‘That’s where it hits hard’: Major winner knows how he’d fix slow play 

Collin Morikawa has a thought on how to fix slow play. 

And how not to. 

“What I’ve learned is that monetary fines are useless,” he said. “We make so much money, and some guys frankly could care less about — I don’t know how much the fines are, but whatever X amount they are.”

As you’ve undoubtedly heard, the topic of slow play has been, well, picking up steam. First, there were five-and-a-half-hour rounds at the American Express tournament in mid-January. Then, pace of play a week later at the Farmers Insurance Open led CBS analyst Dottie Pepper to call for less selfishness from players. Then came a moment with Tom Kim a week after that, when he was shown taking 40 seconds to address his ball at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, then another 25 to take a swing, only to hit into the penalty area.

So what’s a pro golf tour to do? On Tuesday, ahead of this week’s Players Championship, Morikawa had a thought. Another kind of penalty. 

Strokes. 

“I think after talking to some guys,” Morikawa said, “I think you just have to start stroking guys and giving guys actual penalties, whether it be strokes or FedExCup. … I think they care more about playing good golf and making sure they make the playoffs and making sure they make, you know, 70, 50, 30. That’s where it hits hard.”

The thought, of course, isn’t new — Brooks Koepka offered it at the 2023 PGA Championship, as have others — but it’s worth noting it was raised again Tuesday. Notably, the PGA Tour said Tuesday it would test such penalties this year at Korn Ferry events, along with creating a “speed of play” group; allowing for the test usage of rangefinders this year at six Tour events; and publishing pace of play data. 

When asked specifically about the last item, Morikawa said he supported it. 

“I see no issue with it. I think what is there to hide, right?” he said. “If you’re slow, you know you’re slow. I mean, if you don’t know, then there’s an issue. To me, there’s no issue with letting it out, right? It’s only going to make things better because then you’re either going to have a target on you, put a little more pressure and hopefully you pick it up, or you get penalized. Like it’s very simple.”

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This all being said, though, Morikawa said he believes the moves will shave some time from rounds. There are still processes to be made for shots, and he said lengthy camera time can emphasize that. 

But bring on the data, too, he said.

“Last week, they put out a clip of me; J.J. [Jakovic, his caddie] and I were hitting a shot,” Morikawa said. “I watched the video. It was like a minute 50, I think it took, or a minute 45 until I hit the ball.

“People — you know, I read it. I read stuff. Bad, really bad. I’m the first one to get to my ball. J.J. has to walk off the number, and people are complaining like, oh, hit the ball. I don’t just walk up to the ball — no one, I mean, Ludvig’s [Aberg] one of the best, fastest players out there. He doesn’t just walk up to the shot and be like, all right, Joe [Skovron, his caddie], this looks like a 7-iron. How far is it? It’s 175. All right, perfect, go.

“Like you still got to walk off our numbers. We still have to look at the pin. You got to look at the wind, and like, that’s part of the whole situation. So to me part of it is how they’re putting this out is sometimes they make us look slow because, like, you show this entire clip of J.J. had just put the bag down, we’re walking to this. 

“But there are guys out there that are taking a minute and a half, two minutes, when the camera is on them, on that putt, and it’s their turn, and it’s too long. That’s why we should release names. Like there’s nothing wrong with that.”