Slow play continues to be a topic of conversation on golf’s professional tours, so what will be done?  Here’s a novel idea:  A shot clock.  Like the one used for the Shot Clock Masters.  Remember it?

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have gone on record in favor of this before, but I’ll do so again.

It’s past time to deal straight on with a major problem in golf:  Slow play.

There is an official golf rule – Golf Rule #6-7 — that gives players 40 seconds to play their shot once they reach their ball, with a bit of extra time if they face a specific problem, such as being near a tree, or a couple other factors outlined in the rule, which appears below.

“A player will be allowed a maximum of 40 seconds to complete his/her stroke.  An additional 10 seconds will be allowed for a) the first to play from the teeing ground on a par 3 hole; b) the first to play a second stroke on a par 4 or par 5 hole; c) the first to play a third stroke on a par 5 hole; or d) the first to play on or around the putting green.”

Is the rule ever enforced on the pro golf tour, or farm club tours?  No.

One of my on-line golf magazines, The First Call, dealt with this over the weekend in a story by writer Gary Van Sickle. 

Here are excerpts from the story:

“Is anything less popular than slow play on the PGA Tour?  Monday pro-ams?  Slow greens?  Air pollution?  Greg Norman?

“No one wants slow play.

“The solution for golf is in plain sight.  Basketball has a shot clock.  Football has a play clock.  Baseball has a pitch clock.

“Attention, golf:   It’s the shot clock, stupid.

“The time has come for the PGA Tour — all tours, actually — to crack down on turtle-esque players who are stifling the game.”

Sickle reports that, since 1995, only two players have been penalized strokes for slow play.  

Sickle continues:

“The main cause of slow play on the PGA Tour isn’t field size, it’s ‘the kabuki dance they do on the greens,’ as a golf industry friend of mine refers to Tour players putting out.  Sure, the faster the greens roll and the more slope they have, the tougher it is to ascertain the read.  That takes time.  But unless you’re first to putt, you’ve got ample time before your turn to get most of that done.

“The second biggest slow play cause is distance.  Nearly every par 5 on the PGA Tour is reachable in two for a majority of the field.  Players in the fairway must wait for the green to clear to hit second shots, thus causing those on the tee to wait, thus causing those coming off the previous green to wait behind the guys waiting on the tee, thus causing … well, you get the idea.  It’s the 805 Freeway in Los Angeles at rush hour.”

One answer to all this.  Use a shot clock and then enforce violations.

This will work as proven by the Shot Clock Masters in 2018.  At a DP Tour event at Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg, Austria, each player was allotted 40 seconds to hit his shot once it was his turn, with the first player to hit in each group getting an extra 10 seconds.  Each competitor was allowed two extensions of time — or timeouts.  It was a one-stroke penalty if a player didn’t hit the shot before time expired.

This was done through the use of a golf cart carrying a shot clock down the fairway following every group.  When a player got to his ball and pulled a club, the clock started.

What happened? The European Tour cut 30 minutes from its average pace of play to 4 hours, 13 minutes.

Sickle also reports that the LPGA’s Charley Hull recently suggested, possibly in a half-joking way, that every slow-play timing should be a two-shot penalty and players should lose their tour cards if they get three such timings.

“Harsh.  Ruthless, even.  But effective.”

Then, to close, Sickle writes this about the PGA Tour’s best player, Scottie Scheffler, though you could contend that Scheffler should not be the example in what Sickle imagined because he, Scheffler, is far from a slow player on tour:

“Imagine an announcer saying this:  ‘Friends, the gallery is hushed here at the 18th green as Scottie Scheffler looks over a 20-foot birdie putt to win the Masters.  He’s taking a long look but Sir Nick, I think he’s forgotten about the shot clock.  It’s down to eight, seven, six … Now Scheffler sees the clock and you can see the surprise on his face.  He hurries into his stance … three, two, one … and strokes the putt off just before the buzzer echoes through the cathedral of pines.  The putt is tracking, tracking … it’s in!  Great Scott, he’s won the Masters again and beaten Father Time with one for the ages in one magic moment going going gone slamma-jamma ding dong.’”

If I was king for a day – pardon me, Mr. Arnold Palmer who is the only king in golf – I would institute a shot clock immediately for golf and then watch the result.  Faster play.  Perhaps even better play.  A wider television audience.  And better lessons for young players coming up.