Justin Thomas isn’t sure TGL’s popular rule twist will translate to PGA Tour

The TGL has been polarizing through its first three weeks. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s simulator golf league has potential and has drawn early eyeballs, but the upstart venture will need to answer a few big questions during Year 1 for it to have staying power.

Still, there is one part of the TGL experience that has a nearly unanimous approval rating through three matches. (Other than Billy Horschel’s rendition of “The Dirty Bird.”)

TGL’s 40-second shot clock has made primetime golf an easily digestible, fast-paced product that fits into a two-hour broadcast window (for the most part).

That’s relevant because as professional golf tries to adapt to capture a new and younger audience, pace of play on the PGA Tour continues to be a marquee issue.

On Sunday at The American Express, it took the final threesome five hours and 39 minutes to play 18 holes. For comparison, it took the NFL just one hour more to conduct back-to-back playoff games.

Pace of play has been an issue the PGA Tour has been unable to fix for a number of years. The PGA Tour’s Fan Forward initiative seeks to create more fan engagement. After surveying thousands of fans, the Fan Forward initiative will focus on broadcast enhancements, player content, onsite experience, some rule changes, and pace of play.

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As the Tour looks for answers to its pace-of-play problem, some type of shot clock would appear to be an easy answer. Baseball players adjusted to the pitch clock. Professional golfers should be able to do the same.

But Justin Thomas, who played his first TGL match Tuesday night, isn’t sure it will translate and make the difference people envision.

“It’s tough. Look, this is my 10th year on Tour. I’ve been on the PAC a lot of years. We’ve talked about pace of play all 10 years,” Thomas said after his Atlanta Drive defeated New York Golf Club 4-0.

“You have to make such drastic changes for it to be noticeable. Pretty much a lot of the conversations end the same way; it’s like, what are we trying to accomplish here? Are rounds going to be 12 minutes faster? Are they going to be 20 minutes faster? It’s hard to realistically make a big enough difference where people are like, wow, this is great. Rounds are only three hours now or three and a half hours instead of five. You know what I mean? It’s really hard to make that big of a change.”

Thomas, who was elected to the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council for the second straight season, believes the two things fans want are in direct conflict with one another.

“They like harder golf courses. They like watching us play difficult places. But they want us to play faster, so those two don’t go together,” Thomas said. “You’ve kind of got to pick and choose your battles.

“I’m sure we’re all hopeful, but at the end of the day, it’s like, what are we trying to accomplish?”

Following TGL’s opening night, both Rickie Fowler and Matt Fitzpatrick lauded the shot clock and said they’d like to see some version of it on the PGA Tour.

Thomas isn’t sure that it will work, but he at least sounds open to the idea. That’s an important step for a player-driven organization whose changes won’t take hold if the membership doesn’t support them.