Andrew Novak, left, and Harris English stand on the the 18th green on the South Course at Torrey Pines during the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

By Doug Ferguson

The Associated Press

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The angst over pace of play in golf has been around for ages. One overlooked example is a memo from Joe Dey, the USGA executive director who in 1950 issued a notice to players when they registered for the U.S. Open at Merion.

According to David Barrett’s book, “Miracle at Merion,” Dey informed players that at the previous U.S. Open at Medinah, it took the first threesome in the opening round 3 hours, 27 minutes to finish. The last group took 4 hours, 16 minutes.

Wait — it gets worse. The last threesome of the second round took 4 hours and 21 minutes.

“The time has come when we simply must act if the game is not to be seriously injured,” Dey wrote. “The thing is getting completely out of hand.”

The most recent form of communication on an old topic began with a text last Saturday at Torrey Pines that appeared on Dottie Pepper’s watch from her CBS Sports colleague Frank Nobilo. Pepper was the on-course analyst walking with the final group.

“Don’t want to blindside you but they teed off at 11:11 a.m. We’ll be nearly three hours at the turn. I might mention it,” Nobilo wrote.

Pepper replied with a thumbs-up. She had her own thoughts, one word in particular. And she delivered a 12-second message that suddenly has everyone’s attention.

“You know, Frank, I think we’re starting to need a new word to talk about this pace-of-play issue, and it’s respect — for your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it,” Pepper said. “It’s just got to get better.”

It hasn’t.

Dey’s notice to players in that 1950 U.S. Open didn’t do much good. During the most recent U.S. Open at Merion in 2013, the USGA unveiled its “While We’re Young” campaign to combat slow play. It’s getting old.

But it struck a chord with Pepper, whose role in golf goes beyond her 17 LPGA victories and two majors, her Solheim Cup legacy and her two decades in broadcasting. She also spent three years on the PGA of America board of directors. The game has been in her blood a long time.

Pepper made it abundantly clear this not about the final group. Harris English, an old-school player, closed with 12 pars on one of the toughest courses to win by one shot. If anything, the viewing public got a good look at Andrew Novak, whose no-nonsense pace is inspiring.

An opportunity presented itself. Pepper delivered with her current skill set: She talked.

“It’s been gnawing at me and a lot of people for a while,” Pepper said last Sunday while walking her dog at Pebble Beach. “It was not a comment targeted at the final group of a PGA Tour event that CBS was carrying. It was at the general state of the game, down to club play — private or municipal — junior golf, amateur golf, collegiate golf.

“It’s taking away from the opportunity we have for this game,” she said. “It’s on fire post-COVID, and it’s our darn fault if we don’t do better.”

The day after the organic manner in which pace of play became a hot topic of conversation (again), Pepper said she heard from a wide section of peers at golf clubs, at the PGA of America sections, at the Royal & Ancient.

One reason pace of play is such a popular topic is it never gets fixed. And it stands out even more when it happens with regularity. The final round at Torrey Pines took 5 hours, 29 minutes. That was a 10-minute improvement from the previous week at The American Express.

Remember that comment from Dey — “This thing has gotten completely out of hand” — and try to forget he said that in 1950.

The USGA has a recommendation, not a rule, on how long it should take to play a shot (40 seconds, with an extra 10 seconds if a player is first to hit that shot). It’s a policy on the PGA Tour. There are a lot of policies, a lot of levels of ramifications. They have been amended and will be changed more. But there is little hope because nothing has changed.

Pepper leaned on “respect” in her short message, and that should go a long way. Judy Rankin once brilliantly suggested that if everyone tried to make sure no one waited on them, the game would be better at every level. The game is great when no one is waiting.

The new indoor TGL might help because it features a shot clock — easily managed, so maybe not the best comparison, but it has everyone talking. Tiger Woods incurred the first shot-clock violation Monday night.

The PGA Tour already had plans for a working group of players to study pace of play, and a shot clock probably will be on the table.

Another word Pepper is quick to recognize is “balance.” Tour golf is entertainment, and it’s a job with a lot of money at stake. It’s easy to take Dey at his word, but this isn’t 1950. The greens are significantly faster. Equipment has evolved, and so have the athletes and the golf course. They might hit 7-iron 200 yards, but they still have to walk 200 yards.

The PGA Championship was the first major in 2001 to go to a two-tee start (the U.S. Open started in 2002), and while officials cited flexibility in case of bad weather, there wouldn’t have been a need for that if these guys played faster.

There’s been a steady beat of complaints about the pace for 20 years, and now it has another lead singer in Pepper, who unwittingly put it at the forefront for all the right reasons.

“I love the game too much,” Pepper said. “Let’s take advantage of the heat we have. People are more engaged than they’ve been in a long time. We have TGL. We have influencers. Golf has a little bigger profile than it did before. Let’s not mess it up.”