Ponte Vedra We Have A Problem: J.B. Holmes Takes 4 Minutes, 10 Seconds To Lay Up When Millions Were Watching
Tim Finchem famously discouraged slow play penalties during his reign as Commissioner. Other than Glen Day in 1995 and an odd slow play stroke penalty at last year's Zurich Classic, the PGA Tour has used a secret fining system to protect player brands and breed a culture of entitlement.
Rarely have things spilled over into as loathsome a display of self-centeredness as J.B. Holmes taking four minutes and 10 seconds to play one shot in the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open final round. He faced a decision of whether to go for the 18th green in two shots or lay-up. Two strokes back and needing eagle to make an eventual playoff, Holmes ultimately chose to lay up and did so terribly.
This nonsense was set against the backdrop of a round already nearing a six-hour pace due to blustery conditions on a firm, fast golf course lined by thick rough. CBS was already running over into their planned Grammy's Red Carpet show, and now facing a decision whether to stay with the golf or go to the Grammy's start at 8 pm ET. To their credit, CBS stayed with the last group completing play, then turned the broadcast over to Golf Channel.
Due to the Grammy's bump, this meant millions were tuning in to watch music's big night and getting a flavor of PGA Tour golf. What they saw was an embarrassment to the sport, a reinforcing of every stereotypical view and a painful product of a Ponte Vedra discouragement of slow play rules enforcement.
There was, however, one positive. Holmes was slammed on social media and some of it is quite entertaining, as this Golfweek roundup shows. Luke Donald excoriated his peer.
While no one wanted to see CBS put in a predicament, television networks have long exhibited ho-hum attitudes about PGA Tour non-enforcement of pace of play. Even known-violators like Holmes, who is inconsistent in his pacing compared to known turtles like Ben Crane or Jason Day, have escaped any significant censure by the PGA Tour thanks to twenty years of enforcement complacency.
To date, new Commissioner Jay Monahan has publicly suggested he does not see slow play as major issue as his counterparts in Europe introduce new rules and even a shot clock tournament. And there certaily are times where an indecisive player on a risk-reward hole makes for dramatic theater. However, when it's a known slow-poke who ultimately doesn't even take the risky shot in hopes of winning, the appearance is dreadful.
Perhaps a Monday phone call to Monahan from CBS Sports head Sean McManus or network honcho Les Moonves will convince the tour it's time to embolden the rules officials to dish out more bad times so that a Holmes-at-Torrey fiasco is never repeated again.
Sunday, January 28, 2018 at 05:13 PM
Reader Comments (48)
The fact that you as a tour can allow for a 6 hour round and thus budget almost zero time for a playoff scenario speaks volumes. Maybe the Grammys will spur CBS to make that phone call and then maybe we can get some movement from the Tour because movement certainly isn't happening internally. Hit the Tour in the wallet and maybe they will start to wise up.
That being said, why was the last holes such a snails pace? Jay, Please, for the love of golf, make these guys play faster.
of money, lots of drama involved. It’s not a Sunday morning putt. Let these guys take their time.
New PGA Tour slogan: miss it fast.
I was glad to see the gallery lay into Holmes on 18, and I abhor people yelling at tourneys
However, if you look at the latest numbers of people .. most especially young people .. "cutting the cord" meaning deleting the $130 of a cable bill from their life and going to the old stand by antenna if they ever do watch actual television .. then those people are completely out of luck. It would be the worst of the worst to have a nice national network television audience and then .. when the most important part of the tournament comes along .. it disappears.
I'm hoping this new angle on viewership and a network's service to that viewership is considered. Everybody seems to take an inside angle of "ah, it doesn't effect me, what do I care?" but this is a real issue that should be addressed .. or at least considered for the future as this trend continues.
This situation that I speak of was exacerbated by J.B. Holmes pace of play on the back nine.
No other sport cuts away when it reaches the most important part of the game.
Nobody talks about this issue but it is very severe.
http://expo.advance.net/img/6cb4c54762/width960/e2c_ap_18028845736356.jpg
Hit the effing ball, will ya?
