's Golfweek.com rant on slow play, which includes a description of his home club's 72 Club getting in 72 holes in a day thanks to 3 hour rounds.

Then he turns his attention to the Masters pace of play.

Immelman and Brandt Snedeker teed off at 2:25 p.m. in the final round, and I clocked them completing the 18th hole at 7:26 p.m. Five hours for a round of golf? Are you kidding me?

I know conditions were tough at Augusta. I know both players were chasing their first major, but five hours for a two-ball is unacceptable. It’s so unacceptable that many people on my side of the pond didn’t see Immelman slip on the green jacket.

I conducted a quick straw poll of members of my club and found many of them turned off the television and went to bed. With the five-hour time difference, it meant staying up past midnight to watch the drama unfold.

There was a common refrain from everyone I spoke to: Play was too slow.

Yet neither Immelman nor Snedeker was penalized for slow play. That’s not surprising. It’s been 16 years since a player on the PGA Tour was handed a one-shot penalty for slow play. Dillard Pruitt holds that distinction. He’s now a PGA Tour rules official, with responsibility for making sure players get in a round in good time.

You couldn’t make that up, could you?

Comments

[DK]

But Ian Baker-Finch kept telling us he loved Snedeker's pace!

[Bill V]

One's individual pace (Snedeker) of play is irrelevant.A group's pace can only be as fast as the slowest player.

Seriously, does professional golf really care aboutpace of play? Finchem's "expecting" 10 years of "Chump's Tour Golf" out of Woods shows all you need to know about relevance of pro golf to the spirit of the game, priorities and reality testing.

[Roger Bannister]

Please! Slow play is definately a problem but,enough with this nonsense. It is inherent that the greater the prize (or consequence) the longer people will take to play. To equate 3 hr rounds at the 6500 yd home club for a dollar 3 ways and the final round of the Masters is laughable. Try this experiment. Time yourself for 2 rounds, first as normal and the second with $10,000/man on the line, winner take all. Putt everything out. Let me know how much slower the second round is.

[Eric Stratton]

give it up...

...it will never change.

move on to the next issue.

ES

[ScottS]

So, the problem was with the last group? Or are they just the easy target?

[Steve Wozeniak PGA]

That Dillard Pruitt story made my morning!!!!

Thank you,

www.stevewozeniak.com

[Bench]

I agree with the commenters that this will likely never change on the Tour, nor is it totally unreasonable that they would spend more time in the final round of the freaking Masters (don't ban me, Billy!) than you would on your local muni.

What I object to is the locals, at the local muni, who THINK they are playing the last round of the freaking Masters. And it's an unfortunate truth that they are encouraged by watching Sean O'Hair and JB Holmes take 55 practice swings before every shot. I have a friend that takes a minimum of 6 practice cuts before every swing. Good grief. I'll go to lunch with him, but I won't golf with him any more.

[Enforcer]

As part of the game, we need to be the ones that enforce slow play and we need to do it within our own groups. If one of my friends is dragging us down, I will tell him and expect him to do the same for me when I slow down.

The nature of golf requires us to be the ones to help pick up the pace. We can't stand around watching someone be slow, and then complain about slow play.

[Tighthead]

Pruitt also won the Canadian Amateur after winning a tour event, which annoys me.

[Bill V]

Bench

Well defined. Friendly matches emulate the "Best players in the world"right from the top on down, perhaps the perfection of green increasing the expectation to make every single putt has been as big a factor as any.

Six practice swings? WOW! I wish I had that kind of endurance. Even at scratch that's 252 on the course alone, forget what was done on the practice tee.

Even watching DLIII do one full one on the telly is painful enough. My condolences.

[Sir Real]

Tighthead, Totally rankled with ya my friend! How can you win on the professional tour and then feel comfortable hoisting amateur tin? Always felt that a 10 year wait to return should be in place...dabblers would think twice before turning pro!

[Tighthead]

Thank you sir. He didn't win on the Nationwide or Hooters tour, he won a PGA event. No more amateur golf for you.