Tour vet calls out pros for slow play, Tour commitment in letter

The letter-writing era of the PGA Tour continued Sunday night, with 20-year veteran Charley Hoffman calling for his fellow Tour members to keep pace of play top of mind and to consider adding more Tour events to their schedules before other golf opportunities. 

Hoffman’s letter — sent in an email titled “A few thoughts for our members” — comes less than two weeks after Justin Thomas penned a letter to his fellow pros asking them to be more willing to conduct mid-round interviews and share more of themselves with the TV broadcast. Hoffman’s letter also mentioned the TV element, but he saved his strongest thoughts for pace of play. 

“We’ve taken a lot of heat over the past few weeks about slow play,” Hoffman began. “And yeah, it’s an issue — for our fans, for us as players — cutting down field sizes will help, but only by a few minutes a day. As players, we still need to make a concerted effort to speed up. Pace of play has been a challenge my entire 20 years on Tour, and it was an issue 20 years before that. Golf is a tough game, and when conditions get extreme, it takes time to play it the right way. We all need to take responsibility to be ready when it’s our turn to play and having the awareness to realize that we are out of position and speed up even before the rules official shows up. We do it all the time, we just need to be more aware of it!”

Hoffman has long been involved with Tour leadership on the player level, serving numerous terms on the Player Advisory Council and twice serving on the rung of Tour government above that, the Policy Board. 

Pace of play has indeed been a talking point both online and on the TV broadcast. Broadcaster Dottie Pepper used some time during last weekend’s telecast to critique the sluggish pace. Even this week, her teammate Frank Nobilo suggested that the amateurs playing in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am were giving the pros a good example of expeditious play. 

Hoffman did not compete in this week’s event, but he will play next week at TPC Scottsdale for the WM Phoenix Open, which is among the tournaments that will see smaller fields next year in order to improve pace and finish tournaments on time.

Hoffman’s letter continued with a brief acknowledgement of Thomas’ letter and how players should engage with the broadcast, but continued with a gripe about how the Tour works to add playing opportunities in the Signature Events. Most Signature Events will start with a field of 72 players, but the Pebble Pro-Am, due to its pro-am nature, fills to 80 players. That requires the Tour to dip into alternates, which it has elected to choose from the Aon Next 10, compiled last fall during the FedEx Fall series. The Tour also has a ranking called the Aon Swing 5, which is ranked off the most recent tournaments between Signature Events. The Pebble field was filled with 15 alternates from further down the Next 10 ranking, three of which were within the Swing 5. Hoffman said the idea behind this is great, but Pebble, for example, didn’t create enough unique playing opportunities.

He then saved his most pointed criticism for last. 

“Here’s something else to think about,” Hoffman wrote. “If we truly care about strengthening our Tour, we should be supporting as many PGA Tour events as we can. Many of you keep saying you want to play fewer events, yet you still find time for TGL, Race to Dubai, and other non-PGA Tour events, and that’s going to continue regardless of field size. 

“The best competition happens when the best players go head-to-head in a deep, competitive field — not in small, limited-entry events that leave deserving players on the outside looking in. This Tour was built on open competition, where anyone with the game to compete has a chance to prove it against the best. That’s what has made our Tour special for generations, and we need to keep pushing for that.”

It’s not exactly clear who Hoffman is referring to with that last critique, but we do know which 24 players are competing on TGL this season, as well as which Tour members compete on the DP World Tour (in its Race to Dubai) during various sections of the Tour schedule.

Hoffman finished by saying, in bold: “This is our Tour — let’s make it stronger together.”

The entire letter can be read in the embedded post below.