* You need to get down in two from 238 yards to have a chance to reach a playoff. Easy, you need to go for it.
* 3-wood goes too far, 4-iron doesn't reach. Easy, hybrid is the only choice.
* The wind is constantly changing, meaning that it's going to change while you're over the ball and while the ball is in the air, too. Easy, you can only make a qualified guess as to how much the wind is going to affect the ball.
There, that took about 10 seconds to compute. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING THE OTHER 4 MINUTES, not counting the time you had while Ryan Palmer was hitting??? I know he's had brain surgery, but I didn't know it was a lobotomy. I am so rooting against this shitkicker every time he tees is up from here on.
4 minutes and 10 seconds to hit a lay-up that a 10-handicaapper would have been disappointed with.
?
It doesn't exist or matter if it doesn't effect me.
Good tip about PGAtour.com.
I had not thought about that and kudos to The Tour for making that publicly available.
It is irrelevant whether JB Holmes decided to go for the green in two or decided to lay-up, he should have been penalized a stroke for taking undue delay. Holmes got to his ball over 2-minitues prior to when it was clearly his turn to hit. Holmes and his caddie spent over 6-minutes at his golf ball adding the time it took for Palmer to play. It doesn’t matter if the wind is gusting. He must play with undue delay
Players are entitled to take a reasonable amount of time when it’s their turn to play. That reasonable time is about 40 seconds. If any player takes more time than that, they are interfering with other player’s time. They are not entitled to do that.
The PGA Tour is responsible for allowing this to happen.
Ask Kuchar about slow play enforcement, it cost him a British when Spieth was in the parking lot for 30 minutes.
Shout out to GS for standing on the hill the whole time too!
Mr. Holmes should be ashamed of himself.The PGA Tour needs to take a good , long look in the mirror!!
Hard not to think back on the Sabbatini/Crane kerfuffle. It would have been counter to etiquette, but it is tempting to imagine what would have happened if Palmer and Noren had just played ahead, as if JB wasn't there, and let him catch up . . . if such is possible.
I saw Masson on the LPGA Tour mull over a spotty lie for a prolonged time once, wondering if I would live to see her take the shot. It was gratifying that the announcers chastised her. (Sadly, no penalty shot.)
Amazing that he didn't go for it.
I wonder if these guys are trying to win the tournaments or if they are trying to maximize dollars earned.
Pete B- Hey I've been to a state fair ...in Mexico! The bottom line, as Zokal pointed out, is this is no different than others in the group protecting the field, as the time taken was no different than a foot wedge improving the lie.
PMG- I agree that if it were Jordan, the dialog would have been different- for the first 2 minutes-
DD- the 130 dollar cable bill is a real pisser- double taxation, actually. When cable first arrived, it was commercial free; now we must pay for the privilege of watching ---commercials!!! EFF THAT! I don't care about the training aid of the month; I don't care how P-I-E-I-O, makes clubs, baby! I don't care if sex on the beach is less abrasive in Bermuda.
The TV networks would serve us all well if they imposed penalties (read: $$$) on play that goes beyond the accepted time for a round of pro golf, with weather considerations as needed.
Holmes not playing to win was a real downer for the fans- he should have been booed more after the delay!
The only thing worse than the time at TP was the terrible music offered at the Grammies. Jeebus, the preaching to the choir was beyond the 4:10 Holmes fiasco.
A final note--in assessing penalties, again I offer a 2 stroke penalty that the PGAT needs to assess, that is for poor golf etiquette in one of the most basic lessons learned by a 5 year old on the golf course for the first time- YOU YELL FORE WHEN YOUR BALL IS IN DANGER OF HITTING SOMEONE! AUTOMATIC- fans do not come to get hurt, with no warning. 2 STROKES- NO EXCEPTIONS. ~dig~
that was the first reason I quit watching basket ball. 3 over 11 is FAST!.. how about 10 over 1, week after week. ~dig~.