U.S. Open 2019: Jason Dufner takes excruciatingly long time to tap in 18-inch putt

Slow play is a scourge on the game, of that we are sure. But attention tends to focus the time players take in the fairway as opposed to around the green, which can be doubly painful. Case in point: During Saturday’s third round at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Jason Dufner demonstrated just how how long a player can take to execute what looks like an easy tap-in on TV. Take a look at the video below.

UPDATE: The video of Dufner’s putt was taken down.

Let’s take a closer look at what transpired here. On the par-3 17th, Dufner hit his tee shot to about 16 feet from the hole. His birdie attempt missed, and he had an 18-inch putt remaining for par. That’s where the video picks him up. Dufner marks his ball to clean and re-address it. Then, he gives his back a bit of a stretch and taps down some imperfections in his line. All well and good. He steps in to address the putt — then something bothers him and he backs off. Uh oh. We’re now a bit over 20 seconds into his pre-putt routine. Duf re-marks, and taps down some more imperfections in his line. He finally addresses his ball at around the 40-second mark, and once he settles in his stance, things get really slow. It’s a another 10 seconds of address-time before he finally pulls the trigger.

The good news? He made the putt, and is actually having a pretty good showing overall: 70-71-73.

While Dufner isn’t the only one taking his time at Pebble Beach, his video just happens to be making the social media rounds at the moment — we aren’t trying to pick on him! But any reminder is a good one to pick up the pace out there.

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