The PGA Tour has a serious pace-of-play issue that needs to be addressed soon.
CBS Sports on-course announcer Dottie Pepper scolded the pros for the atrocious final-round pace at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, calling for the players to be “respectful” of the “fans, broadcast, and their fellow competitors.”
The problem reared its head again on Sunday at Pebble Beach.
During the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Tom Kim became the latest golfer to face the ire of the broadcast for his slow play. This time, it was Golf Channel’s Frank Nobilo and others calling out Kim for taking over a minute to hit an approach shot into the par-5 sixth hole.
Kim wound up wiping the ball into the rock outline and had to take a drop, which led to some jabs from the broadcast.
“A little less waggle might have helped,” one broadcaster said.
“It was not worth the wait,” Nobilo chimed in.
Wow the broadcast roasts Tom Kim for his slow play. 😂
— Rick Golfs (@Top100Rick) February 2, 2025
“That was NOT worth the wait!”
Love that announcers are getting comfortable with addressing the slow play issue. Dottie last week, now this. pic.twitter.com/zLVcQzu0F1
Overall, it took Kim over 40 seconds to address his ball and then another 25 to take a swing.
The PGA Tour can work on shrinking fields and condensing tee times, but the easiest fix to the slow-play issue is to start stroking players. If you hit them on the scorecard and, by extension, their wallet, they will have an incentive to pick up the pace.
The slog-like rounds and endless waggles will continue until the PGA Tour starts strictly enforcing pace-of-play rules, and their ratings could continue to suffer until they realize that they need to speed things up to succeed in an era where attention is currency.
